A doll brings pride, identity for Brazil Indigenous woman

Luakam Anambé wanted her newborn granddaughter to have a doll — something she’d never owned as a child working in slave-like conditions in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. But she wanted the doll to share their Indigenous features, and there was nothing like that in stores. So she sewed one herself from cloth and stuffing.

The doll had brown skin, long, dark hair, and the same face and body paint used by the Anambé people. It delighted passersby; while Indigenous dolls can be found elsewhere in Latin America, they remain mostly absent in Brazil, home to nearly 900,000 people identifying as Indigenous in the last census.

A business idea was born, and her modest home now doubles as a workshop where she and her daughter produce dolls for a growing clientele.

“Before, only white dolls existed, then came the Black ones, but Indigenous ones didn’t appear,” said Anambé, 53, wearing a beaded