A Matis boy carefully wields an implement.
© Fiona Watson/Survival

Another Monday brings another trek with Bruce Parry on his way down the Amazon river on BBC2’s stunning Amazon.

Bruce visits more tribal peoples in Brazil and meets the illegal loggers who are amongst their biggest threat. He catches up with the Matís, who appeared on his earlier series Tribe.

The Matís, a tiny tribe of just 300 people, live in the Javari valley in one of the remotest parts of the Brazilian Amazon, where at least six uncontacted tribes also live.

After first contact in the 1970s, more than half the Matís died, mainly from colds, flu and other respiratory infections. Their health remains the most urgent threat to them today.

A massive 90% of the Indians in their region suffered from malaria just two years ago, while 85% of them had contact with hepatitis A. The Matís are now staring an epidemic in the face.

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A feast for supporters of tribal peoples tonight as television screens in the UK and US light up with plenty from South America.

US broadcaster ABC shows a Nightline special as anchor man Dan Harris treks to the jungle homes of the Enawene Nawe and the Akuntsu people of the Amazon.

Harris learns of the troubles faced by both groups. The Enawene Nawe are not only threatened by the typical plague of encroaching, violent ranchers, but must now fight the state government’s dam project which will ravage their essential fishing sites.

Hostile demand for natural resources is what took the lives of nearly every member of the Akuntsu, other than the six who remain to mourn with Harris. He meets them in their pitiful patch of land, surrounded by cattle ranches and soya fields that have flattened former forests.

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This October sees the launch of Survival’s new community fundraising initiative, Tea for Tribes. All you need to do is host a fundraising tea break, tea party or tea dance. Welcome friends, family, colleagues or neighbours to Tea for Tribes between October 3rd and 10th, or whenever you can.

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Bruce Parry, star of the BBC’s Tribe series, has been adventuring again and presents Amazon, starting this evening on BBC2 in the UK.

The show will trace Bruce’s journey through the Amazon rainforest as he discovers its wonders and the complex problems it faces.

An Ashaninka boy in Peru.

Along the way, he stays with many tribes, often threatened by everything from civil unrest to logging, the cocaine trade and disease.

In tonight’s first episode, Bruce joins the Ashaninka of Peru. It is a stark illustration of how dangerous life is for tribal peoples as loggers and other commercial interests run wild in their ancestral lands.

Amazon airs every Monday for six weeks at 9pm, BST on BBC2 and can be seen again for seven days after on the BBC website.

For those interested in finding out more, we are providing a free information pack on Amazon tribes.

As more material comes in, we are ever more thrilled at Bruce Parry’s upcoming album, Songs for Survival. It accompanies his BBC programme, Amazon, which begins next week.

Here he talks about the album and his journey through the Amazon. See KT Tunstall talk about her contribution to the album, and other videos at Survival’s YouTube channel.

As well as including the programme’s end credit track, the 20 song collection is packed with exclusives from a glittering line-up.

Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens), Will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas), KT Tunstall, Jason Mraz, Hot Chip, The Go! Team, Guy Berryman, Mike Oldfield, Mystery Jets, Jeremy Warmsley, Adam Freeland and Way Out West are just some of the terrific artists who have put their music forward for tribal peoples.

Skin of Skunk Anansie reclines while recording for the Survival album.

Razorlight’s Johnny Borrell makes the spine tingle on his track for the album, Carrikfergus.

We’d like to thank all the artists involved for their time and efforts on this unique project, funds from which will go to Survival’s campaign work.

To buy the music, check Play.com and Amazon.co.uk or iTunes.

Become a fan at the album’s Facebook page and listen to more music on our MySpace page.

More info can also be found on the Songs for Survival page on our site.

Whilst Damien Hirst’s piece for Survival is readied for auction, another group of artists have put forward their talents for tribal peoples.

Bruce Parry, star of the BBC series ‘Tribe’ and the forthcoming ‘Amazon’, has teamed up with some of the music world’s brightest stars to create a fundraising album for Survival.

Musicians on the album include KT Tunstall, will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas), Johnny Borrell (Razorlight), Tom Baxter, Mystery Jets, Jason Mraz, Yusuf Islam, Hot Chip, the Go! Team and Mike Oldfield. In addition, Guy Berryman from Coldplay, Jonas from MEW and Magne from A-ha have formed a new band specially for the CD called Apparatjik, and recorded a track that will also be used for the end credits of ‘Amazon’. Every track on the album is exclusive, and has been written especially for the project.

Parry spent months trekking through the jungle documenting the difficulties facing Earth’s largest rainforest and its people. His journey will air on the BBC from September.

The album will be released on double CD on 6 October, and you can pre-order it now at Amazon.co.uk or Play.com. It will also be available to download from iTunes on 22 September.

The first judge has voted in favour of the Indians of Raposa Serra do Sol in Brazil’s Supreme Court land case. This is positive news but represents the very first step in a battle of enormous consequence for the country’s Indian population, and indeed the entire Amazon.

It is an extremely important moment in the history of Indian rights and constitutional law in general. The Huffington Post noted that “the future of Brazil’s traditional Indian cultures was under challenge.”

‘Lost’ towns of the Amazon

BBC News covered the unearthing of “lost towns’ discovered in the Amazon”. The towns ‘were lost’ since “the people who once lived in the settlements are thought to have been wiped out by European colonists and the diseases they brought with them.” 

This process has been replicated throughout South America where many millions of indigenous peoples have been wiped out by colonisation over centuries. It is still happening today as ‘progress’ and ‘development’ dispossess tribal peoples of their land and bring rapid, and sometimes disastrous, change. Our campaign, Progress Can Kill, highlights the shocking ways in which this is occuring.

In search of Sydney

We hear that film-maker Steve Bowles has set out to track the life and work of Sydney Possuelo, the legendary Brazilian activist. Possuelo has had an immense impact on the plight of Brazil’s tribal peoples through his work with FUNAI and elsewhere.

“I knew from that first meeting that I would make a film about him one day” Steve says of his encounter on a research trip in 1983. His interest with the charismatic man is matched by his long-standing fascination with tribal peoples.

“These groups are the opposite to our society. We are obsessed with things while they are profoundly spiritual and the bonds within the groups are strong. In our society we live in isolation even though we are surrounded by people. We’re full of preoccupations and anxieties – they are more content.”