Awá

The Awá, called Guajá in Brazilian records, are a small Tupi-Guarani-speaking people of the eastern Amazon forests of Maranhão, one of the last peoples in Brazil whose way of life was, until recently, fully nomadic hunting and gathering. Contacted families now live in a handful of villages inside the Alto Turiaçu, Caru, and Awá Indigenous Lands, while a number of relatives remain in voluntary isolation in the same broad region, including within the Araribóia territory.

Hunting remains the heart of Awá identity; men describe themselves simply as hunters, and the diet is built on game, fish, honey, babassu nuts, and forest fruits, with agriculture adopted only after settlement. The Awá language is spoken fluently in every community. Social life is organized in small, flexible family groups, a legacy of generations of mobility.

The Awá became internationally known through campaigns describing them as among the most threatened peoples on Earth. Their forests sit in one of the most heavily deforested corners of Amazonia, and illegal logging, settlement, and a railway corridor have brought sustained pressure and episodes of violence. Protection of the isolated groups depends on government monitoring and on the vigilance of neighboring Indigenous peoples.