Source: Sky News

Rare video of uncontacted members of Brazil’s Awa Amazon tribe has emerged, as activists warn of growing threats to this tribe from loggers who are nearing their traditional hunting ground.

The footage was taken in the northern state of Maranhao and shows a man holding a large knife in the rainforest.

He holds up the blade to his face before looking towards the person filming him.

The footage was taken by Flay Guajajara, a member of the nearby Guajajara tribe, another tribal group from the Amazon which has campaigned to protect the isolated indigenous people of the region.

“They (Awa tribe) are a people who have not had contact with anyone from any society. They are a people who have been persecuted for the more than 519 years.

“They live on that land there but we have never had any contact (with them). We’ve always known that they are there, in the middle of that great forest.”

While some members of the Awa have made contact with the outside world, it is believed there are many living in isolated areas of the rainforest that are under threat from logging.

According to data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, deforestation in the world’s largest tropical rainforest soared more than 88% in June compared with the same month a year ago.

Flay Guajajara added: “We have got together and organised a team to protect the territory.

“We were worried and are worried about future generations and about the isolated tribes that we have never seen, but which our grandparents told us of, that there are people there and that they need protection.

“Also, what they said is that these people need us, that they need the forest and that we need the fo

rest too.”

He says the destruction of the Amazon is a “reality” and the consequences are “very serious”.