DESCRIPTION:
"Agosta's Anthem" from the double CD production "Out of the Blue & Into the Amazon"by 'cellist & composer Emily Burridge. https://open.spotify.com/album/4K1gigDGlx0Uk16GUi9jWF

All images of Xavante by Emily and recordings of Xavante by kind permission of Chief Francisco Pronhõpa © Emily Burridge
Amazon photos by Sue Cunningham.
Translation of the traditional Xavante song sung here by Agosta Pronhpa ; The Indians went to the top of the hill and they saw the white man cutting down the trees and they said ‘don’t do that, don’t do that , great sadness will come , great sadness will come.
The Indians went to the top of the hill and they saw the white man damming the rivers and they said ‘don’t do that, don’t do that , great sadness will come , great sadness will come’

This stills video features photographs taken by Emily when she was living and working with the Xavante Indians of Marimbu village, Mato Grosso, Brazil. It gives an insight into daily life in the village and the fragility of their existence due to the deforestation of the region for cattle and soya.
In the 60's the exploitation of the Mato Grosso of Brazil began in earnest and today there are still elders who can relate horrific tales of ethnic cleansing and small pox contaminated blankets air dropped causing the death of thousands.

The xavante are a very proud race of people's The Xavante leader Mário Juruna was the first indigenous Brazilian to become a federal representative.

The Xavante, like other indigenous tribes, were treated badly by the white men beginning in the 1960s, the Xavante were moved from their homeland in Mato Grosso to a southern, malnourished area of Brazil. There, thousands of natives died due to disease, famine and warfare. Within the last decade, the Xavante have been relocated back to their original lands. Unfortunately, due to landgrabbing and squatters, the land was destroyed. Lush forest was burned to create sparse wasteland and pasture.

In 1995 Emily Burridge founded the charity “to aid in the promotion and conservation of Indigenous people’s culture and traditional knowledge” She founded the charity as a direct result of her first visit to a Xavante community in 1994.
The Patron of the charity is ; Sir Professor Ghillean Prance (the then Director of Kew gardens, London) ref: https://www.emilyburridge.com/tribal-voices/indigenous-peoples-cultural-support-trust/