Brazil indigenous influencers take their fight online

Awia, of the Satere Mawe Amazonian tribe, checks her social media posts on her mobile phone at the Terra Livre Indigenous Camp in Brasilia on April 7, 2022. Young Brazilian indigenous people are betting more and more on social networks, turning them into a modern tool to defend their ancestral traditions and amplify the fight for the rights of native peoples, at a time when hundreds of indigenous peoples fear for a advance on their lands. — AFP

BRASILIA: Clutching an iPhone in each hand, and sporting a feather headdress and traditional indigenous garb, Brazilian influencer Samela Awia, a member of the Amazon rainforest's Satere-Mawe people, checks out her latest video, then posts it online.

"Good stuff," says the 25-year-old after uploading the video, a recap of news from a tent city near the seat of government in Brasilia, where she and thousands of other indigenous Brazilians have been camped out since last week protesting far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's policies.