The Hamar Tribe of Southwestern Ethiopia

The Hamar tribe of southwestern Ethiopia are a select group of 7,000 – partial nomads, partial settlers – whom have found their community in an evolving catastrophe.  For centuries they’ve lived the way the ancestors have survived, following agrarian and goat herding traditions.  Today, in the midst of a changing climate with desertification and the encroachment of modern technologies, the Hamar peoples are questioning their survival techniques as starvation, lack of clean water and disease threaten their existence.

I, along with Lily Brewis, will spend a length of time with the Hamar tribe this upcoming February 2010, documenting the changes and adaptation of the peoples via photography, article writing and HD film footage.  We will accompanying the Bainbridge Island-based nonprofit Global Team for Local Initiatives (GTLI) who have stepped in to help teach the Hamar to the changing climate, creating water-well projects and sanitation techniques.  Below is an introduction to the Hamar tribe and the work the people along with GTLI have in store.