Survival International Blog

How to save Earth’s most threatened tribe.

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:05:00 +0100

How to save Earth’s most threatened tribe.

Photo

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:46:44 +0100

"‘Dove!’ an Awá woman named Parakeet said. ’Let’s call her Dove Awá – doves sing and walk on the..."

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:43:50 +0100

“

‘Dove!’ an Awá woman named Parakeet said. ’Let’s call her Dove Awá – doves sing and walk on the ground.’

The Awá wait to choose their children’s names until they reach an age when the right name presents itself. Another of Parakeet’s daughters is called Forest Tree. One particularly wriggly child has just earned the name Earthworm.

”

- from How to save Earth’s most threatened tribe

"I do not think the measure of a civilisation is how tall its buildings of concrete are, but rather..."

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:28:57 +0100

“I do not think the measure of a civilisation is how tall its buildings of concrete are, but rather how well its people have learned to relate to their environment and fellow man.”

- Sun Bear, Chippewa, USA

‘It was beautiful here,’ an Enawene Nawe man...

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:28:39 +0100

‘It was beautiful here,’ an Enawene Nawe man laments.

“My Yanomami people have always lived in peace, which we...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:28:00 +0100

“My Yanomami people have always lived in peace, which we share with other creatures. We know our Yanomami land in the same way our brothers, the Inuit, know the sea-ice of the Arctic or the Dongria Kondh people the hills of Orissa, or the ogi Indians the snow peaks of Colombia. We know the streams and the rapids, the path of peccary, the call of the tapir and the song of the toucan. We understand the seasons of the peach-palm trees and the ways of the sloth and the monkeys and all animals that live high in the canopy.

We know these things just as our Penan brothers of the Sarawak know the migration of the wild pig and the Bushmen of Botswana the tracks of the eland. This is how we live, today. Our ancestors taught us to understand our lands and animals, we have used this knowledge carefully, for our existence depends on it.”

- Davi Kopenawa, Yanomami, Brazil

In a small patch of rainforest in Brazil, the last six survivors...

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 16:22:48 +0100

In a small patch of rainforest in Brazil, the last six survivors of a genocide, dance.

(Narrated by long-time Survival supporter Julie Christie.)

Wichí fisherman fishing in the Pilcomayo River, Argentina. The...

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 16:29:42 +0100

Wichí fisherman fishing in the Pilcomayo River, Argentina. The fishermen use the nets to scoop the fish up out of the muddy waters of the river.

Makuxi children at Uiramutã, Raposa Serra do Sol, Brazil

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 16:31:46 +0100

Makuxi children at Uiramutã, Raposa Serra do Sol, Brazil

"We are educated in the things we know. We can pass on our knowledge to the rest of the world. I can..."

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 10:00:53 +0100

“We are educated in the things we know. We can pass on our knowledge to the rest of the world. I can be a lecturer, even though I have not been to school.”

- Daquoo Xukuri, Bushman, Botswana

"We work differently. We work with our arms using machetes. We use food from the earth, bananas,..."

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:29:12 +0100

“We work differently. We work with our arms using machetes. We use food from the earth, bananas, pawpaw, manioc, sweet potato, pupunha, and other fruits like acai, uriti and nuts - all that’s there. We don’t eat like you, there is no oil or pepper. The food is natural and we can’t destroy the taste. We eat how we want. We can’t use a lot of salt because it destroys our health. Yanomami women get up early and make the food, then they go to the gardens to collect manioc to make manioc bread. Men hunt. The children play and learn as nature teaches us.”

- Davi Kopenawa, Yanomami, Brazil

"Languages embody the intellectual wealth of the people that speak them. Losing any one of them is..."

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:00:48 +0100

“Languages embody the intellectual wealth of the people that speak them. Losing any one of them is like dropping a bomb on the Louvre.”

- MIT Linguist Ken Hale

"If we can’t respect the right of the last tribes living in isolation on the planet to decide their..."

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:49:20 +0100

“If we can’t respect the right of the last tribes living in isolation on the planet to decide their own fate, then how are we different from the conquistadors of 500 years ago, whom we so roundly condemn for their violence and greed?”

- ‘Savage Review’: Mitch Anderson’s powerful and eloquent response to John Terborgh’s advocacy of forced contact and assimilation of uncontacted tribes.

Arhuaco man & child, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Northern...

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:29:06 +0100

Arhuaco man & child, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Northern Colombia.

One from the archives: a younger Richard Gere asks you to...

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:25:00 +0100

One from the archives: a younger Richard Gere asks you to ‘save the people’.

"If anyone has read a lot of books and thinks I am primitive because I have not read even one, then..."

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:00:18 +0100

“If anyone has read a lot of books and thinks I am primitive because I have not read even one, then he should throw away those books and get one which says we are all brothers and sisters under God and we too have a right to live.”

- Roy Sesana, in his acceptance speech on behalf of First People of the Kalahari for the Right Livelihood Award in 2005.

"If the next generation waits here, they will learn drinking, smoking and gambling. All the wrong..."

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:58:00 +0100

“If the next generation waits here, they will learn drinking, smoking and gambling. All the wrong things.”

- Tapal Bandialetto, Wanniyala-Aetto tribe, Sri Lanka, speaking of his life outside the national park his people have been evicted from.

Enawene Nawe men of Brazil perform the Yãkwa ritual, a...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:55:39 +0100

Enawene Nawe men of Brazil perform the Yãkwa ritual, a four-month exchange of food between humans and the ancestral spirits, accompanied by dancing and chanting to the sound of flutes.

Zo’é women make head dresses from the soft white breast...

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:31:55 +0100

Zo’é women make head dresses from the soft white breast feathers of the king vulture.

"Genocide is not only killing off Indians with gunfire. Genocide is also injustice, collaborating..."

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:58:07 +0100

“Genocide is not only killing off Indians with gunfire. Genocide is also injustice, collaborating with the aim that the Indian and his culture should disappear. We cannot in the name of development have contempt for the Indian, take his lands, massacre him. Absolutely not.”

- Orlando Villas Boas, Brazil