Documentary: Hi-Merimã - Traces of an Isolated People (Portuguese)

This story excerpt was translated from Portuguese. To read the original story in full, visit TV Cultura. You may also view the original story on the Rainforest Journalism Fund website here. Our website is available in English, Spanish, bahasa Indonesia, French, and Portuguese.

TV Cultura is showing an original, never-before-seen documentary about the Hi-Merimã, Indigenous peoples who today live in isolation, but who in the past had contact with the white man. "Hi-Merimã - Vestiges of an Isolated People" was produced by award-winning journalist Lais Duarte.

In the documentary, Daniel Cangussu, a Master in Management of Protected Areas in the Amazon, gives an account of the work of monitoring the Hi-Merimã people. At Funai, he coordinated activities to protect the territories of isolated Indigenous peoples in the states of Amazonas, Rondônia, Tocantins, and Maranhão. His main areas of interest and research are indigenism, botany, and historical ecology.

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Cangussu is the author of the Manual Indigenista Mateiro, his master's thesis. It contains principles of botany and archeology applied to the protection of the isolated Indigenous peoples of the Amazon. He is concerned about the current situation of FUNAI and advocates a more rigid protection policy in indigenous territories.

Watch the full documentary below: