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 "Tribal peoples need to be respected as contemporary
societies and their human rights protected," says Rylance in the
film, which was launched by Survival International on Wednesday,
urging people to join the campaign to protect tribal peoples.
"Together we can prevent the annihilation of tribal peoples,"
says Rylance, who has been an ambassador for the London-based
human rights group since 2010.
The star of the BBC series "Wolf Hall" and Steven Spielberg's
latest film, "The BFG", Rylance last year narrated the film,
"Last of the Kawahiva", which highlighted the plight of the
Kawahiva tribe, a tiny group of Indians who still live without
external contact in the Brazilian Amazon.
That film was part of a campaign led by Rylance which resulted
in 14,000 emails sent to Brazil's government, which responded
with a pledge to map and protect the tribe's land.
On April 19, Justice Minister Eugenio Aragao signed the decree
creating the protected territory in a move seen as a significant
gain for indigenous Amazon tribes.
However, with President Dilma Rousseff facing impeachment and
Brazil gripped by recession, Survival International now fears
that powerful business interests could access the tribe's land
and resources unless the decree is implemented soon.
The debate about how best to protect uncontacted tribes has
polarised experts. Last week, the Brazilian government
criticized a suggestion by two U.S. anthropologists in Science
magazine that forcing contact with South America's isolated
tribes was the only way to ensure their survival.
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In a letter signed by 18 experts, Brazil's Department of Indigenous
Affairs (FUNAI) rejected comments by Robert Walker and Kim Hill that
staying hidden was "not viable in the long term" for the estimated
50 to 100 uncontacted tribes in Brazil.
Survival International campaigners say all uncontacted tribal people
face catastrophe unless their land is protected.
"Whole populations are being wiped out by violence from outsiders
who steal their land and resources, and by diseases like flu and
measles to which they have no resistance," the group said in a
statement on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Paola Totaro, Editing by Jo Griffin; Please credit the
Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters,
that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property
rights and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
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