What Stories Does the Land Hold? is a conversation series co-presented by the Center for Humans and Nature and The New School at Commonweal as part of the Center’s Questions for a Resilient Future Series

Join Host Christine Luckasavitch (Anishinaabeg and mixed settler) in conversation with Māori artist, designer, activist, and researcher Tanya Te Miringa Te Rorarangi Ruka. Tanya’s work is deeply rooted in Indigenous environmental knowledges, encouraging a deeper connection to ancestral place on a global scale through her artistic practices. This conversation will center around storytelling, community building, working alongside our plant relatives, and Indigenous futurisms.

Tanya Te Miringa Te Rorarangi Ruka

Tanya is a Māori Indigenous artist and designer living in Te Whānganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa (Wellington, Capital City of New Zealand). She is of Ngati Pakau, Te Uriroroi, Te Parawhau, Te Mahurehure Ngapuhi, and Waitaha descent. She is active in environmental issues from an Indigenous perspective in Aotearoa and globally. Working with the Waitaha Executive Grandmothers Council, she has been documenting and mapping the sacred stories of her Tupuna ancestors as evidence for tribal environmental issues involving land and water protection claims through the Treaty of Waitangi. As a Māori artist she is inspired by her ancestry and the creation stories that place the land as Ancestor and the Master Navigator voyagers of the Pacific who always kept their eyes on the horizon in hopeful anticipation, bringing the tribe safely to land. You can hear her speak on YouTube: City Talks: Kaupapa Mauri.

Christine Luckasavitch

Christine is an Omàmìwininì Madaoueskarini Anishinaabekwe (a woman of the Madawaska River Algonquin people) and belongs to the Crane Clan, and is of mixed settler ancestry including Irish, Swedish, and Polish. Christine continues to live in her ancestral territory, land that her Ancestors have called home since time immemorial. Christine is the owner of two Indigenous knowledge-based companies, Waaseyaa Consulting and Waaseyaa Cultural Tours, both dedicated to enhancing the awareness and understanding of Algonquin Anishinaabeg history and culture. She is executive director of Native Land Digital, an Indigenous-led not-for-profit dedicated to providing free education of Indigenous territories and knowledge systems across the world. Christine has worked as an archaeologist, educator, and in the realm of Indigenous politics. She spends most of her time out on the land, and has a keen interest in learning more about traditional plant use. She is currently writing her first book, Ondjitigweyaa Madaoueskarini Omàmìwininì (Algonquin People of the Madawaska River Headwaters).

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