Waorani: The Last People (January 3rd 1988) - Narrated by Sir David Attenborough

It is with great pleasure that I can finally share with you the lost documentary Waorani: The Last People from 1988! Up until now, this film was unavailable except for its American version, released as a NOVA episode titled Nomads of the Rainforest. However, the original BBC broadcast I am sharing today is narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

This transfer was captured using VHS-Decode and took quite a while to restore, as the recording dates back to 1988. It was very grainy and required several hours of testing various techniques and even more hours of processing. Despite the challenges, I think it turned out great, considering the original material.

The story on how I managed to track this one is that I stumbled upon three home-recorded tapes on eBay recently. They caught my attention because two titles from Wildlife on One were handwritten on the tape labels. While those two episodes were already available, there were two other items of interest: a missing episode of Natural World that hadn’t been found online yet, and a mysterious entry simply labelled Amazonian Rain Forest - Narr. by David Attenborough. This one truly piqued my curiosity. Being very familiar with everything Sir David Attenborough has worked on or participated in, I couldn’t recall anything with that title. The next title on that tape was the Wildlife on One episode Who Really Killed the Cock Robin? from 1988. After researching TV schedules from that time, I discovered that one documentary missing from my list, Waorani: The Last People, was broadcast about two weeks before the Wildlife on One episode on cock robins and also took place in the Amazonian rainforest. Knowing that VHS recordings were much more likely to be sequential back then, I decided to take a gamble and purchase the lot, which wasn’t cheap as it costed about $100 with shipping from the UK.

When the tapes finally arrived, I let them warm up (they had been sitting in the cold of the Canadian winter outside) and then rushed to play that particular tape the minute I though they had regained a more normal temperature. Lo and behold, my guess was right! I was greeted with a mostly complete (possibly missing a few seconds at the beginning) recording of this elusive documentary!

Thanks to a generous collaborator from my Discord channel and my lonely two Patreons supporters who contributed to my digitization fund, I was able to offset half of the cost. If more people were as supportive, I’d never miss a chance to acquire new material. Just a few weeks ago for example, I missed out on a 16mm reel of a missing episode of Zoo Quest for a Bird of Paradise episode. I bid as much as I could, but couldn't find anyone to help contribute and lost the chance to transfer it for everyone when I got outbid. I vowed to not let this happen again but buying all those tapes and media end up costing quite a lot and just can't justify buying everything.

As usual, you can find the full film on my Internet Archive page!

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Waorani - The Last Peoples

First broadcast: Sun 3rd Jan 1988, 19:15 on BBC Two EnglandDeep in the Amazonian rainforest fewer than 100 Waorani are left to their traditional nomadic lives.

Outsiders call them 'Aucas' or 'savages', a name they apparently richly deserve, having speared to death American missionaries and many others including their own old folks.

But roaming naked in the jungle, their bond with the forest provides all their needs, from food to building materials to weapons.This film provides an insight into the Waorani philosophy, a simple view of life essential to living in harmony with the rainforest.

BBC Bristol

Contributors
Narrator: David Attenborough
Cameraman: Hugh Maynard
Producer: Adrian Warren
Film Editor: Chris Orrell