First Contact

Horatio Clare explores the idea of First Contact.

It begins with a news item.

A group of indigenous people living around the border between Brazil and Peru emerge from the forest, cross a river and make what is described as first contact with the outside world.

The film of this encounter is fascinating and uncanny.

Within it we can discern a dim shadow of encounters that stretch back through history. James Cook in Botany Bay, Hernan Cortez in Mexico, Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean. And we know how those meetings worked out for the original inhabitants. Centuries of history show us first contact as a prelude to catastrophe.

But what do we mean by “first contact” anyway? Can there really still be uncontacted people in this day and age? Uncontacted by who?

The news clip that fascinates Horatio Clare cuts off as the indigenous people seemingly return back across the river to the edge of the forest – a border of sorts, between one world and another.

But what happened next? And what should happen next?

Is there always a winner and a loser when we make first contact?

Featuring Mark Anstice, Julia Blackburn, Wade Davis and Sarah Shenker.

Producer: Martin Williams