The footage in question appears to show them attempting to shoot down the drones with bows and arrows
Remarkable drone footage has surfaced, capturing incredibly rare images of uncontacted people who are cut off from the entire world. The footage appears to show them attempting to shoot down the drones with bows and arrows, offering a rare glimpse into their secluded lives.
Thanks to significant advancements in technology, people are more connected than ever. With just a few swipes on my phone or taps on a keyboard, I can communicate with someone on the other side of the planet. Yet, some individuals still live in remote parts of the world, completely cut off from the rest of us.
Images taken by G. Miranda for Survival International provide a bird’s-eye view of these tribespeople, whose lives are starkly different from our own. These tribes include the Sentinelese on North Sentinel Island in India and various Amazon tribes in Brazil near the Javari River valley, close to the Peru border.
A video compiling photographs of these uncontacted people, posted on the Death Island Expeditions YouTube page in 2018, has been viewed more than 3.5 million times. The video shows small settlements and homes, with some images capturing tribespeople armed with bows and arrows, looking directly at the drone or photography equipment.
YouTube users have commented on the profound impact of seeing these images, noting the vast differences in lifestyle. One user wrote, “It blows my mind how different our lives are. The fact that they don’t even know about the existence of grocery stores, factories, phones, social media, everything that makes our society what it is. It’s so surreal.”
The Brazilian government body, FUNAI (the National Indian Foundation), is responsible for some of the drone images seen in the video. FUNAI establishes and carries out policies related to uncontacted indigenous people. The pictures of the uncontacted tribespeople of Brazil were taken in 2008, according to a report by Survival International, a human rights organization.
“We did the overflight to show their houses, to show they are there, to show they exist,” said uncontacted tribes expert José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Júnior. In 2008, Meirelles also highlighted the dangers these tribes face from illegal loggers in Peru, which could lead to conflict.
“What is happening in this region [of Peru] is a monumental crime against the natural world, the tribes, the fauna, and is further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the ‘civilized’ ones, treat the world,” he stated.
This drone footage offers a fleeting yet significant insight into the lives of uncontacted people, emphasizing both the beauty and the fragility of their existence in an ever-connected world.
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