Short film challenges the view that tribals are backward

Featuring the Dongria Kondh tribe of Niyamgiri Hills in Odisha, a new short film challenges the belief that tribals are backward.
As part of the 'Proud Not Primitive' campaign in India run by international NGO Survival International, the 30-second short film shows the richness in the lives of tribals and aims to challenge the prevailing preconceptions that tribals are poor, backward or primitive.
The film's provocative message 'No poverty, no bombs, no pollution, no corruption, no prisons, no caste system - and people call them primitive?' shows that tribal people have every reason to be proud of their ways of life.

It features the Dongria Kondh and Baiga in India, Awa, Waiapi and Enawene Nawe tribes in Brazil and the Bushmen in Botswana.
Dongria Kondh tribals have been fighting against mining giant Vedanta Resources to protect their mountain from bauxite mining.
Selvi, a Korumba woman from Tamil Nadu, said, "If I have land, I can grow food. We're not very interested in money because it brings bad things. If I have land, I can have a good life. I want our forest for air, water and firewood."

Davi Kopenawa, a spokesperson of the Yanomami tribe in Brazil said, "We are not poor or primitive. We are very rich. Rich in our culture, our language and our land. We don't need money or possessions. What we need is respect, respect for our culture and respect for our land rights."

A press release from Survival International said around the world, tribal people living on their own lands with the freedom to make their own choices about their lives are thriving.
In contrast, tribal peoples who have been pushed off their land or no longer have access to its resources are often condemned to become the poorest of the poor, living at the edges of society.