Te Maia Wiki

Te Maia Wiki belongs to the Yurok of the Klamath River, the Ngāti Porou and the Te Aupōuri people of Aotearoa (New Zealand). Wiki is currently a junior undergraduate student majoring in Environmental Studies and Political Science at Yale University, with a concentration in global health. Wiki is a 2025 California Native Youth Collective Fellow for the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute.

I come from the House of La’yeq, where the Klamath River meets the Pacific. Our redwood plank-house was the oldest remaining structure on the river until a UC Berkeley researcher dismantled it in the 1990s. This spring, my mom submitted a grant to support its reconstruction, inspiring me to reimagine what growing up with the house could have been. I realized its heart existed even without a physical form. This piece reaffirms my relationship to our house and imagines how it can grow. I created this using family archives, my photos and words from Yurok Tribal member Josh Norris.