What we choose to gather from the land around us helps define our value systems.
Some cultures treasure gold above all else, some treasure the less permanent riches of the forest. In the state of Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon, these two value systems exist in ever closer proximity.
In 1979, a gold nugget rumored to weigh 140 pounds was found on the site now called Serra Pelada. By 1983, 100,000 garimpeiros (miners) had rushed to the area. By hand, they excavated a pit one mile wide and 2,000 feet deep. When the vein was exhausted, they spread their search for gold into neighboring areas where some of the last remaining indigenous tribes still lived on pristine reserves of Amazon forest.
The photos of Serra Pelada were taken in 1989. The photos of the Assurini, Arawete and Kayapo Indians were taken between 1992 and 1998. More information about the tribes can be found on www.amazoncoop.org. The Amazon Co-operative is an organzation helping the tribes of the region fight the effects of recent mining and logging invasions which put their fragile cultures at risk from mercury poisoning, malaria and other epidemics.
