Introducing Native Land’s Executive Director

Native Land Digital is very excited to introduce our new Executive Director, Christine McRae!

Christine is an Omàmìwininì Madaoueskarini Anishinaabekwe (a woman of the Madawaska River Algonquin people) and belongs to the Crane Clan, and is of mixed Polish, Irish, German and Swedish heritage. Christine was raised in a small town on the eastern border of Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada, where she currently resides on the banks of the Madawaska River with her husband and their dog. She is a graduate of Acadia University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and History.

Christine is the owner of Waaseyaa Consulting, an Indigenous culture and heritage consulting company dedicated to reviving and celebrating Indigenous traditional knowledge and culture-based practices through educational opportunities. She is also the owner of Waaseyaa Cultural Tours, an Indigenous-based tourism company operating in the Algonquin Park region. Christine holds a number of volunteer positions, including Editor of the Turtle Island Journal of Indigenous Health (TIJIH), Acadia University Alumni Association Board of Directors, Friends of Algonquin Park Board of Directors and Bancroft Area Stewardship Council.

Christine’s skill set is broad, having experience in archaeology, cultural heritage management, Indigenous land stewardship, economic development, event planning, fundraising, governance, strategic planning and policy development, Indigenous pedagogy applied to early years learning, oratory presentation and public speaking, as well as the management of large and complex project portfolios.

Christine is an avid outdoor adventurer, particularly of the Algonquin landscape, and enjoys travelling to engage with culture, food and unique landscapes. In addition to her role as Executive Director of Native Land Digital, Christine is currently writing her first book, Ondjitigweyaa Madaoueskarini Omàmìwininì (Algonquin People of the Madawaska River Headwaters), a factual history of the Algonquin people written from an Algonquin Anishinaabekwe perspective.

Now that Christine has joined the team, Native Land will continue to work to enhance our digital mapping platform, including the addition of new territories as well as the addition of Indigenous languages in respective territories, and developing a social media strategy to continue promoting native-land.ca as an initiative to learn more about Indigenous territories.

As always, your questions, suggestions and kind words are welcome and encouraged. If you have ideas of how we can continue to improve Native Land, please get in touch with us! We are very grateful that people are so willing to contribute to this community-based knowledge project.