Bruno Araujo Pereira, in a restaurant in Benjamin Constant (Amazonas state), Brazil, June 8, 2014. AP
He was considered one of the greatest scholars of the indigenous peoples of his generation. Bruno Araujo Pereira died on Sunday 5 June, aged 41, in an assassination attempt that also killed British journalist Dom Phillips. The murder, which took place under circumstances that are still unclear, is said to have taken place near the Itaguai River on the edge of the indigenous land of Vale do Javari, deep in the Brazilian Amazon. An event that has aroused the fear of environmentalists in Brazil, as in the rest of the world.
The latter was a familiar face in the great rainforest. The man initially impressed with his stature: stocky with a full beard, strict glasses and natural authority, he embodied the adventurer and leader of an Amazon expedition. But “Bruno” was above all a renowned anthropologist, a specialist in tribal peoples, particularly the “isolated” and “uncontacted”, without no connection to the outside world.
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For years, the “natives” knew that he was threatened with death. The author of these lines had the opportunity to meet him in Manaus at the end of August 2021, back from a report in the Vale do Javari. On the terrace of a bar located in the square of the city’s mythical theater, “Bruno” had then agreed to discuss his unique experience of the Amazon Territory until late at night. At the same time rambling and precise, cordial and pedagogical, the man at sometimes sad and often sly in his eyes, he was concerned for his own safety, but also for the fate of these indigenous peoples he had sworn to protect. We sensed a mixture of anger, urgency and frustration in him at the time.
Methodical and daredevil
Pereira was born in the northeastern state of Paraiba in 1981 and grew up in Recife. Pereira is an intelligent and versatile young man who studied journalism, was interested in cinema before working in public administration. But his obsession remains the Amazon. In 2010, after working north of Manaus for a few years, he managed to become a member of the National Indian Foundation (Funai), an organization that cares for the Brazilian indigenous people. Passionate about “isolated” and “uncontacted” tribes, he embarked on the tribal land of Vale do Javari in the northwest of the country, home to the largest concentration of them in the world. Covered by an impenetrable canopy that can only be reached by boat or helicopter, the place fascinates the young anthropologist who manages to get the post of regional coordinator of the Funai in the municipality of Atalaia do Norte.
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