Post date: Jan 27, 2012 6:3:24 PM
Peruvian journalists make contact with members of reclusive Machiguenga tribe deep in Amazon.
KUGAPAKORI NAHUA NANTI RESERVE, CUZCO, PERU (COMETA MAGAZINE) - Two Peruvian journalists have published a story about their journey into the Amazon to speak with members of an indigenous tribe living in self-imposed isolation.
Writer Marco Aviles and photographer Daniel Silva, the directors of the new Peruvian magazine 'Cometa', travelled by river deep into the jungle to produce their story called 'Contacted: Love and Blood on Lot 88'.
'Lot 88' refers to a plot of land where natural gas is extracted along the shores of the Camisea River, which overlaps with Kugapakori Nahua Nanti nature reserve, a place where some of the world's most reclusive tribes live.
"The interest in telling this story, in finding these people, is basically journalistic. We wanted to tell the story of a part of the Peruvian population that is almost never discussed, that remains hidden and invisible despite living in an area where gas is being extracted, an area that has a link with modernity," Aviles said from Lima on Thursday (January 26).
The two journalists got rare access to members of the tribe. Printed in a large format layout are pictures of the Machiguenga people.
Many of the pictures feature a man named Aladino, who has lived most of his life deep in the jungle, hunting and gathering with almost no contact outside his immediate family.
Silva's pictures show the indigenous people going about daily chores like fishing and washing dishes in the river.
"These people we contacted are in 'voluntary isolation'. They belong the Machiguenga ethnicity, which populates a large part of the shores of the Urubamba and Camisea rivers. They are called 'Kugapakori', which means 'people who do what they want' in in Machiguenga. It's a bit of a pejorative term to define those who moved further away, who live deeper in the jungle. They live in the Kugapakori Nahua Nanti and specifically in an area known as Lot 88, that overlaps with the reserve. Everyone has heard of Lot 88 at one time or another. It's an area used to extract gas from the Camisea. And, well, we entered the area and with the help of guides and contacts we've work with for some time, we were able to find this family and spend time with them," Aviles added.
The 'Cometa' story opens with a picture of 'Aladino' holding a bow and arrow and gazing up into the forest.
The introduction to the story says the family did not look for contact from the outside world, but found it anyway-- and asks what will happen to them now.
"The object of this expedition, this adventure, has been to speak to these invisible people. And once we heard their story, we realized they must be protected, they must be made visible. And kind of the idea behind 'Cometa' -- the product we are putting out -- is to make those people be seen by other people, by the rest of the Peruvians. In fact, the magazine we just printed has an exaggerated size because our objective is that people see these people, these Peruvians," Aviles said.
Experts believe there up 50 uncontacted tribes in the Peru-Brazil border area of the Amazon. They think most of them have broken off from larger tribes and moved deeper into the forest to avoid encroachment from oil and timber companies.