"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 Adana returned to Manaus, we had long video calls and exchanged voice messages over several weeks for her profile. I was struck by how she mediates conflicts that arise when doctors don't respect the healing traditions of Indigenous people, or when Indigenous patients mistrust treatments prescribed by doctors. As an activist, she campaigns for biomedicine to open up to Indigenous knowledge, and not subjugate it."
Adana Omagua Kambeba traveled 4,000km from Manaus to study medicine at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, becoming the first Kambeba to graduate in medicine. Indigenous graduates represented 0.1% of medical graduates in Brazil in 2022. Before finishing, she began fasting to pursue becoming a shaman and aims to bridge western medicine and Indigenous healing traditions. She highlights the invisibility of Indigenous knowledge and warns against scientific research usurping Indigenous expertise. She mediates conflicts when doctors disregard Indigenous healing or when Indigenous patients mistrust prescribed treatments, campaigning for biomedicine to respect and integrate Indigenous knowledge.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]