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Sebastião Salgado's Genesis exhibition at the International Center for Photography in New York
Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
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Photojournalist/activist Sebastião Salgado, whose life and work were featured in Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado’s Oscar nominated documentary The Salt Of The Earth (Le Sel De La Terre), and Lélia Wanick Salgado have sent an open letter to Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro on the urgent need to protect the country's indigenous peoples from a Covid-19 outbreak. Those showing support for the protection of the region and its inhabitants by adding their names to the plea include Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, David Hockney, Paul McCartney, Ai Weiwei, Oprah Winfrey, Madonna, Gisele Bündchen, Naomi Campbell, and Wim Wenders.
There have been 101,147 confirmed cases of the virus in Brazil to date, with at least 7,025 deaths. The outbreak has centred on Manaus in the Amazon Basin, which overlaps with the Yanomami people's reserve. Brazil has an indigenous population of approximately 850,000, including dozens of tribes that have never been contacted by outsiders. Most of them have very limited access to acute medical care.
