We can be heroes: the inspiring people we met around the world in 2025 – part one

The Indigenous doctor uniting western and traditional medicine in Brazil

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.

View image in fullscreen Adana Kambeba uses the ancestral knowledge of her people alongside conventional medicine in her work. Photograph: Marizilda Cruppe/the Guardian

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.

The path has not been easy. At university, Adana faced prejudice and almost had a breakdown.