This Amazon tribe lived without the outside world. They may be the last
This Amazon tribe lived without the outside world. They may be the last
Dan Collyns
Ricardo Stuckert’s astounding images reminded me of my experiences meeting isolated indigenous people. With living space diminishing, their future is in peril
Friday 23 December 2016 12.18 EST
The remarkable photos taken by Ricardo Stuckert of an uncontacted Amazon tribe reminded me of my own experience with the indigenous people of nearby Peru. “The Nomole are here, they’ve come. The Nomole,” were the hushed whispers I heard outside my tent as I was roused from my dawn slumber. Nomole was a term meaning brothers which I had heard many times in the last few days, at once embracing and familial yet also uttered with apprehensive concern.
With a jolt of adrenaline I pulled on some trousers and stumbled out into the open and jogged to the edge of a riverside bluff and gazed out. As the morning mist rose like steam off the Manu national park forest, 11 matchstick figures had emerged from the foliage and were walking out over a rock-strewn strand some 200m away across the turbulent Upper Madre de Dios river.
To me it could have been a scene from the dawn of mankind. I felt I was looking at humanity, stripped down in all its primitive magnificence, and it was humbling. Men, women, one pregnant, one with an infant, and children, naked and unarmed strode over the rocks and began to call out, beckoning to special protection agents employed by Peru’s culture ministry on our side of the river bank.
It was Romel Ponciano, whom they called Yotlotle (which means giant river otter in their language), they were calling for. Having seen one of these exuberant Amazonians I had to admit the anthropomorphic resemblance was uncanny and even funny. Portly and affable, Ponciano, an indigenous Yine leader, had a gentle air and exuded calm. He had had more than 20 encounters with the Mashco-Piro tribe and understands about 80% of their language. Such meetings can be dangerous, even deadly, but as children rode piggy-back on Ponciano’s back and he gave his T-shirt to one of the men to wear it was clear I was beholding a friendly exchange as timeless and quintessentially human as any.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/23/amazon-tribe-no-contact-outside-world-last-ricardo-stuckert
