Amid Myanmar’s longest war, a people struggle to survive in the forest
For more than 70 years, Burmese military governments have waged campaigns of repression and occupation against Myanmar’s Karen people. Their struggle for self-determination was dealt a heavy blow by the 2021 coup, with the first military airstrikes in more 20 years internally displacing more than 200,000 people. The lush forests of Karen state, in the Salween River basin, preserved for generations through sustainable traditions, have become a refuge. Matias Bercovich’s photographs highlight the extraordinary resilience of the local communities, rooted in their intimate connection to ancestral territory