New photos emerge of uncontacted tribe in the Amazon

A rare view of the home of uncontacted Yanomami in the Brazilian Amazon. Photo / Guilherme Gnipper Trevisan/Hutukara

Remarkable new images have emerged of an uncontacted tribal community in the Brazilian Amazon which environmentalists fear could be destroyed by outside influences.

The tiny community of 100, part of the Yanomami tribe, is believed to have no contact with the outside world, but is under threat from encroaching violence and disease, and by gold-miners who have taken over the land.

These photos show a typical Yanomami yano, a large communal house for several families. Photo / Guilherme Gnipper Trevisan/Hutukara

Miners have brought diseases such as malaria and polluted Yanomami food and water sources with mercury, according to international NGO Survival.

The group lives in the Yanomami Indigenous territory, which spans an area twice the size of Switzerland in the rainforests and mountains of northern Brazil and southern Venezuela. It is the largest forested indigenous territory in the world.

There are around 35,000 members of the Yanomami tribe, which first came into contact with the outside world in the 1940s when the Brazilian government sent teams to delineate the border with Venezuela.

Members of the tribe live in circular communal huts, where up to 400 people eat, sleep and cook.

There are around 35,000 members of the Yanomami tribe. Photo / Guilherme Gnipper Trevisan/Hutukara

Yanomami shaman and activist Davi Kopenawa Yanomami said: "The place where the uncontacted Indians live, fish, hunt and plant must be protected.

Uncontacted Yanomami have been known to flee from outsiders. Photo / Guilherme Gnipper Trevisan/Hutukara

"The whole world must know that they are there in their forest and that the authorities must respect their right to live there."

The miners "are like termites - they keep coming back and they don't leave us in peace," he said.