Over one hundred tribes around the world choose to reject contact with outsiders. They are the most vulnerable peoples on the planet.
Many of them are living on the run, fleeing invasions of their land by colonists, loggers, oil crews and cattle ranchers. They have often seen their friends and families die at the hands of outsiders, in unreported massacres or epidemics.
Screen icon Julie Christie and Survival have launched a campaign to save uncontacted tribes from extinction, with a film featuring previously unseen footage of some of the world’s most remote and endangered peoples.
Christie says, ‘Over 100 tribes on three continents continue to shun contact with the outside world. They are among the most vulnerable peoples on earth, and could be wiped out within the next twenty years unless their land rights are recognised and upheld. Surely the world is big enough for all of us, including those whose way of life is most different to ours?’
The unique film, narrated by Christie, is the centrepiece of a new Survival campaign aimed at highlighting the most serious threats to the tribes.
Survival’s director Stephen Corry says, ‘Uncontacted tribes, whether in South America, India or West Papua, remain in isolation because they choose to, and because encounters with the outside world have brought them only violence, disease and murder.
‘There are tribes in Brazil today with only two or three survivors. All the other members of the tribe have been killed by cattle ranchers or have died from disease following contact with white people. These genocides are happening in the 21st century. This has to be stopped.’
Watch the film ‘Uncontacted Tribes’
For further information contact Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or email mr@survival-international.org