TUPINAMBÁS

#ensaio #documentary #photography

SINOPSE.
[Work-In-Progress]

They were one of the many indigenous tribes that lived in South America, Brasil. Nowadays they’re nearly extinct, like many other native american tribes: they are being chase to death…

The Tupinambá are believed to be the first Indigenous population to have made contact with the Europeans on the Bahia coast. The few hundreds indigenous remaining today are regularly menaced by the land owners that surround their territory. That’s what we found at Olivença, Bahia, Brasil. Indigenous’ villages are often attacked. Their men are ambushed, beaten up, and sometimes murdered. But there’s worst… The Tupinambá’s children use to go to the local school with the other kids, until a group of unknown snipers shot the bus when they’re were only the indigenous children inside! Yes, people shoot the native indigenous children, and to our surprise, the public authorities (police, town hall, prosecutor, anyone really..) do nothing about it! As a result, the tribe built a school inside their territory and the children lost their contact with the outside world…

I spent one afternoon with them. It was hard for me to understand that while we are living in the XXIst Century there are people still chasing and killing these ancient nomadic cultures, that are truly the world’s living heritage. And why? Because the indigenous occupy space that can be used for agriculture purposes, because the indigenous give no profit, but mostly, because they are different…

As I left the Tupinambá village I could see what was left a a big fire camp. “Why do you make your fires outside the village” – I asked!

– “Sometimes men come at night, if they catch us sleeping they will burn us all to death, children included. We must stay up at night, we must survive.”