Uncontacted Tribes - Video Footage

 There continue to be about 100 uncontacted tribes, many of them in Brazil and Peru. Uncontacted doesn't necessarily mean that they have never had contact - some may have, and certainly most have contacts with other groups who maintain contact with 'outsiders' - but these groups choose to live apart from dominant society. According to "Uncontacted Brazil" (a section of the Survival International web site)

Their decision not to maintain contact with other tribes and outsiders is almost certainly a result of previous disastrous encounters and the ongoing invasion and destruction of their forest home.

Uncontacted tribes are almost constantly at risk. Many have had to leave their lands due to logging and other development. Some governments - most notably Peru - prefer to deny their existence altogether. That way, they don't have to consider them at all in their development plans, or exert any effort to protect them from oil workers and illegal loggers. There is a petition that you can sign here.

Recently, the BBC worked with the government of Brazil to film one of these tribes. A portion of the video has been made available to Survival International for their use to build awareness and support for uncontacted tribes. You can view the video here - and I highly recommend it.

The Survival International site includes other videos (of people after contact :( ) as well as a great deal of other fascinating information. There are sections about myths, FAQs, and a large number of articles and images.

Please do visit, and while you are there, consider signing the petition. It only takes a moment - and it matters!

I believe that uncontacted tribes should be left alone and their areas preserved unless and until they choose contact. Aside from the fact that in most (all?) countries, we have done an abysmal job of co-operating rather than co-opting Aboriginal peoples - and caused a great deal of long-lasting harm that can never fully be remediated - we must remember than these people are likely to have little/no immunity to the diseases of dominant societies. Contact is all too often fatal, either through violence or disease. It is not our decision to make.