in the Amazon kya PO a warrior culture
they were only pacified in the late 60s
while other indigenous groups around
they were already pretty much vanished
that have managed to stand up to the
outside world they’re still very much in
touch with their culture and their
traditions they are not like other
indigenous cultures
when National Geographic calls with an
assignment to go down to Brazil to the
Amazon firstly very excited then there’s
a problem with Funai with the
authorization you don’t know if you
actually can go and then it goes back
and forth back and forth so ultimately
then you’re going all of a sudden then
this is all the equipment we took you
know my approach to photographing these
cultures is that I treat them the same
as if there were a famous person in
Hollywood I bring my lights I bring my
studio setup
I want to difference myself from from
just a pure journalistic photographer I
want to be a documentary photographer
but I want to also document their faces
or talk about their bodies against the
plain background so we have quite a lot
of equipment and then wrote over will be
going with a woman named dr. Barbara
Zimmerman she sent us this picture of
herself and we ended up in Maura bog
which is in the Amazon and we had to
drive for six hours to Tacoma and in
Tacoma is like the closest town in the
north of the coyopa lands and you know
on the way there you drive through
landscape that looks like this I thought
it looked beautiful you know it’s kind
of very pretty but basically it’s all
cut down rainforests so Barbara kept on
telling me no this is ugly this is
horrible this is what cut down
rainforest looks like this is the enemy
right here and this is where we went
you see Brazil and you see the green
area all that area that’s all indigenous
territory it’s a huge territory that
they have it’s about the quarter the
size of France or the same size as South
Korea is actually the largest piece of
protected rainforest in the world
protected as long as they protect it and
as soon as you leave to come out which
is right on the border of the land you
fly over the rainforest and our first
village was called Ken Djem and right
next to Ken Jim is this beautiful rock
that just comes out of the rainforest
and this is an aerial view of the
village I feel like it’s out of a movie
couldn’t be any prettier this setting
and the Kiowa Warrior
culture where young men at an early age
would learn how to fight and to kill and
they were only pacified in the late 60s
while other indigenous groups around
they were already pretty much vanished
the neighbor a lot of the neighboring
tribes but because I had the strong
warrior culture that even raided each
other’s each other villages there’s
stories where I met one chief pocket
Eyrie his village was raided when he was
about five six years old and was then
taken hostage by other Kayaba and grew
up with a different cup of family and
his mother was killed in front of his
eyes so they’re very fierce warrior
culture and I think that’s the main
reason why they’re still around today
then this is now the beginning of our
first real day the men said they’re
going hunting we asked if he couldn’t
come along and this is Uneeda probably
my favorite person I met in kya Poland’s
because he’s very traditional he’s very
tough very hard-working he’s constantly
doing something while we’re driving the
boat down to a spot he is shooting at
fish with bow and arrow then we pull up
at the stand back and he starts digging
and pulls out these like little grubs
for fishing it turns out they keep on
digging and digging take out a lot of
turtle eggs they took all of them out
and put in one back in this and their
culture to always leave one egg behind
so with that grub we’re talking about
five minutes to catch this fish the this
Prerana because they’re not good for
eating he would cut that fish up and
then use it as bait for other fish this
is o kette and there were the
traditional bead jewelry but here 2010 I
think it was the last World Cup
so that incorporate elements from
Brazilian culture into their jewelry and
he was all excited he heard a wild pig
and there he shot this and they just
used tree bark to tie the animal up I
realized he doesn’t have any red paint
on his legs but oftentimes they put a
lot of red paint on their legs before
they go into the jungle because that way
they kind of find their way home
easier you know the red pain stays
behind on leaves and grasses and well we
were maybe in the jungle who needed by
himself called all these fish in maybe
an hour and a half with that one pier on
‘edit II called earlier whenever you
come out of the jungle everybody goes
swimming and the mahogany boat paddle
turns into a plate for lunch so he then
cut up the pig in different pieces and
then trade it with or nita some part of
the pig for some fish they had so much
food so many fish so many fruits that it
felt like they can’t even eat it all
I’ve seen rotting bananas fish laying
around papayas it was so the food
they’re so plentiful I’ve never seen
anything like it
they still have bone arrows but ever
since they encountered the first white
people the first thing I got was
shotguns which are obviously a lot more
easy advant with and older people are
allowed to get money from the Brazilian
government the if you’re over a certain
age which is hard to prove because none
of them have a passport or any ID cards
but that’s a way to get a little bit of
money and you know that buy shotgun
shells with it who need the the hunter
who shot the pig his wife has a pet pig
at home so it was quite irony so when
they issued a mother that has a baby and
the baby doesn’t die then they take the
baby home and raise the baby pigs as
pets and while we’re gone the woman were
sitting right next to the men’s house
hanging out and practicing dance the
great chief rodney has has agreed to
meet us in Ken Jem in this village
he’s from McDuck theory but he said he
would come up to meet us together with
mega Ron old friends of barbara’s and so
these women
turns out they were practicing a dance
for for his arrival and this little baby
already has this huge ear lobe they
start them out right after they’re born
and there was day one pretty much
which was a long day this was our dinner
I skipped the eye and the woman said
they would take us out into the jungle
they all were these dresses now for the
last maybe 40 years they all have them
custom-made they have their own little
style that they like and they trade
beads their trade of fruit and other
things to get these dresses this is my
other favorite subject you can see why
and you can see some of them still have
the traditional wooden boat and then
they have these metal boats that they
got from the Brazilian government at
some point so it’s a mixture of cultures
coming together in these villages
plastic and metal and the women are just
as hard working as a man everybody has
their job they always take one or two
men with them when they go into the
jungle so somebody has a shotgun in case
an animal comes a Jaguar but for the
most part is like 20 women maybe one or
two guys and one of the boats the engine
broke down so we had to wait for them at
the river and it doesn’t take long and
they just settle in it’s basically there
anywhere in the jungle that just as at
home as at home you know they start
smoking or they start cutting the hair
the babies always come with the mothers
no matter where they go all the time and
this young girl climbing a tree with a
big machete in her hand I thought it was
a very good idea to send like a six
seven year old up in a tree with a
machete and what she does is she cut up
cuts out si E which is a berry that was
very popular here after pomegranate I
think before coconut water
and as supposedly very high antioxidants
and they they have a growing their wild
so they harvest a lot of it they feed a
lot of bark of trees that sometimes you
wonder that’s such a good idea this
trick many of trees for many different
purposes it was so nice to see more
that’s after one day everybody was so
comfortable with us because we made it
the nation for each village we went to
and we had two groups before over the
last four or five years and both of the
times the money went to the men so the
men got to decide with that money and
this time was a woman’s turn so the
woman were actually extremely friendly
to us which know me as a men is always
hard and ease in these cultures to to
make a connection with a woman and on
that day we’re expecting Romney he’s
basically together with Meg around the
most famous coyopa chief and this is
Romney after he showed up his older lady
came up to him and I started crying
hysterically I was not prepared for it
literally like signed to wail and as I
learned later it’s a traditional crying
ceremony so when you see each other
again after a couple years you start
crying hysterically then while you’re
crying you’re remembering the people
that you have lost that you both have
known it went on for literally like five
ten minutes and then somebody else comes
they cry again it was it was very moving
I was very moving and then everybody is
being greeted they line up and everybody
comes and says a little to this Chiefs
all the way on the right is mega Ron who
actually lives outside of Kyah Poland’s
he speaks very good Portuguese and he
was also instrumental in getting the
kaya polenta marketed it’s tradition
that when the new chief comes the whole
village gathers in the men’s house but a
lot of the men were out of town they
were the soccer tournament up the river
the carp are actually quite vain they
love looking at themselves they
videotape themselves they photograph
themselves they forgot their ceremonies
some of them have TVs they watch their
own ceremonies over and over again so
they love looking at pictures and then
we set up our studio and the
schoolhouse and start taking some
portraits I love the contours of the
glasses with a face pain and they have
two different kinds of paint the black
one which stains your skin and actually
takes about two weeks to come off and
then the red one is more oil-based and
it actually rubs off very easily their
sense of style I think is amazing this
red paint with a blue feathers it’s just
spectacular and then you have the
Brazilian flag on his arm you know it’s
and he’s wearing a pearl necklace this
is made out of river pearls here in the
background you see that rock on the
