Brazil's Xingu people

Established in 1961, Xingu National Park was South America’s first ever ‘indigenous’ national park – a protected tribal territory administered by the communities who live within its boundaries

Currently hemmed in by millions of hectares of soya farmland, the park has become a haven for Brazilian flora and fauna that covers more than 26,000 square kilometres of the Amazon Basin. But despite the park’s protected status, agricultural effluent from farming outside the area’s boundaries is beginning to pollute the River Xingu and its tributaries, and illegal logging and newly constructed hydro-electric dams are threatening the Xinguano’s ability to lead a sustainable life. Photographer Matt Currington recently visited the park to capture these images of a people in flux, as technology and modern influences begin to make their presence felt.