A new trend has emerged where social media influencers are travelling globally, streaming their attempts to contact uncontacted tribes. This phenomenon is occurring despite warnings from indigenous rights groups about potentially fatal consequences for both the influencers and the communities they might expose to disease.
One such instance involved influencer Mykhailo Polyakov, who reportedly filmed himself arriving on North Sentinel Island last year and leaving a can of coke on the beach. The Sentinelese, who inhabit North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal, are considered among the most isolated peoples globally. Indian law prohibits venturing within 5km of their island. In 2018, a missionary who landed on the island was killed by bow and arrow.
Features writer Elle Hunt is documenting this rise in influencer activity, while Ecuadorian indigenous rights activist María José Andrade Cerda has also spoken on the issue.