Unreached people group
Nawa
UnreachedThe Nawa are an indigenous people of Pano cultural tradition living in the far west of the state of Acre, in the Serra do Divisor region, along the border with Peru. Their name, in the Pano language family, carries the meaning of people, and for a long time they were treated as a lost people. Between the early 20th century and the late 1990s they were even considered extinct by official records, a situation that only began to be reversed when the Nawa themselves reorganized and publicly reaffirmed their identity.
At the time of first contact, they lived on the banks of the Juruá River, in the area where the city of Cruzeiro do Sul now stands, from which they were expelled around 1870. From there they walked a long path of flight and displacement, passing through Estirão dos Nauas, the Azul River and the Serra do Moa, until settling at the headwaters of streams in the region. Today most live in the municipality of Mâncio Lima, on the right bank of the Moa River and along streams such as Jordão, Pijuca, Novo Recreio, Jarina, Venâncio and Jesumira.
Their native language of Pano tradition was nearly lost over more than a century of forced and violent contact with the rubber exploitation fronts, when rubber barons forbade its use. Today the Nawa speak Portuguese, and only a few elders retain fragments of the old vocabulary. Even so, they keep alive an awareness of their origin and fight for ethnic and territorial recognition.
| Country | Share of the people | Population |
|---|---|---|
Brazil Unreached
|
100%
|
500 |
The Nawa today live mainly from family farming and forest extractivism, growing what they consume and taking the surplus to supply nearby urban areas. This way of life tied to the land and the forests of the river headwaters has allowed them to remain in the forest and endure decades of hardship.
The group is small and organized into riverside communities scattered along the streams of the Moa River’s right bank. One of the greatest current challenges is the overlap of their traditional territory with an environmental conservation area, which creates tension between the people’s permanence on the land and forest protection rules. The pursuit of official recognition and demarcation of their territory is a central part of their present struggle, also marked by the task of preserving the memory, customs and cultural traits inherited from the Pano tradition.
The predominant religion among the Nawa is tied to ethnic beliefs and the traditional worldview of peoples of Pano tradition, in which the forest, rivers, animals and spirits of nature hold a central place in understanding the world. Although prolonged contact and the loss of their language have weakened part of the ancient practices, many aspects of this worldview remain present in how they live, relate to the forest and understand life and death.
The presence of Christianity among them is very small, reaching only a minimal portion of the people, with no significant evangelical expression. The gospel message of Jesus Christ is still little known among this people, who carry both the spiritual heritage of their ancestors and the marks of decades of suffering and silencing.
The Nawa carry deep wounds: uprootedness, the loss of their native language, the fight for recognized existence itself, and the search for secure land where they can live in peace. In the spiritual realm, there is a great need for them to know the love and hope found in Jesus Christ in a way that respects and dignifies their indigenous identity. Amid material hardships, insecurity over land and the fragility of a small people, they need care, justice and people willing to draw near with humility, friendship and constant prayer.
Pray for Nawa
Intercede for this people alongside Christians around the world.
Open the Prayer Calendar