The Surui Tribe of the Amazon

Chief Almir of the Surui tribe of the Brazilian Amazon is using Google to help his tribe maintain its traditional way of life. In 1969, the Surui experienced their first contact with outsiders, who brought with them disease, violence, and death. Then, loggers arrived and laid waste to the Surui's homeland. Chief Almir assumed a leadership role in his tribe at age 17, and he became the tribe's first member to attend college. In 2006, he fled briefly to the United States when loggers put a bounty on his head. The following year he stumbled upon Google Earth in an Internet café. During this time Chief Almir came to believe that his tribe's survival depended on outreach. To realize this goal, he partnered with Google to create an online "cultural map" of the Surui with stories provided by the tribe's elders, which are uploaded onto YouTube, as well as a geographical map of their territory created with GPS-equipped smartphones provided by Google. In 2009, Google employees taught the Surui to use cell phones to record illegal logging on their land. Tribal members can now take photos and videos that are geo-tagged and then immediately upload the images to Google Earth. Law enforcement officials can no longer claim ignorance of the problem when evidence of the deforestation is publicly available online. Satellite pictures indicate that the Surui territory is the only remaining intact piece of rainforest in the area.

This fact confirms that the Surui use of technology has been highly effective. Chief Almir views his partnership with Google not only as a way to sustain his traditions and his land, but also as an opportunity to teach other peoples about the Surui. Furthermore, the tribe has mounted an ambitious reforestation plan to combat the aggressive logging that is destroying the Surui's 600,000 acres of land. The tribe now uses smartphones to document cleared areas in the forest and to create planting strategies. The Surui intend to plant 100 million saplings in the next decade. They hope to raise millions of dollars through a United Nations program that awards carbon credits, which recipients can trade for cash, to countries and tribes that maintain their forests. The money would fund new homes, a hospital, and a school. The Surui have created a word for Google in their language: ragogmakann, meaning "the messenger." In the summer of 2012, Google unveiled a cultural map of the Surui. This map serves as a digital tool to help the tribe share their vast knowledge of the rainforest while fighting illegal logging. The map, which is the result of a five-year partnership between Chief Almir and Google, is a collection of picture and videos mapping historical sites and offering three-dimensional visualization of Surui territory. The map is available on the Web site www.paiter .org, as well as on Google Earth.

A Google spokesperson stated that the company hoped that the methodology used to develop the Surui cultural map would be employed to help other indigenous peoples around the world. By late 2012, similar projects were planned for two tribes who areneighbors of the Surui. The Surui themselves are the trainers for the new cultural maps. In addition, Google has been contacted by tribes from all over the world, including the aboriginal First Nations in Canada, the Maoris in New Zealand, and many other Amazon tribes. Sources: Compiled from J. Forero, "From the Stone Age to the Digital Age in One Big Leap," NPR.org, March 28, 2013; "How Mapping Technology Is Helping Chief Almir and the Surui Tribe Protect Their Culture and Environment," Google Nonprofi ts Blog, January 23, 2013; "It's Amazon View! Google Shows Off New Map of Brazilian Rainforests (Put Together by an Indigenous Tribe)," The Daily Mail, June 17, 2012; "The Most Creative People in Business 2011," Fast Company, June, 2011; S. Zwick, "Brazil's Surui Establish First Indigenous Carbon Fund," Ecosystem Marketplace, December 3, 2010; R. Butler, "Brazilian Tribe Owns Carbon Rights to Amazon Rainforest Land," Mongabay.com, December 9, 2009; R. Butler, "Big REDD," Washington Monthly, September 7, 2009; R. Butler, "Amazon Conservation Team Puts Indians on Google Earth to Save the Amazon," Mongabay.com, November 14, 2006.

Questions

1. Describe the benefi ts that all of us gain from the Surui's use of IT

2. Provide specific examples of how the Surui could make further use of IT to improve their lives.