Brazil judge provides a lifeline for threatened Indigenous tribe

Advocates say ruling to demarcate Indigenous reserve would help protect last two male Piripkura tribe members.

Sao Paulo, Brazil – The Indigenous men emerge naked from the dense Amazonian forest. Pakui and his nephew Tamandua are the last two surviving male members of the Piripkura tribe who live on a reserve in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state. They accompany a team of highly specialised agents to a government base, where they receive a medical check-up. After, they say goodbye in their Tupi-Kawahib language and walk back into the forest. The extraordinary scenes were captured in the award-winning 2017 documentary Piripkura that follows Jair Candor, one of Brazil’s most respected authorities on isolated Indigenous tribes, on an expedition to prove Pakui and Tamandua are alive.