Dom Phillips, a British journalist, and Bruno Araujo Pereira, a Brazilian indigenous affairs expert, went lost in a remote part of the Amazon rainforest lately. The two were last spotted in Vale do Javari, a western area of the Brazilian Amazon named after the Javari river, which runs along the country’s Peruvian border.
The area where Phillips and Pereira went missing covers 85,444 square kilometres and is home to “the biggest concentration of isolated tribes in the Amazon in the globe,” according to the Brazilian authorities.
The area is home to 14 distinct indigenous groups with over 6,000 residents, according to the Brazilian government’s indigenous organisation — FUNAI. These tribes have a reputation for avoiding interaction with the outside world. Despite this, multiple efforts to forcibly invade their resource-rich country have been made.
While the Vale do Javari’s communities were awarded unique territorial rights in Brazil’s 1988 constitution and then again in 2001 under the designation of indigenous territory, the area has seen an increase in illicit gold prospecting and poaching.
Vale do Javari is also a crossroads for international cocaine trafficking, with gold being traded for narcotics and weaponry, making it a hotbed for violent crime.
At the turn of the century, a series of “invasions” occurred in the area, headed mostly by non-indigenous Peruvians seeking to exploit rubber as a resource. This triggered a wave of violence against these tribes, with tales of rapes, women’s stealing, kidnappings, and enslavement. As a result, these tribes were forced farther into the Amazon to avoid interaction.
Evangelical missionaries have recently entered indigenous settlements in the region without approval from tribal chiefs or concerned authorities. Several researchers are also trying to contact these tribes in order to chronicle their way of life.
As a result of the “invasions,” violence against indigenous peoples and the authorities entrusted with safeguarding them has increased. 21 members of the Warikama Djapar tribe were assassinated here in 2017. Invading hunters murdered roughly ten indigenous individuals belonging to an undetermined group known as the archers or “flecheiros” the year before.
Furthermore, this has resulted in environmental deterioration, resulting in unstable ecological circumstances for residents that rely on nature for existence. Outside contact also puts these tribes’ health at jeopardy.
Due to communicable illnesses, the Matus tribe lost almost one-third of their population in 1976. Foreign infections are sometimes fatal since the tribes rely on traditional treatments to treat ailments they are familiar with.
Dom Phillips, a British journalist, and Bruno Arajo Pereira, a Brazilian indigenous affairs expert, were last spotted on their way to Atalaia do Norte via boat.
Phillips has been a regular writer to leading publications in Brazil for the last 15 years, including The Guardian.
Bruno Pereira, the head of Brazil’s indigenous affairs department, was on leave. He had been the victim of regular threats from illegal fishers and poachers as one of the agency’s most experienced personnel, and he was allegedly equipped with a rifle at all times.
Phillips’ sister indicated in a video published following his disappearance that he was dedicated to the cause of protecting “environment and the indigenous people’s livelihood.”
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