Character and symbols
Nanã is linked to rain, swamps, riverbeds, and wet earth, and to fertility as well as illness and death. Devotees address her affectionately as Avó, "grandmother," and picture her as an elderly woman. Her children are said to share her kindness, generosity, and patience. Her emblem is the ibiri, a scepter of straw and cowrie shells; her color is purple and her element earth.
Syncretism
In Brazilian Catholic-Afro-Brazilian syncretism, Nanã is paired with Saint Anne, Sant'Anna — a devotional pairing developed within Umbanda and Candomblé rather than a claim of the Catholic Church itself.
Further
The eldest of the orixás — grandmother of creation, owner of the mud humanity was formed from, Lady of the Depths, presiding over the primordial waters and over the mystery of life and death. She is usually syncreted with Saint Anne. In the Daime she arrives through commentary on Mestre Irineu's hymn Tuperci, where she is read as the deep feminine wisdom that precedes understanding — the thing the hymn's speaker does not yet grasp.