Lorena Aranha Monteiro dos Santos Curuaia, 26, is an Indigenous woman with a medical degree from the Federal University of Pará in the Amazon. She is the first Indigenous woman in the Middle Xingu region to become a doctor, and has been a leader from a young age; a daughter of the Indigenous Territory and the forest, Lorena unites science and ancestry, recognizing that health, land, culture, and dignity are inseparable.

The granddaughter of one of the last speakers of her ethnicity, Lorena has always lived among rivers, dirt roads, and communities that transform resistance into existence. She knows that when the territory is wounded, her people also fall ill — to her, protecting the land is an act of collective healing, so she chose to pursue an MD as a way to reaffirm that the Indigenous Peoples have the right to live with health, dignity, and a future.

Lorena coordinates SAMA’s Health Program. There, she dedicates herself to defending the rights of traditional peoples and views medicine as an instrument of resistance, social justice, and transformation achieved by listening to Indigenous Territories.