Dr Jen Rae

Dr Jen Rae is an award-winning artist-researcher of Canadian-Scottish-Métis (Indigenous) descent, internationally recognised for two decades of work at the intersections of art, culture, climate, and disasters.

Their practice brings Indigenous and creative methodologies into complex and politically charged contexts, blending artistic excellence with cultural stewardship.

Working across participatory, speculative, and relational forms, Jen mobilises culture as a core infrastructure for climate action and adaptive community futures. Their multi-platform work has been commissioned and presented by leading institutions nationally and internationally.

In 2023/24, Jen received a Creative Australia Fellowship for Emerging and Experimental Art, followed by the H.C. Coombs Creative Arts Fellowship at the Australian National University (2024). They were also Interdisciplinary Artist in Residence at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (2024/25). In 2025, Jen delivered a keynote and led the sole side-event workshop at the United Nations Global Platform for Disasters & Displacement in Geneva, introducing cultural methodologies into a forum typically dominated by science and policy.

Jen co-directs the Centre for Reworlding with Claire G. Coleman, leading nationally significant initiatives in creative climate futures through emergent methodologies such as ‘deliberate structured improvisation’ and ‘joy work’. They are co-creator of BILYA, a relational mapping platform grounded in Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) principles, and a Co-founder of Creative Climate, Australia’s peak body for art and climate. Internationally, Jen serves on the Steering Committee for Global Artivisms and contributes to integrating culture into global climate negotiations, most recently at COP30 in Belém.