From the Indigenous doctor balancing traditional and western medicine to a father risking death to provide for his family in Gaza, these are some of the people whose determination and bravery stood out
By Guardian reporters
The Indigenous doctor uniting western and traditional medicine in Brazil
Adana Kambeba uses the ancestral knowledge of her people alongside conventional medicine in her work. Photograph: Marizilda Cruppe/the Guardian
In 2012, Adana Omágua Kambeba travelled 4,000km (2,500 miles) from her home in Manaus, in the Brazilian Amazon, to take up a coveted place to study medicine at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in south-east Brazil. She became the first among her people, the Kambeba, or Omágua, to graduate in the field, still largely dominated by white elites. According to the 2022 census, Indigenous people represented 0.1% of those who graduated in medicine in Brazil.
Even before receiving her diploma, Adana started fasting, striving to reach her next goal: to become a shaman. Her calling, she believes, is to bridge gaps between western medicine and the many healing traditions of Indigenous peoples.
This message struck me when I first saw Adana, at a conference for innovation in Rio de Janeiro, in 2024. She stood out among hundreds of panellists and sponsors who were talking about business insights, new tech frontiers and standardised buzzwords. Adana, on stage with long feather earrings and rattles made of seeds, gave a powerful talk about the invisibility of Indigenous knowledge, emphasising that scientific research must not usurp Indigenous expertise….
*******************
After the truth-shower 