The Awá or Guajá are a group of hunter-gatherers in transition that inhabit the Amazon forest of the state of Maranhão. They hunt neotropical mammals with bows and arrows and, increasingly, with shotguns. After a traumatic contact with Brazilian society from 1973 onwards, they have been compelled to live in sedentary villages inside reservations.

My interests include domestic space, material culture in general, resistance and the relations of the Awá with modernity and the state. As many other indigenous groups in Brazil, the Awá have suffered from the invasion of their land by neo-Brazilian settlers, mining, the construction of a railway and deforestation. Their lands have been recently demarcated by the FUNAI, but to no avail. In August 2006, we had the occassion to document the invasion of Awá lands by illegal loggers. Read about it here

This is a project coordinated by Almudena Hernando (Universidad Complutense de Madrid). Other team members include Gustavo Politis (CONICET, UNCPBA) and Elizabeth Bezerra Coelho (Universidade de São Luis de Maranhão).

6,000 tons of bauxite cross the Awá forests every two hours.