right side that you saw in the beginning
we climbed that rock and then you get up
on the rock and then one of the couple’s
house is self oh so you’re just like oh
my god this is a is this wild but they
don’t have any cell phone service so
they they’re where they are they they
don’t talk with them but I guess they
get them really cheap some outdated
model and they use them they have some
songs on them they have and it use them
as cameras they take a lot of pictures
of themselves and other people with the
phones they were pacified in the 60s and
then sat in the 70s I started have
contact with the outside world they
actually robbed me led a couple of raids
against rubber tappers missionaries
farmers anyone infringing on territory
that he thought was a couple lands and
in the process they actually killed a
lot of intruders because it was such a
headache for the Brazilian government
killing all these intruders that in the
80s with the help of sting and and other
James Cameron I think in other groups
they were given this big piece of land
as theirs while the neighbors have like
tiny little parcels they have this huge
territory and there’s only seven
thousand coyopa
so our next was our last village tour
jam this village is right on the edge of
their land and this bridge was built a
couple of years ago by the Brazilian
government they decided on settling
there that normally wasn’t coyopa
village by the kuiper wanted to be
closer to the outside
and started a new village and you know
because their resilience that can vote
in local elections every year or every
other year whenever there’s elections
coming up they make new demands so I
think one of the first demands was that
they build him a bridge so then
everybody those like 300 people voted
for this local official and they got
their bridge and because they have a
bridge and they’re so close to tokuma
the village will be started they even
have taxis coming to this village and a
couple years later another elections
come around and their demand electricity
they hooked up to the grid and this is
their men’s now so it’s even late at
night where I was pitch black in the
other villages but saying that they’re
supposed to the outside world the jungle
there’s actually looks more like what
you would expect the jungle with these
tall trees this old-growth tree I
actually like dead jungle better than
the one in Ken Gemma and mcdu teary
because I had this like grand feel to it
they know how to find some vines to to
get water when they’re thirsty so
they’re still very much in touch with
their culture and their traditions and
as long as you can walk you know you
doing some kind of work there’s no such
thing as retirement at a certain age and
there’s always somebody getting painted
matter where you go any time of the day
young and old a lot of the kids look
like they were suffering and some people
you can only paint when they’re sleeping
there was a lot more chubby people in
this village I think the the closest to
supermarket has its effect and some even
had a fridge there were some TVs and was
mind boggling was that some Ecuadorian
traders had come by and sold them DVDs
with people that address that like
cycling Sioux Indians playing flutes and
they were and they brought his DVDs and
they were running 24/7 they were looking
at people dressed like Sioux Indians
playing flutes and drums he’s still
practicing with his war-club the
traditional coyopa weapon is not a bone
error it’s a it’s a club and that’s what
rob me used on a lot of white guys too
but they picked at the bone era from
neighboring tribes and you see these
guys looking like this watching a soccer
game and then a couple of hours later
they look like this
getting ready for a naming ceremony if
you got very lucky in the last footage
that was actually a whole other village
visiting and because they in this new
village they wanted to show off what a
great party they can have how what a
great ceremony and they prepared for a
month for this naming ceremony that goes
on for days and invited a neighboring
village to come join them so there was a
lot of kind of a lot of people getting
dressed up I was very fortunate and then
all of a sudden they would dance and
then they would run off into the jungle
stay in the jungle for like half an hour
and this is a young boy that is about to
get a name a couple of days later in the
middle here and they danced and danced I
think it had to dance for 24 hours the
same dance I was going in a circle gets
darker and darker and then in the middle
of the night they’re still dancing and
they’re starting to take some breaks the
whole village sets up tents and sleeping
bags and they’re basically start camping
around this like circle alcohol is
strictly forbidden all the Kyoto Chiefs
have put
ban on alcohol so we didn’t see one
drunk kya poor lucky knee but they loved
their shoulder it felt like a tailgating
party at some point and the older people
start sleeping and some people totally
pass out and this little boy is getting
his name by his grandfather the man on
the right is his grandfather and then
everybody goes home so here comes a
little video so you see a little bit
about how these people move
