We follow the Matsés in their mission to map their ancestral lands.

On the 50th anniversary of sustained contact with the outside world, leaders of the Matsés tribe of the Peruvian Amazon assembled to unveil the first completed maps that demarcate their ancestral territories.

The gathering, held on August 28 and 29 at the village of Remoyacu, in the remote frontier divide of northeast Peru and Brazil, was the culmination of an extraordinary indigenous-led initiative that required five years of work to complete. The resultant maps, written in their language, are comprehensive cartographic records of their ancestral territory, history, land use, and culture.