Repost This ArticleFor centuries the Achuar people have lived in harmony with the Amazon rainforest. But now, the unrelenting drive for oil has reached the deepest regions of their territory. Canadian oil company Talisman Energy has already cleared hundred of kilometers of seismic lines in the northern Peruvian Amazon — and is now beginning to drill exploratory wells.
This is a photo essay from a recent trip into the territory of a fierce, beautiful people defending their lands against the threat of oil development.
To find out more about the Achuar and their struggle please visit the Amazon Watch website, and keep updated about new events and how you can help on Facebook, Twitter, and by signing up to Amazon Watch’s email list.
All photos © Mitch Anderson.
Interview
13.An Achuar war dance ceremony: The Achuar inaugurate the meeting with a traditional war dance and "interview", where the visitors speak with the hosts in a ritualized, rythmic speech justifying their reasons for coming.
Mitch Anderson
Mitch has been working in the fields of journalism and human rights since graduating from UC Berkeley in 2003. Currently he is working as the Corporate Campaigns Director at the environmental and indigenous rights organization Amazon Watch. He likes fiction, old newspapers and strangers. He lives in the Mission district of San Francisco.
Excellent presentation. Keep up the great work.
Ditto on the amazing photos – we need people like you to bring awareness about what oil companies are doing all over the world, not just the big oil spills that we hear about on the news.
Oil companies are going to realize how important is the enviroment , until a cataclism. Fuck them. Stop buying oil.
Really great photos! It is so important to bring the visual to the reality – thank you for sharing!
Incredible photography and content! All the best
[...] I like hearing Mitch talking about attending oil companies’ shareholder meetings, where he tries to reason with people who have an obvious stake in perpetuating our global oil addiction. I like how he disappears from the radar–literally–for a few months, and then returns for a minute, banging out emails that end with “I’m headed out now to document some oil pits but will be back online later this evening.” And I’m proud to publish his first-person reports on all of this important work, especially this photo essay. [...]