Tragic final post of man killed trying to visit indigenous tribe of ‘no-go’ island

In some parts of the world there are communities which do not have contact with the rest of the world and shun attempts from outsiders to make contact.

It is not known exactly how many uncontacted groups there are, but trying to disturb their isolation is a move that rarely goes well, as American man John Allen Chau discovered at the cost of his life.

He attempted to make contact with the people living on North Sentinel Island, who stay isolated from others and have been known to aggressively repel outsiders who have attempted to disturb their home.

Trying to meet uncontacted groups is particularly dangerous, since their immune systems do not have the defences to deal with the diseases, which may be carried by people who travel around the modern world.

There have been rare instances of contact between surveyors and the natives but arrows have been fired at intruders. The Indian government has adopted a 'hands off, eyes on' approach towards the people living on the island, where boats will pass by every couple of months to check on their welfare but they will not attempt to get close.

In 2018, Chau did more than just attempt to get close as he paid local fishermen to transport him to North Sentinel Island, saying he was a Christian missionary who wanted to preach to the tribe.

Shortly before his death, he posted pictures of his travels around the world captioned: 'Adventure awaits. So do leeches'. That would be the penultimate social media post from his account before an official statement three weeks later explaining that he was dead.

Another post he made had him saying he was enjoying 'kayaking the tropics in this endless summer' where he shared the last photo of himself before his death.

Chau appears to have been aware of the danger he was in by going to the island as he wrote a letter to his family telling them he was going to 'declare Jesus' to the people living there and that his parents shouldn't 'be angry at them or at God if I get killed'.

On 15 November, 2018, the 27-year-old made his first attempt at contact, trying to demonstrate he wasn't a threat by offering fish to the North Sentinelese and recorded in his diary that he shouted 'My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you' at them.

They fired arrows at him and Chau wrote that he 'paddled like I never have in my life back to the boat', but despite the clear warnings not to approach, he made another attempt.

He tried singing songs to them and repeated their words back to them, which resulted in them laughing at him, and when he tried to hand over gifts a boy shot an arrow 'directly into my Bible which I was holding'.

In his writings, where he shared his thoughts on making another trip to the island, he wrote: "It’s weird - actually no, it’s natural: I’m scared. There, I said it. Also frustrated and uncertain - is it worth me going a foot to meet them? I don’t want to die!"

Chau made a final visit on 17 November where he told the fishermen who had ferried him over to leave him behind, they later saw islanders dragging his body and burying him on the beach, with it clear that he had been killed.

While several attempts were made to recover his body, they all met with failure and it was eventually decided that it was not worth the risk of a confrontation with the islanders.

Following his death, Chau was criticised for ignoring warnings not to go to North Sentinel Island and potentially exposing the islanders to harm by risking exposing them to pathogens they had no immunity to.