Kamará is an Awá Indian, from the Amazon state of Maranhão, Brazil. He and his family were contacted in 1998 by FUNAI, the government’s Indian affairs department. They were brought to live in Juriti, a community of about 40 of the most recently contacted Awá. It is very close to a road built by loggers.

In Oct 2006 Kamará, who is now about 50 years old, narrowly survived an attempt to kill him. He recounted the incident to Felipe Milanez who was then editor of FUNAI’s magazine ‘Brasil Indígena’. Felipe is currently assistant editor of ‘National Geographic Brasil’.

The loggers’ road cuts through the forest. © Uirá Garcia

The attempt to kill Kamará was a real assassination attempt; brutal. (more…)

UK firm Vedanta Resources is pushing ahead with the construction of a bauxite mine on the tribe’s land as I write this. We are asking all our supporters to help keep this issue in public focus, to put pressure on Vedanta and to defend the Dongria now.

Watch the film, send it to your friends and contacts, and help us make as much noise about this as possible.

Write a letter bringing attention to the Dongria’s plight.

Allegations that workers from Malaysian logging companies are raping and harassing Penan women caused a furore in the Malaysian press after they were publicised in September.

Top government figures denied the claims, while numerous Malaysian and international organisations called for an official investigation and better protection for the Penan.

The two logging companies – Samling and Interhill – whose workers the Penan accused are operating on the tribe’s land without their consent.

A logger’s truck shifts its plunder. © Andy Rain/Nick Rain/Survival

Penan communities have spent more than 20 years trying to keep loggers off their land and to prevent the destruction of the forests they rely on for food and shelter.
(more…)