View source for Awá (Brazil)

{{Short description|Indigenous people of Brazil}}
{{About||the language|Guajá language|other uses|Awa (disambiguation)}}

The '''Awá''' are an [[indigenous peoples of Brazil|Indigenous people]] of [[Brazil]] living in the [[Amazon rainforest]]. There are approximately 350 members, and 100 of them have no contact with the outside world. They are considered highly endangered because of conflicts with [[logging]] interests in their territory.<ref name=observer>{{cite news| title = 'They're killing us': world's most endangered tribe cries for help| first = Gethin| last = Chamberlain| url = https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/22/brazil-rainforest-awa-endangered-tribe| newspaper = [[The Observer]]| publisher = [[The Guardian]]| date = 21 April 2012| access-date = 23 April 2012}}</ref>

The Awá people speak [[Guajá language|Guajá]], a [[Tupi–Guaraní]] language. Originally living in settlements, they adopted a nomadic lifestyle around 1800 to escape incursions by Europeans.

==History==
During the 19th century, the Awá came under increasing attack by the [[European colonization of the Americas|European settlers in the region]], who cleared most of the forests from their land. Beginning around 1800, the Awá people adopted an increasingly [[Nomad|nomadic]] lifestyle in order to avoid European invaders.

From the mid-1980s onward, some Awá moved to government-established settlements. However, for the most part, they were able to maintain their traditional way of life. Sustaining themselves entirely from their forests in nomadic groups of a few dozen people, and with little or no contact with the outside world.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

In 1982, the [[Brazilian government]] received a loan of US$900 million from the [[World Bank]] and the [[European Union]]. One condition of the loan was that the lands of certain Indigenous peoples, including the Awá, would be [[Demarcation line|demarcated]] and protected; this held particular importance for the Awá, whose forests were being increasingly invaded by outsiders, with many cases of tribespeople being killed by settlers, and the forest on which they depended being destroyed by logging and land clearance for farming.

Without government intervention, it seemed very likely that the Awá and their culture would become extinct. However, the Brazilian government was extraordinarily slow to act on its commitment. It took 20 years of sustained pressure from campaigning organisations such as [[Survival International]] and, earlier, the [[Forest Peoples Programme]] before, in March 2003, the Awá's land was finally demarcated.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2841371.stm |title=Land victory for Amazon Indians |work=[[BBC News]] |date=11 March 2003 |access-date=22 April 2012}}</ref>

Meanwhile, encroachment on their land and a series of massacres had reduced their numbers to about 300, only about 60 of whom were still living their traditional [[hunter-gatherer]] way of life.

In late 2011, illegal loggers burned an 8-year-old Awá girl alive after she wandered out of her village.<ref name=telegraph/> The murder happened inside a protected area in the state of [[Maranhão]].<ref name=telegraph>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/brazil/9005835/Loggers-burned-Amazon-tribe-girl-alive.html |title=Loggers 'burned Amazon tribe girl alive' |last=Sanchez |first=Raf |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=10 January 2012}}</ref> Luis Carlos Guajajaras, a leader from another people, said that the girl had been killed as a warning to other native peoples living in the protected area.<ref name=telegraph/>

According to the Indigenous Missionary Council, about 450 Indigenous people were murdered between 2003 and 2010.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/amazon-girl-burned-alive-by-loggers-one-story-among-hundreds-of-unreported-deaths/2012/01/12/gIQAnbWatP_blog.html |title=Amazon girl burned alive by loggers: one story among hundreds of unreported deaths |last=Flock |first=Elizabeth |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=12 January 2012}}</ref> An investigation discovered the Awá camp in question had been destroyed by loggers.<ref name=observer1>{{cite news| title = 'They're killing us': world's most endangered tribe cries for help| first = Gethin| last = Chamberlain| url = https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/22/brazil-rainforest-awa-endangered-tribe| newspaper = [[The Observer]]| date = 21 April 2012| access-date = 23 April 2012}}</ref> According to [[Survival International]], a [[human rights]] organization which campaigns for the rights of Indigenous tribal peoples and considers them to be the "earth's most threatened tribe", Awá forests are now disappearing faster than in any other Indian area in the [[Brazilian Amazon]].

