Awá (Guajá)
The Awá , also Awá-Guajá or just Guajá , are an ethnic group in Brazil . Their home is in the forests of the eastern Amazon region . They are often referred to as Brazil's last truly nomadic people. In 2014, the number of 468 Awá was mentioned by SIASI / SESAI, some Awá are uncontacted (isolado). Sometimes they live together in small family groups that hide in the few remaining parts of Maranhão's forests outside of legally protected areas. About 60 Awá live in the Araribóia protected area , which is threatened by loggers who stay illegally in the area.
Around 1800 they gave up their sedentary life for a nomadic life in order to avoid the violent attacks of European invaders. The Awá provide for themselves by hunting and gathering . Those who are still nomadic are extremely mobile, as they are organized in groups of no more than 20-30 people. When you travel, carefully preserve the embers of your fire to rekindle it in its new place. For the last 15 years, most of them have lived in government-established reservations.
problem
Over the past 100 years, there are said to have been repeated conflicts, including attempts at extermination by local ranchers and settlers. Apart from the physical consequences of the sometimes violent clashes, many Awá could suffer from psychological long-term effects and even trauma. To this day, the Awá area is endangered and their tribe is threatened with complete extinction.
In the 1970s an iron mine and a railway line were built in the region inhabited by the Awá. This caused a large influx of settlers who came into contact with members of this indigenous community. According to the human rights organization Survival International , more than two-thirds of the Awá who came into contact with workers died during this period.
In 2009, the non-governmental organization Survival International stated that the Brazilian government recognized the Awá's right to land in Maranhão state, but had not yet taken the necessary measures to protect them. A FUNAI employee told the Brazilian broadcaster Globo TV that the Awá would be wiped out if the authorities did not intervene immediately. Around 60 to 100 Awá still live uncontacted in the rainforest. 31 percent of the rainforest in the Awá area has been cleared since 1985. The sharp increase in deforestation over the past two decades is now also taking place near those places where the uncontacted Awá live.
literature
- Guilherme Ramos Cardoso: Uma leitura sobre identidade e etnicidade na literatura sobre os Awá-Guajá . Universidade Federal Fluminense, Instituto de Ciências Humanas e Filosofia, Departamento de Antropologia, Niterói 2013 (Brazilian Portuguese, academia.edu - university paper; bibliography pp. 93–99).
See also
- Awá (Kwaiker) who live on both sides of the border between Colombia and Ecuador.
Web links
- Awa Volk - The world's most threatened people , information from Survival International
- Guajá , Instituto Socioambiental
Individual evidence
- ↑ Determined by: Sistema de Informação da Atenção à Saúde Indígena (SIASI) and Secretaria Especial de Saúde Indígena (SESAI)
- ↑ a b Cientos de indígenas del Amazonas brasileño son desplazados por madereros. (No longer available online.) In: teleSUR. February 5, 2009, formerly in the original ; Retrieved February 5, 2009 (Spanish). ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Uncontacted Amazon Indians are facing extinction. In: Survival International. February 14, 2011, accessed February 15, 2011 .
