Heart of Brazil: People of the Xingu

Shooting stills and video, Patrick and Sue Cunningham spent six months travelling the length of the Xingu River, in central Brazil. They visited 48 tribal villages, and met people from 17 ethnic groups.

Because the area is home to some of the most belligerent Indians in the Amazon, it has so far suffered less than most from the depredations of modern man.

But the 21st century is bringing intensive threats to the environmental and cultural integrity of the area.

This video, a short extract of a longer documentary, highlights some of the threats, while celebrating the vitality and vibrancy of the diverse traditional tribal cultures found along the length of the river.

The video is a project of the Tribes Alive initiative of Indigenous People's Cultural Support Trust, a non-profit charity registered in England. www.tribesalive.org or www.ipcst.org.

These are the tribes who will be affected by the Belo Monte dam. Avatar director James Cameron and actress Sigourney Weaver have now pledged their support to fight the dam.

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Nonprofits & Activism

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[lastpoina]

This may sound paradoxal but...

IT IS BELO MONTE THAT WILL SAVE AMAZONAS!

Those protesters in Brasil are being manipulated by foreign NGOs!

[TribesAlive]

@lastpoina Belo Monte will do nothing to save the Amazon. It is just one of over 60 huge hydroelectric schemes proposed by the government, which will turn the Amazon into a series of stagnant, lifeless reservoirs. The government sees the Amazon as a factory to produce electricity, soya, beef - and money for their pockets.

The protests in Brazil are because people are learning about the corruption and vested interests driving Belo Monte. When the general public finds out it may be too late.

[lastpoina]

O Brasil não cuida bem da amazonia porque sua economia não está desenvolvida o suficiente para bancar todos os serviços de proteção que ela necessita, os gastos superariam os 100 bilhoes! É quase como criar um país aqui dentro, com hospitais, escolas, exercito etc.

Sem Belo Monte nao tem crescimento economico para bancar e manter tudo isso, não tem industrialização e ficamos presos a mera exportação de commodities como a soja, cujos cultivos estão destruindo florestas e cerrados.

[TribesAlive]

@lastpoina O Brasil está desenvolvida sim - é um dos países mais rico do mundo! É simpismente por causa de falta de vontade política que as florestas são desaparecindo. Se o Brasil realmente quis proteger as florestas, elas seriam protegidas.

Tem dinheiro para ajudar, mas com desmatamento crescendo rapidamente, e com o proposito de enfraquecer o Codigo Florestal não tem como o Brasil merece.

Belo Monte só ajuda com a política desenvolvimentista, e nada com o proteção da floresta.

[TribesAlive]

I would be grateful if people would not use the comments section of this page to repeat the absurd and baseless xenophobia which is perpetrated by a certain sector of Brazilians who have a vested interest in the destruction of Brazil's own precious natural heritage. There are huge multinational powers lined up to finance the destruction of the forest, but it is being done mainly by large Brazilian landholders who are intent on making fast bucks by exporting to Europe, China and North America.

[TribesAlive]

edson, before you comment you should really check your facts. The geographical centre of Brazil is about 40km west of the Xingu river, give or take half way between its source and its mouth. Brasilia is spelt with an 's' not a 'z'. This video was shot in the states of Mato Grosso and Pará, nowhere near Amazonas state. So in your brief comment you made three basic errors.

Thanks for your comment.

[sidponc]

@jspinac1 Hey guys Do you know who's buying those lands? I bet not.

grew 30% the search by Americans those lands in Brazil, Mato Grosso do Norte e lands around there, What are they doing there? Well if you don't know, they are planting and taking all those lands like you see on this video.

[lastpoina]

ECO-TERRORISTS GET A JOB!

[meelusine]

That's what I call a genocide. Please stop all your evil doings and repair what you have damaged, so they can live in nature in peace.

[firstlourenco]

@TribesAlive Besteira! Se você é brasileiro deve estar ganhando bem para trair seu próprio país tentando convencer milhares de brasileiros a apoiarem estes gringos pilantras que querem se intrometer na nossa política interna. E o pior de tudo é que usa os índios para manipular a opinião do público. Como se nós brasileiros não cuidássemos de nossos índios! Somos o país do mundo que tem a maior área transformada em reservas indígenas. Além de termos a FUNAI etc.

[rbsavant]

The lady at 2:52 - 3:11 explains in three sentences in a very precise manner about her fears...! No philosophy, no big talks... just plain good old wisdom!

Any straight answers from the so called world intelligentsia?

[lastpoina]

I live in Amazonas, as a native I could behold this phenomena from very close.

Some NGO "officers" come asking where they can find cocaine to consume, some of them even look for sex with native children and women, sometimes leaving them with diseases. We are mad because brazilian government still allows those kind of foreigners to come here, they say they come to preserve the nature, develop "projects", to teach us a new religion or to make studies. They get mineral and blood samples and go.

[lastpoina]

Summarizing:

Without belo monte no industrial and economic development, without development we will have more poverty.

poverty=rainforest anihilation.

[lastpoina]

@TribesAlive Me desculpe, mas pelo seu português você nao deve ser daqui. Espero realmente que seja uma pessoa mal informada com boas intenções. Caso contrário incluo sua ONG na lista de denúncias que pretendo enviar para as autoridades interessadas.

[lastpoina]

@TribesAlive Não minta, ser rico em recursos naturais nao quer dizer que existe uma infraestrutura competente. Não estou falando de uns milhoezinhos desviados por uma administração ou outra, são necessários mais de 100 bilhões em investimento em saneamento, saúde, educação e proteção das fronteiras. Só a modernização do nosso exército, sem falar nos custos de sua manutenção, já passa desse valor SOZINHO. O que vocês querem é deixar o Brasil dividido, atrasado e indefeso para depois roubarem.

[lastpoina]

@TribesAlive Your dont want to protect it, you want to take it for you so the next politic generation are free to destroy it.

[lastpoina]

@TribesAlive The protests in Brazil are happening because your NGOs are terrorizing indigenous people by lies. Most of those NGOs are being paid to make tha divide and conquer game for their governments, which are also corrupted and just agreed to do what they did in Iraq, Lybia and soon Syria. North american agents are already infiltrated Roraima and taking the indigenous gold and Niobium to USA, no farmers there since the law kicked their asses out.

All you want is to take control of amazon