Deep in the jungle of the Amazon lives the most vulnerable tribe in the world, whose members, trying to protect themselves from destruction, lead a nomadic lifestyle, constantly moving around with children, weapons and pets.
The people of the Awa tribe were on the verge of extinction due to the European colonists who enslaved them and the ranchers who stole the land on which they lived. And yet they live in perfect harmony with the jungle. Most Ava families have several domesticated wild animals that women breastfeed until they grow up.
Let's take a closer look at how they live …
Very few people have ever met the people of Ava. Photographer Domenico Pugliese became one of those lucky ones, because he was lucky to spend time with this wonderful tribe and even become a source of entertainment for them.
Pugliese first met the Awa people in 2009 after a journalist friend offered to escort him and an anthropologist to the forest where they live. “They heard the sound of a boat engine and went down to the river bank,” the photographer recalls. "It felt like I was in another world."
After the start of communication, the people of the Awa tribe even found a reason to ridicule the photographer. It turns out that they simply do not understand how an adult can be alone, without a family. After all, family is very important to Ava and this concept is not limited only to loved ones. Their animals, which help them with everyday tasks such as cracking nuts and picking fruits from tall trees, are as much a part of the family as children.
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The Awa people keep wild pigs, squirrels, parrots and large agouti rodents, but their favorite pets are monkeys.
Primates are an important food source for Ava, but if a baby is breastfed, they will never eat it. Even if he returns to the forest, they recognize him as "hanima" - part of the family.
“They feed squirrels and monkeys just like they feed their babies, breastfeeding,” says Pugliese. “It shows how far we've come from where we were. They are so close to nature. In fact, it's not even closeness - they are part of nature."
However, of the tens of thousands of Ava people who lived in the state of Maranhao 500 years ago, when the Portuguese colonists landed, only about 400 people have survived today. About 60 of them have never had contact with the outside world.
Many of them died due to diseases brought from overseas - smallpox, measles, flu and others. The survivors were turned into slaves and forced to work on plantations where rubber and sugarcane were grown.
In 1835, after centuries of oppression, the Maranhão tribes rebelled against the European oppressors. During the 5-year uprising, about 100 thousand people of the indigenous population were exterminated.
After that, the people of Ava were forced to start a nomadic lifestyle in order to avoid genocide. Over the next 200 years, they became skilled hunters and learned to build dwellings for several hours, only days later to abandon them and hit the road. As a result of their nomadic lifestyle, they lost agricultural skills and even the ability to light a fire.
In 1982, the World Bank and the EU gave Brazil about $ 900 million in credit to protect indigenous lands, but illegal loggers continued to threaten their existence for another 30 years.
The Brazilian government announced that all the "invaders" were expelled from the lands of Ava last year, but today the people of the tribe face an even greater danger - the fires raging in the Amazon.
The wildfires that are destroying vast tracts of forest on the eastern edge of the Amazon, known as the “lungs of the Earth,” are said to be fueled by ranchers who want to turn the land into plantations.
But even those who came to help Ava can inadvertently destroy the delicate balance, Pugliese realizes.