In April 2012, [[Survival International]] launched a worldwide campaign, backed by the actor [[Colin Firth]], to protect the Awá people.<ref name=observer1/><ref name=Independent1>{{cite news|title=The world's most threatened tribe – Survival International's campaign, backed by the actor Colin Firth, seeks to protect the life and lands of Brazil's Awa people|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/the-worlds-most-threatened-tribe-7687515.html|access-date=4 October 2012|newspaper=[[The Independent]]|date=29 April 2012|last=Eede |first=Joanna|quote=In Survival's campaign film, Colin Firth says: 'One man can stop this: Brazil's Minister of Justice. He can send in the federal police to catch the loggers, and keep them out for good. But we need enough people to message him. This is our chance, right now, to actually do something. And if enough people show they care, it will work.'}}</ref>

In September 2012, Brazil's Indian Affairs Department claimed that loggers were only {{cvt|6|km}} away from the Awá.<ref>{{cite web|title=Brazil's Indian affairs department FUNAI has uncovered shocking evidence|url=http://www.netnewsledger.com/2012/09/04/brazils-indian-affairs-department-funai-has-uncovered-shocking-evidence/|work=NetNewsLedger|access-date=4 October 2012|date=September 2012}}</ref>

In 2019, Mídia Índia, an indigenous film-making association, released a rough cut video of uncontacted tribe members,<ref>{{cite AV media|title=Uncontacted Awá in the Amazon |publisher=Mídia Índia|via=Vimeo|date=21 July 2019|url=https://vimeo.com/349028946|access-date=17 May 2025 }}</ref> as [[activists]] warn of growing threats to this tribe from loggers who are nearing their traditional hunting ground. It was shown on Brazil’s [[Globo TV]] on July 21, 2019, and features in the documentary, "Ka'a Zar Ukize Wá – Forest Keepers in Danger*<ref>{{cite AV media |title=Ka'a Zar Ukize Wá – Forest Keepers in Danger. Deforestation in the Amazon puts uncontacted tribe in danger|url=https://ifnotusthenwho.me/films/deforestation-amazon-uncontacted-tribe/|access-date=17 May 2025|website=If Not Us Then Who?}}</ref> by Mídia Índia. It was made in collaboration with the {{ill|Instituto Socioambiental|pt}} and the {{ill|Instituto Catitu|pt}} with the support of organizations including Instituto Makarapy, If Not Us Then Who and [[Survival International]]. In July 2021, it was confirmed that one of the tribe's members, [[Karapiru Awá Guajá]], had died of [[COVID-19]] earlier in the month, at an estimated age of 75. Guajá, who campaigned against the destruction of Awá land and for the rights of Indigenous Brazilian peoples, had been vaccinated against the virus.<ref>{{cite web |last=Dehghan |first=Saeed Kamali |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jul/30/best-a-human-can-be-indigenous-amazonian-karapiru-dies-of-covid |title='Best a human can be': indigenous Amazonian Karapiru dies of Covid |date=30 July 2021 |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=30 July 2021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210730101904/https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jul/30/best-a-human-can-be-indigenous-amazonian-karapiru-dies-of-covid |archive-date=30 July 2021}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://pib.socioambiental.org/en/povo/guaja Guajá – Instituto Socioambiental]
* [http://www.survivalinternational.org/awa Awa: Earth's Most Threatened Tribe – Survival International]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20180929060952/http://www.domeni.co.uk/reportage/awa-guaja/ Domeni Pugliesi]

{{Indigenous peoples of Brazil}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Awa (Guaja)}}
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Brazil]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples in Brazil]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples of the Amazon]]
[[Category:Uncontacted peoples in the Amazon]]
[[Category:Hunter-gatherers of South America]]