Qualla: Abaetetuba

Abaetetuba: Introduction

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Luiz Eduardo lobato Silva, CC BY-SA 4.0. Every October, more than a million people crowd the streets of Belém to walk behind an image of Our Lady of Nazareth, and a great many of them are carrying small painted birds, boats and snakes made of a soft, pale wood that weighs almost nothing. Those objects come from one place. Abaetetuba sits on the right bank near the mouth of the Tocantins, 126 kilometres from Belém by road, and it has made itself the world capital of the brinquedo de miriti — the miriti toy — an entire local economy carved out of a palm that grows in swamp.

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Image: Luiz Eduardo lobato Silva | CC BY-SA 4.0

Abaetetuba: Group of True Men

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DrRandomFactor, CC BY-SA 3.0. The name is Tupi and it comes apart cleanly: abá, man; eté, true; tyba, a group of them. A group of true men. The first recorded settlement in the area dates to 1635, when Capuchin friars from the convent of Una in Belém joined an Indigenous village called Samaúma — a community o...

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Image: DrRandomFactor | CC BY-SA 3.0

Abaetetuba: The Styrofoam That Grows in Swamp

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Luiz Eduardo lobato Silva, CC BY-SA 4.0. The miritizeiro palm — buriti, to most Brazilians — grows in flooded ground throughout the Amazon, and the pith of its leaf stalk is so light that Paraenses call it the natural styrofoam of the forest. A knife is enough to shape it. Carvers in Abaetetuba cut the stalks, dry them,...

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Image: Luiz Eduardo lobato Silva | CC BY-SA 4.0

Abaetetuba: Toys as Promises

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Luiz Eduardo lobato Silva, CC BY-SA 4.0. A miriti toy is not only a toy. In Pará, the little carvings function as ex-votos, offerings given in thanks to Our Lady of Nazareth for a promise kept — a recovery, a safe passage, a child born well. A person who asked for something and received it buys the object and carries it...

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Image: Luiz Eduardo lobato Silva | CC BY-SA 4.0

Abaetetuba: Life Among the Channels

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Luiz Eduardo lobato Silva, CC BY-SA 4.0. Abaetetuba is the hub of the Baixo Tocantins region and the sixth most populous city in Pará, with about 158,188 residents counted in Brazil's 2022 census, spread across two districts — the town itself and Beja, now a riverside resort. Much of the municipality is not mainland at ...

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Image: Luiz Eduardo lobato Silva | CC BY-SA 4.0