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I’ve seen first-hand the tenuous relationship among Indigenous groups vying for resources. They include the Huni Kuin, who have been living in settled villages for decades; the isolated Mascho Piro; and others such as Shuri and his family, who are in the early stages of contact with the modern world.
I’ve also had the privilege of visiting Shuri and his family from time to time and witnessing their remarkable—yet extremely difficult—transition from isolated hunters and gatherers to a settled life on the fringes of modern society.
I first met Shuri and his family not long after 2003, when they were lured out of the forest by evangelical missionaries from the United States. He was wearing nothing but a bark belt around his waist, beads on his upper arms and below his knees, and a round metal emblem crafted from a spoon hanging from his nose. He carried only a bow and two six-foot arrows, which seemed to tower above his barely five-foot frame.
The younger of Shuri’s two wives, Janet, followed behind. A massive tortoise and an even heavier basket of cassava root were slung on her back and supported by a vine wrapped around her forehead. I learned later that Shuri had to have his arms unencumbered to fire an arrow at any moment—thus Janet did the hard work of carrying their essentials.
‘They perfectly represented the complexities of contact’
Shuri lived between two distinct worlds. He traded tortoises, peccaries, and other jungle meat with the neighboring Huni Kuin in exchange for coveted items such as clothing and machetes. He also walked for days into the interior to visit with the remaining members of his Mastanahua tribe still living in isolation, numbering perhaps a few dozen. He was their connection to modern society.
In 2017, National Geographic photographer Charlie Hamilton James joined me on the Curanja to photograph Shuri for the magazine’s October 2018 cover story on threats to isolated tribes in the Amazon and the process of contact. Charlie has extensive experience working in Peru and a unique perspective on the challenges for Indigenous people of leaving their isolation deep in the forest. (Watch Charlie Hamilton James discuss the challenges and responsibilities of photographing isolated tribes)
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