Jeffrey K Gibbs
Meganogan Surui — Paiter Indigenous elder
The Paiter indigenous people live in the Brazilian state of Rondônia, located in the southern Amazon. I’ve known of Rondônia for a long time because it’s infamous for its deforestation. In the late 1960s, the then military dictatorship in Brazil pushed a road several hundred kilometers through the pristine forest of Rondônia and encouraged peasants from southern Brazil to go there to obtain free land. The military dictatorship’s goal was not to help the peasants but rather to use them as the blunt tool to open up the Amazon to development — an objective that to this day is of strategic importance to the generals. The military dictatorship’s publicity campaign for Rondônia in those days was “a land without people for people without land”.
Of course indigenous people, including the Paiter, already occupied the land. But the military did not trust their allegiance to Brazil because they did not speak Portuguese, so they were not granted any rights or respect. The first contact the Paiter had with modern Brazilian society did not happen until 1969 when the road was upon them. It was a cataclysmic event. Thousands of migrants arrived and started to deforest the land to grow cattle. Introduced diseases and violence killed most Paiter within a few years. From many thousands, only 250 survived. This is my portrait Maganogan Surui of the Paiter Indigenous group in Brazil. She is 76 years old, which means that the first 23 years of her life were before the Paiter’s contact with Brazilian society. She is one of the 250 who survived the catastrophe of 1969. Her life before contact is a state of existence that is really impossible for me to fathom. All her cultural reference points would have been completely different to mine — her worldview, spirituality, diet, lifestyle, cultural norms, aspirations, etc. #indigenous #amazonrainforest #amazonrainforestemergency #facetattoo #blackandawhitephotography #monochromeportrait #savetheamazon #indigenouspeople #portraitphotography
Meganogan Surui — Paiter Indigenous elder
The Paiter indigenous people live in the Brazilian state of Rondônia, located in the southern Amazon. I’ve known of Rondônia for a long time because it’s infamous for its deforestation. In the late 1960s, the then military dictatorship in Brazil pushed a road several hundred kilometers through the pristine forest of Rondônia and encouraged peasants from southern Brazil to go there to obtain free land. The military dictatorship’s goal was not to help the peasants but rather to use them as the blunt tool to open up the Amazon to development — an objective that to this day is of strategic importance to the generals. The military dictatorship’s publicity campaign for Rondônia in those days was “a land without people for people without land”.
Of course indigenous people, including the Paiter, already occupied the land. But the military did not trust their allegiance to Brazil because they did not speak Portuguese, so they were not granted any rights or respect. The first contact the Paiter had with modern Brazilian society did not happen until 1969 when the road was upon them. It was a cataclysmic event. Thousands of migrants arrived and started to deforest the land to grow cattle. Introduced diseases and violence killed most Paiter within a few years. From many thousands, only 250 survived. This is my portrait Maganogan Surui of the Paiter Indigenous group in Brazil. She is 76 years old, which means that the first 23 years of her life were before the Paiter’s contact with Brazilian society. She is one of the 250 who survived the catastrophe of 1969. Her life before contact is a state of existence that is really impossible for me to fathom. All her cultural reference points would have been completely different to mine — her worldview, spirituality, diet, lifestyle, cultural norms, aspirations, etc. #indigenous #amazonrainforest #amazonrainforestemergency #facetattoo #blackandawhitephotography #monochromeportrait #savetheamazon #indigenouspeople #portraitphotography