Dani is a 21-year-old riverine activist. In order to become what she is today, Dani has undertaken a difficult and courageous identity search which must be understood within the context in which it has taken place.
Many of the communities inhabiting the banks of the Tapajós River, like many other settlements along the vast Brazilian Amazon basin, call themselves “riverine". Riberinos is a term that encompasses the whole range of ethnic diversity resulting from multiple crossbreeding over time among indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and European descendants, mostly of Iberian origin.
Today, defining oneself as indigenous is a matter of self-affirmation. But in many communities along this abundant tributary of the Amazon, the mix is so old and dynamic that it may actually be impossible to choose which ethnic group to join.
