This is a spurious idea and believe me will be an even spurious-er collection. I don’t know how I came upon the idea, it just floated into my head some days ago and has remained lodged ever since. Maybe the BFG wondered past the bedroom window one night…

Anyway, number one in a series of what could be many (or not) is…Sydney Possuelo.

Our first Sydney is a Brazilian, born in Sao Paolo on 19 April 1940.  He is a social activist and a high profile defender of the rights of indigenous peoples in some of the most isolated regions of the Amazon basin / jungle.  He has won various awards in his time, including a gold medal from the Royal Geographical Society and various awards from the National Geographical Society, Time Magazine and the United Nations.  In 2006 he was dismissed from his position as the head of the Department of Unknown Tribes within the National Indian Foundation of Brazil after he criticised his boss who had suggested that Brazilian Indians held too much land.

In 2001, Possuelo was a member of the Government delegation which made the first ever ‘European’ contact with a tribe which lives deep in the Amazonian jungle. Apparently, the tribe were one up on the expedition because they were already aware of white people, whereas the first indication of their existence was the appearance of their village on overhead photographs. Possuelo explained that the only reason that the tribe had been sought out was that they were supposedly being ruled and exploited by a neighbouring tribe. Now, call me naive, but it strikes me that if ever there was a tribe with which the indigenous people would wish to avoid contact it wouldn’t be another indigenous tribe…