‘It’s dangerous work’: new generation of Indigenous activists battle to save the Amazon

Indigenous journalist Marco Antônio Silva Batista, 20, prepares to film an illegal goldmine near the Indigenous village of Tamanduá in Raposa Serra do Sol. Photograph: João Laet/The Guardian

The medicine man flashed a mischievous grin as he dabbed his warriors’ eyeballs with a feather soaked in malagueta pepper and watched them grimace in pain. “They’re going into battle and this will protect them,” José Delfonso Pereira said as he advanced on his next target with a jam jar of his chilli potion.

“It hurts and it burns,” the Macuxi shaman admitted. “But it will help them see more clearly and stop them falling ill.”