Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Recent Campaigns Awá Tribes of Brazil
Recent Campaigns Awá Tribes of Brazil
Aw tribes of Brazil
The Aw tribes are traditionally hunter gatherers who have been living in the rainforests of
Amazon for centuries. Hunting is the primary occupation of these indigenous tribes of Brazil.
These Aw tribes still live uncontacted in the forest and hunt with bow and arrows. These
tribes are nomadic hunter-gatherers and as such they are always on the move. But they dont
wander aimlessly, they have formed a close bond with their land and know where to go and
when to go. They have a symbiotic relationship with nature here and they cannot conceive of
moving on leaving the place of their ancestors behind.
Brazil is rich in natural resources and 600 km to the west of Aw territory lies the Carajas
mine with around seven billion tonnes of iron ore. It is the largest iron ore mine on the planet.
Trains as long as 2kms run throughout the day, to and from the mine. The railways apart from
displacing and rehabilating several tribes including Aw have also brought along with it
outsiders hungry for land, work and the game animals that are easily poached from these
tribes lands.
The land lived in by the Aw tribes are legally protected, but with the advent of railways in
the region it also eased the way for criminal logging gangs to come here and earn big money.
The government is barely present here and it was only the resistance of the tribes and the
rainy season that slowed the progress of these logging gangs. These logging gangs and
ranchers in three decades had destroyed over 34% of the legally-protected land inhabited by
Aw tribes.
In 2012, Survival International to support the cause of the Aw tribes and protect them
launched the Save the Aw campaign. Survival International brought the issue to national
and international prominence. It got celebrities to further endorse their cause. It sent
documents and made pleas to both the Brazilian and UK government highlighting the
rampant destruction of the land of these tribes and the subsequent threat to the lives of Aw
tribe. The solution to the issue was simple protect the land and the tribe will survive. Over
57,000 messages, online petitions and photos showing support from people in 38 countries
were sent to Brazils Minister of Justice to bring an end to this and protect the Aw tribes and
their land. In 2014, these efforts finally paid off and bowing to the campaign, the government
sent in hundreds of troops to remove the loggers. Logging roads were mapped, loggers camps
and sawmills were located and destroyed, loggers were expelled. The Aw could live in peace
once more.
Save the Aw campaign with people protesting in the streets of Rio de Janeiro.