He is considered one of the greatest scholars of the indigenous peoples of his generation. Bruno Araujo Pereira died on Sunday, June 5 at the age of 41, the victim of an assassination that also took away British journalist Dom Phillips ( Dom Phillips’ life. The murder, which is said to have occurred under still unclear circumstances, took place near the Itaguaí River, on the edge of Vale do Javari, an indigenous land deep in the Brazilian Amazon. The incident has raised fears among environmental defenders in Brazil as elsewhere in the world.
The latter is a familiar face in the Great Rainforest. The man’s first impression of him is his stature: with a strong beard, serious glasses and natural authority, he embodies the adventurer and leader of the Amazon expedition.But “Bruno” was first and foremost a renowned anthropologist, an expert on indigenous peoples, especially “isolated” and “uncontacted”, no There is no contact with the outside world.
For years, the “natives” knew he had been threatened with death. The author of these lines had the opportunity to meet him in Manaus in late August 2021, when he returned from a report in Vale do Javari. Sit on the terrace of the bar located where the Urban Myth Theater is located, “Bruno” then agreed to talk late into the night about his unique experience with the Amazon terrain.The man is verbose and precise, enthusiastic and educational, in Sometimes sad, sometimes cunning, worried both for his own safety and for the fate of the aborigines he swore to protect. We felt a mix of anger, urgency and frustration in him at the time.
methodical and energetic
Born in the northeastern state of Paraíba in 1981 and raised in Recife, Pereira is a bright and versatile young man who studied journalism and became interested in film before working in public administration. But his obsession remains Amazon. After several years north of Manaus, he successfully joined the National Indian Foundation (Funai) in 2010, an organization that oversees indigenous peoples in Brazil. Passionate about “isolated” and “untouched” peoples, he took to the path of Vale do Javari, an indigenous land in the northwest of the country, where they have the highest concentration in the world. Covered by an impenetrable canopy of trees and accessible only by boat or helicopter, the place fascinated the young anthropologist, who managed to secure a position as regional coordinator for Funai in the city of North Atalaya.
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