yeah
you
they were only pacified in the late 60s
while other indigenous groups around
they were already pretty much vanished
that have managed to stand up to the
outside world they’re still very much in
touch with their culture and their
traditions they are not like other
indigenous cultures
when National Geographic calls with an
assignment to go down to Brazil to the
Amazon firstly very excited then there’s
a problem with Funai with the
authorization you don’t know if you
actually can go and then it goes back
and forth back and forth so ultimately
then you’re going all of a sudden then
this is all the equipment we took you
know my approach to photographing these
cultures is that I treat them the same
as if there were a famous person in
Hollywood I bring my lights I bring my
studio setup
I want to difference myself from from
just a pure journalistic photographer I
want to be a documentary photographer
but I want to also document their faces
or talk about their bodies against the
plain background so we have quite a lot
of equipment and then wrote over will be
going with a woman named dr. Barbara
Zimmerman she sent us this picture of
herself and we ended up in Maura bog
which is in the Amazon and we had to
drive for six hours to Tacoma and in
Tacoma is like the closest town in the
north of the coyopa lands and you know
on the way there you drive through
landscape that looks like this I thought
it looked beautiful you know it’s kind
of very pretty but basically it’s all
cut down rainforests so Barbara kept on
telling me no this is ugly this is
horrible this is what cut down
rainforest looks like this is the enemy
right here and this is where we went
you see Brazil and you see the green
area all that area that’s all indigenous
territory it’s a huge territory that
they have it’s about the quarter the
size of France or the same size as South
Korea is actually the largest piece of
protected rainforest in the world
protected as long as they protect it and
as soon as you leave to come out which
is right on the border of the land you
fly over the rainforest and our first
village was called Ken Djem and right
next to Ken Jim is this beautiful rock
that just comes out of the rainforest
and this is an aerial view of the
village I feel like it’s out of a movie
couldn’t be any prettier this setting
and the Kiowa Warrior
culture where young men at an early age
would learn how to fight and to kill and
they were only pacified in the late 60s
while other indigenous groups around
they were already pretty much vanished
the neighbor a lot of the neighboring
tribes but because I had the strong
warrior culture that even raided each
other’s each other villages there’s
stories where I met one chief pocket
Eyrie his village was raided when he was
about five six years old and was then
taken hostage by other Kayaba and grew
up with a different cup of family and
his mother was killed in front of his
eyes so they’re very fierce warrior
culture and I think that’s the main
reason why they’re still around today
then this is now the beginning of our
first real day the men said they’re
going hunting we asked if he couldn’t
come along and this is Uneeda probably
my favorite person I met in kya Poland’s
because he’s very traditional he’s very
tough very hard-working he’s constantly
doing something while we’re driving the
boat down to a spot he is shooting at
fish with bow and arrow then we pull up
at the stand back and he starts digging
and pulls out these like little grubs
for fishing it turns out they keep on
digging and digging take out a lot of
turtle eggs they took all of them out
and put in one back in this and their
culture to always leave one egg behind
so with that grub we’re talking about
five minutes to catch this fish the this
Prerana because they’re not good for
eating he would cut that fish up and
then use it as bait for other fish this
is o kette and there were the
traditional bead jewelry but here 2010 I
think it was the last World Cup
so that incorporate elements from
Brazilian culture into their jewelry and
he was all excited he heard a wild pig
and there he shot this and they just
used tree bark to tie the animal up I
realized he doesn’t have any red paint
on his legs but oftentimes they put a
lot of red paint on their legs before
they go into the jungle because that way
they kind of find their way home
easier you know the red pain stays
behind on leaves and grasses and well we
were maybe in the jungle who needed by
himself called all these fish in maybe
an hour and a half with that one pier on
‘edit II called earlier whenever you
come out of the jungle everybody goes
swimming and the mahogany boat paddle
turns into a plate for lunch so he then
cut up the pig in different pieces and
then trade it with or nita some part of
the pig for some fish they had so much
food so many fish so many fruits that it
felt like they can’t even eat it all
I’ve seen rotting bananas fish laying
around papayas it was so the food
they’re so plentiful I’ve never seen
anything like it
they still have bone arrows but ever
since they encountered the first white
people the first thing I got was
shotguns which are obviously a lot more
easy advant with and older people are
allowed to get money from the Brazilian
government the if you’re over a certain
age which is hard to prove because none
of them have a passport or any ID cards
but that’s a way to get a little bit of
money and you know that buy shotgun
shells with it who need the the hunter
who shot the pig his wife has a pet pig
at home so it was quite irony so when
they issued a mother that has a baby and
the baby doesn’t die then they take the
baby home and raise the baby pigs as
pets and while we’re gone the woman were
sitting right next to the men’s house
hanging out and practicing dance the
great chief rodney has has agreed to
meet us in Ken Jem in this village
he’s from McDuck theory but he said he
would come up to meet us together with
mega Ron old friends of barbara’s and so
these women
turns out they were practicing a dance
for for his arrival and this little baby
already has this huge ear lobe they
start them out right after they’re born
and there was day one pretty much
which was a long day this was our dinner
I skipped the eye and the woman said
they would take us out into the jungle
they all were these dresses now for the
last maybe 40 years they all have them
custom-made they have their own little
style that they like and they trade
beads their trade of fruit and other
things to get these dresses this is my
other favorite subject you can see why
and you can see some of them still have
the traditional wooden boat and then
they have these metal boats that they
got from the Brazilian government at
some point so it’s a mixture of cultures
coming together in these villages
plastic and metal and the women are just
as hard working as a man everybody has
their job they always take one or two
men with them when they go into the
jungle so somebody has a shotgun in case
an animal comes a Jaguar but for the
most part is like 20 women maybe one or
two guys and one of the boats the engine
broke down so we had to wait for them at
the river and it doesn’t take long and
they just settle in it’s basically there
anywhere in the jungle that just as at
home as at home you know they start
smoking or they start cutting the hair
the babies always come with the mothers
no matter where they go all the time and
this young girl climbing a tree with a
big machete in her hand I thought it was
a very good idea to send like a six
seven year old up in a tree with a
machete and what she does is she cut up
cuts out si E which is a berry that was
very popular here after pomegranate I
think before coconut water
and as supposedly very high antioxidants
and they they have a growing their wild
so they harvest a lot of it they feed a
lot of bark of trees that sometimes you
wonder that’s such a good idea this
trick many of trees for many different
purposes it was so nice to see more
that’s after one day everybody was so
comfortable with us because we made it
the nation for each village we went to
and we had two groups before over the
last four or five years and both of the
times the money went to the men so the
men got to decide with that money and
this time was a woman’s turn so the
woman were actually extremely friendly
to us which know me as a men is always
hard and ease in these cultures to to
make a connection with a woman and on
that day we’re expecting Romney he’s
basically together with Meg around the
most famous coyopa chief and this is
Romney after he showed up his older lady
came up to him and I started crying
hysterically I was not prepared for it
literally like signed to wail and as I
learned later it’s a traditional crying
ceremony so when you see each other
again after a couple years you start
crying hysterically then while you’re
crying you’re remembering the people
that you have lost that you both have
known it went on for literally like five
ten minutes and then somebody else comes
they cry again it was it was very moving
I was very moving and then everybody is
being greeted they line up and everybody
comes and says a little to this Chiefs
all the way on the right is mega Ron who
actually lives outside of Kyah Poland’s
he speaks very good Portuguese and he
was also instrumental in getting the
kaya polenta marketed it’s tradition
that when the new chief comes the whole
village gathers in the men’s house but a
lot of the men were out of town they
were the soccer tournament up the river
the carp are actually quite vain they
love looking at themselves they
videotape themselves they photograph
themselves they forgot their ceremonies
some of them have TVs they watch their
own ceremonies over and over again so
they love looking at pictures and then
we set up our studio and the
schoolhouse and start taking some
portraits I love the contours of the
glasses with a face pain and they have
two different kinds of paint the black
one which stains your skin and actually
takes about two weeks to come off and
then the red one is more oil-based and
it actually rubs off very easily their
sense of style I think is amazing this
red paint with a blue feathers it’s just
spectacular and then you have the
Brazilian flag on his arm you know it’s
and he’s wearing a pearl necklace this
is made out of river pearls here in the
background you see that rock on the
right side that you saw in the beginning
we climbed that rock and then you get up
on the rock and then one of the couple’s
house is self oh so you’re just like oh
my god this is a is this wild but they
don’t have any cell phone service so
they they’re where they are they they
don’t talk with them but I guess they
get them really cheap some outdated
model and they use them they have some
songs on them they have and it use them
as cameras they take a lot of pictures
of themselves and other people with the
phones they were pacified in the 60s and
then sat in the 70s I started have
contact with the outside world they
actually robbed me led a couple of raids
against rubber tappers missionaries
farmers anyone infringing on territory
that he thought was a couple lands and
in the process they actually killed a
lot of intruders because it was such a
headache for the Brazilian government
killing all these intruders that in the
80s with the help of sting and and other
James Cameron I think in other groups
they were given this big piece of land
as theirs while the neighbors have like
tiny little parcels they have this huge
territory and there’s only seven
thousand coyopa
so our next was our last village tour
jam this village is right on the edge of
their land and this bridge was built a
couple of years ago by the Brazilian
government they decided on settling
there that normally wasn’t coyopa
village by the kuiper wanted to be
closer to the outside
and started a new village and you know
because their resilience that can vote
in local elections every year or every
other year whenever there’s elections
coming up they make new demands so I
think one of the first demands was that
they build him a bridge so then
everybody those like 300 people voted
for this local official and they got
their bridge and because they have a
bridge and they’re so close to tokuma
the village will be started they even
have taxis coming to this village and a
couple years later another elections
come around and their demand electricity
they hooked up to the grid and this is
their men’s now so it’s even late at
night where I was pitch black in the
other villages but saying that they’re
supposed to the outside world the jungle
there’s actually looks more like what
you would expect the jungle with these
tall trees this old-growth tree I
actually like dead jungle better than
the one in Ken Gemma and mcdu teary
because I had this like grand feel to it
they know how to find some vines to to
get water when they’re thirsty so
they’re still very much in touch with
their culture and their traditions and
as long as you can walk you know you
doing some kind of work there’s no such
thing as retirement at a certain age and
there’s always somebody getting painted
matter where you go any time of the day
young and old a lot of the kids look
like they were suffering and some people
you can only paint when they’re sleeping
there was a lot more chubby people in
this village I think the the closest to
supermarket has its effect and some even
had a fridge there were some TVs and was
mind boggling was that some Ecuadorian
traders had come by and sold them DVDs
with people that address that like
cycling Sioux Indians playing flutes and
they were and they brought his DVDs and
they were running 24/7 they were looking
at people dressed like Sioux Indians
playing flutes and drums he’s still
practicing with his war-club the
traditional coyopa weapon is not a bone
error it’s a it’s a club and that’s what
rob me used on a lot of white guys too
but they picked at the bone era from
neighboring tribes and you see these
guys looking like this watching a soccer
game and then a couple of hours later
they look like this
getting ready for a naming ceremony if
you got very lucky in the last footage
that was actually a whole other village
visiting and because they in this new
village they wanted to show off what a
great party they can have how what a
great ceremony and they prepared for a
month for this naming ceremony that goes
on for days and invited a neighboring
village to come join them so there was a
lot of kind of a lot of people getting
dressed up I was very fortunate and then
all of a sudden they would dance and
then they would run off into the jungle
stay in the jungle for like half an hour
and this is a young boy that is about to
get a name a couple of days later in the
middle here and they danced and danced I
think it had to dance for 24 hours the
same dance I was going in a circle gets
darker and darker and then in the middle
of the night they’re still dancing and
they’re starting to take some breaks the
whole village sets up tents and sleeping
bags and they’re basically start camping
around this like circle alcohol is
strictly forbidden all the Kyoto Chiefs
have put
ban on alcohol so we didn’t see one
drunk kya poor lucky knee but they loved
their shoulder it felt like a tailgating
party at some point and the older people
start sleeping and some people totally
pass out and this little boy is getting
his name by his grandfather the man on
the right is his grandfather and then
everybody goes home so here comes a
little video so you see a little bit
about how these people move
yeah
you
Please follow and like us: