Let them live in peace, says survivor of uncontacted tribes

Atxu Marima survived the flu that killed his family after a jaguar attack drove them from their indigenous group in the Amazon - but he cannot return for fear of endangering his people.

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Instead he has dedicated himself to campaigning for Brazil's isolated communities to be left alone.

"I am here to tell the story of my people," Marima said during a trip to Paris to raise awareness.

Marima is only around 40 but has already had many lives. Born Atxu among the Hi-Merima people, a nomadic group in the south of Amazonas state, he became Romerito (Little Romero) as a child labourer after fleeing the forest.

But now, to his wife and three children, he is Artur.

Until about the age of seven or eight, he lived between the Purus and Jurua rivers with his father, mother and siblings as part of one of Brazil’s officially recognised “uncontacted” indigenous communities.