For young Bitate Uru Eu Wau Wau, the distant chattering of a buzzsaw sends an ominous signal.
Its the sound of his peoples land in the Brazilian rainforest being chewed up by illegal invaders.
Among their only means of defense is media attention to their plight.
Bitaté Uru Eu Wau WauAlex Pritz/National Geographic/Everett Collection
Without it, their territory will continue to disappear.
Bitate spoke with us through an interpreter from an Uru village in Brazils state of Rondonia.
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BITATE URU WAU WAU: I feel honored.
Farmer-squatters burn off the Amazon rainforest during the summer of 2019.Alex Pritz/National Geographic/Everett Collection
It brings to the forefront the fight of my people.
It displays for the world the situation we live in.
People are talking about it.
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So, I feel very good about that.
DEADLINE: When the filmmakers first approached you about making a documentary, what were your thoughts?
Throughout the colonization decades, we learned to be greatly concerned about this.
And we wanted to know, what do they want from us?
And then we decided, lets see what happens as we move forward with this.
We feel very sad.
Theyre going to burn it.
Theyre going to take the timber out of it.
And that makes us very sad as Indigenous peoples.
We have fought so much to protect our territory, to keep it in good shape.
So, its sad to see our home place deforested the way it is.
Why was that important to you?
These are issues we live with every day, and these are the things that happen.
And we want it to be told that way.
What was that like?
And then, we got more and more feedback from them and we began to improve our abilities.
And we understood this is on behalf of all Indigenous communities, all the Indigenous peoples.
So, it was important for us to tackle the challenge of learning the technology.
Technology, as I always say, is our weapon in todays world.
BITATE: I think I learned a lot.
I was a photographer already.
I have seen a great increase in my confidence in doing this kind of work.
And I have so much confidence that Im able to teach others to do it.
Were doing some good filming with drones, so my confidence is growing.
I feel strengthened in that.
BITATE: Moving forward, I believe we now can tell our own story without needing other people.
We have the equipment to do it.
We have enough people to tell the story.
At the beginning, we didnt know that for sure.
We didnt think that we would fit the bill.
We thought that we would have a little part and give a few tips about this and that.
But today, I say, no, our people can do this work without needing outsiders.
And Im very happy knowing well be able to create the next storytelling about our people and history.
I envision things that I can do with my people.
We now know what it means to have a central role in a production.
I think we can do this on our own now.
DEADLINE: How optimistic or pessimistic do you feel about the future of the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau?
BITATE: A bit of both optimistic and pessimistic.
Especially with these invasions, we have mixed feelings.
But I think that maybe over the past four years, Ive become more optimistic.
With the next four years, we have this new government [under Brazilian President Lula da Silva].
I will continue to be optimistic for now.
But I will always be a bit ambivalent on that, feeling pessimistic and optimistic at different times.
We live on a reservation, and we have these invasions.
So, we have to balance both of those feelings.
DEADLINE: I understand the Uru are building an audio-visual center to promote the study of filmmaking.
We feel a lot of gratitude for all thats being done.
There are very few people who get the visibility thatThe Territoryis bringing to us.
DEADLINE: What can people do to support you and the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau?
We are also calling on the government of Brazil to protect all of our regions and our communities.
We need help not only here in my community, but throughout all of our Indigenous territories.
