Member Education Sessions: Native Lands and Sacred Places

Pua Case was born and raised on the Island of Hawai’i, surrounded by the high mountains of Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, Hualālai, and Kohala; the fresh waters of Kohākōhau and Waikoloa; and the plains of Waimea. Pua’s life path and purpose has led her to become a Kumu Hula, a teacher of traditional dance and chant, and a teacher of the life ways, culture, and traditions of the Kānaka Maoli, or Native Peoples of Hawai’i. With a degree in Hawaiian Language and culture, and a teaching degree in Social Studies—interwoven with the traditional teachings, philosophies, and expectations from her kupuna, or elders—Pua has integrated ‘Ike Hawai’i, or Hawaiian knowledge and lessons, into the public school system for over 30 years.

Pua serves on various educational and cultural boards and is the Lead Coordinator of Mauna Kea Education and Awareness. As the Lead Coordinator of MKEA, Pua has worked with a team of organizers, practitioners, and instructors to provide cultural learning opportunities, instruction, ceremonies, and presentations essential to the revitalization of the cultural expression of Hawaiians in their relationship to their sacred mountain and places around the world. She has supported the efforts of Native and local communities who are protecting their own resources, life ways, and places. She and her family have traveled extensively in regards to their involvement as stewards and petitioners on behalf of Mauna Kea.

Pua has been a part of the Mauna Kea Movement over the past fifteen years, and has been involved in both community and frontline actions to safeguard the mountain and unify peoples of all nations in a collective mission to network, plan, and support one another.
Pua has supported many stances around the world, including Standing Rock in North Dakota, Split Rock Camp in New York, Ohlone and Winnemem Wintu in California, Oak Flat in Arizona, and has assisted organizations and individuals in areas such as Louisiana and Minnesota in their efforts to protect their rivers, bayous, and wetlands.

Puaʻs work is one of commitment, dedication, and passion, with a focus on incorporating her Native prayers, chants, dances, spirit, and cultural and traditional values and life ways into all of her efforts and actions in order to set a precedence of protocols for social and environmental justice and positive change for the highest good for the earth.

Tanya Te Miringa Te Rorarangi Ruka is a Māori Indigenous artist and designer living in Te Whānganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa (Wellington, New Zealand). She is of Ngati Pakau, Te Uriroroi, Te Parawhau, Te Mahurehure Ngapuhi, and Waitaha descent. Tanya has a Master of Art and Design, and works as a Lecturer Mātauranga Māori at Te Kura Hoahoa (School of Design & Innovation), Te Herenga Waka (Victoria University).

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, 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. Tanya works with Mātauranga Māori (ancestral knowledge and navigational tools) to design pathways of transitional Indigenous Futures and Indigenous Speculative Design. Working in the digital realm creating stories that firmly place Indigenous concepts, knowledge, perspectives, and ways of being in the landless territories of new imagined futures. She is currently working with dedicated Indigenous and non-Indigenous textile researchers, academics, scientists, engineers, growers, and local Iwi (Tribes). Documenting the journey to develop circularly-designed, native plant fiber materials and textiles that will help to connect people back to the land through Indigenous ways of knowing. She has developed a Community Rongoā (Māori native plant medicine) Forest Initiative, weaving together ancestral knowledge with integrated app-based technology.

Tanya hopes to continue the legacy of her late Uncle, who was sent by her Grandmother into the world to open up pathways of communication with other Indigenous Tribal Nations. As Executive Director for Native Land Digital, she is honored to be a part of the team and is dedicated to the acknowledgment and representation of Indigenous Tribal voices and their homelands.

Natali Segovia (Quechua) is an international human rights attorney who currently serves as Executive Director of the Water Protector Legal Collective, an Indigenous-led legal organization that grew out of the #NoDAPL resistance at Standing Rock and today, continues to provide legal support and advocacy for Indigenous Peoples, the Earth, and climate justice movements in defense of Water Protectors and human rights defenders facing repression for their resistance and activism. As a litigator and advocate, Natali’s work focuses on the protection of the Earth and the rights of Indigenous Peoples affected by forced displacement, desecration of sacred lands, and human rights violations as a result of extractive industry and mass development projects. Over the past 15 years, her international work has focused on addressing human rights violations as a result of extractive industry and mass development projects in rural, “unseen” areas in countries including Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil. Natali also frequently lectures and teaches at law schools across the United States. In 2022, Natali was the Fall Givelber Distinguished Public Interest Lecturer at Northeastern University School of Law, where she taught “In Defense of the Sacred: Human Rights, Earth Justice, and the Law.” Natali holds a law degree from Arizona State University and dual degrees in Political Science and Latin American Studies from Columbia University.

Laura Harjo is a Mvskoke scholar and an Associate Professor teaching Indigenous Planning, Community Development, and Indigenous Feminisms. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Southern California in geography, while also tracking through the American Studies and Ethnicity doctoral program. Her scholarly inquiry is at the intersection of geography and critical ethnic studies with “community” as an analytic focus. Harjo’s research and teaching centers on three areas: imbuing complexity to Indigenous space, and place; Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives and anti-violence; and community-based knowledge production. She is the author of Spiral to the Stars: Mvskoke Tools of Futurity (University of Arizona Press, 2019), which employs Mvskoke epistemologies and Indigenous feminisms to grapple with a community praxis of futurity.  Prior to joining OU, she taught at the University of New Mexico for eight years in Community and Regional Planning where she participated in foundation building work for the Indigenous Design and Planning Institute and the Indigenous Planning concentration. She has served as a Civil Rights Research Fellow with the Advancement Project in Washington, DC. There she worked in an attorney/researcher partnership with civil rights expert, Donita Judge, Esq., and researched and spatially-analyzed civil rights issues in Florida, Texas, and New Orleans related to voter protection, inclusive community development, and the prison industrial complex school-to-prison pipeline. She currently serves on the board of directors for the Indian Land Tenure Foundation.

Bobby “Trae” Trousdale (he/him), a proud citizen of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, is a descendent of the Toupin family and was raised in Tecumseh, Oklahoma. Before joining NAP, Bobby “Trae” worked in student programming, advancement, and leadership within higher education. He also brings experience from the private sector in event planning, employee engagement, and executive operations.

Bobby “Trae” received a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Oklahoma City University. He holds an M.P.A. specializing in nonprofit administration and a graduate certificate in Native American Studies from the University of Oklahoma. His areas of research focused on issues of organizational diversity, community development, and Indigenous strategic planning.

In his free time, Bobby “Trae” volunteers with several local organizations including Sisu Youth Services, both Oklahoma City Pride organizations, and serves on the Board of Directors for the ACLU of Oklahoma. He also enjoys stickball, pickleball, antiquing, and exploring Oklahoma City’s local breweries with his spouse.. He is married to his college sweetheart, Taylor. Together they live on the Southside of OKC and have a dog and a cat, respectively named Timothy Gunnderson (à la Project Runway’s Tim Gunn) and Tamale.