In the early 1960s the Hungarian-Dutch photographer Ata Kando (Hungary/Netherlands, b. 1913) travelled several times to South America. There she produced various socially engaged reportages on Indian tribes in the jungles of southern Venezuela. The territory where these Indians lived and hunted was increasingly threatened by the exploitation of the forests. Kando's photographs were shown numerous places in Europe and America. Their exhibition contributed to the international struggle against the repression of the indigenous peoples in South America. Noorderlicht is showing a selection from this series.

Kando was born in Budapest and left for Paris in 1932 with her first husband, the artist Gyula Kando. After the war she was an assistant at the Magnum photo agency. Later she married Ed van der Elsken, with whom she moved to The Netherlands in 1954. Kando initially worked for various fashion houses. In 1956 her 'Rode Boekje zonder Naam' (Red book without a title), a photo book in support of Hungarian refugees.