TANYA RUKA

Tanya Ruka (Ngāti Pakau, Ngāpuhi) is an Indigenous academic, designer, and contemporary arts practitioner specialising in Indigenous knowledge systems. She is the Executive Director of Native Land Digital (since 2023), where she leads work focused on Indigenous-led digital storytelling and mapping that centres relationships to land and waters. Tanya is also Programme Lead for Design for Social Innovation and Lecturer in Mātauranga Māori in Design at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. Her research explores the intersections of wairuatanga, Indigenous futures, and AI, with a focus on creating new design pathways grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing.