Video shows last man of Amazon tribe
SAO PAULO:
No one knows his name. No one knows the name of the people he came from. And he appears to have lived alone in Brazil’s Amazon for 22 years.
Video released for the first time this week by Brazil’s Indian Foundation shows rare images of a so-called “uncontacted” indigenous man who is believed to be the last surviving member of his tribe.
The footage was shot in 2011, though a team that tracks him says it last saw evidence he was alive in May.
The shaky images taken from a distance through foliage show a man chopping down a tree.
The sound of his axe hitting the trunk and bird calls can be heard.
The video’s release followed a press report that noted there existed only one image of the man, captured by a documentary filmmaker
Altair Algayer
in the 1990s in which the man’s face was hidden behind foliage.
Altair Algayer, coordinator of the team that monitors the man, said the foundation was reluctant to release the video because it could not ask for the man’s consent.
But he also noted that such images help to draw attention to the plight of people who are struggling to maintain their distance from the outside world.
“Lots of people are seeking out (this video). They want to know what is he like, how can he be seen, is he still alive,” Algayer said in a phone interview.
“I think this ends up helping to protect the territory.”
Brazil is home to several “uncontacted” peoples whose lands, like those of many indigenous groups, are increasingly under threat as the scramble for the resources of the Amazon intensifies.
Last year, 71 people were killed in conflicts over land, the most since 2003, according to the Pastoral Land Commission.
The Indian Foundation has been monitoring the man since 1996, when it found him living alone in the forest in Rondonia state. — AP
Lots of people are seeking out (this video). They want to know what is he like, how can he be seen, is he still alive.