Nature and Humanity as One

Nature and Humanity As One


Alberta Time: June 10 at 7pm - 8:30pm MDT 
Beijing Time: June 11 at 9am - 10:30am BJT 
Duration: 90 minutes via ZOOM


How the Western idea of Genius Loci intersects with Indigenous and Chinese wisdom and practices relating to landscape

Join us for this free webinar that will feature presentations and a conversation among Dr. Harvey Locke (China Institute, University of Alberta, Dr. Leroy Little Bear (University of Lethbridge) and Dr. Yang Rui (Tsinghua University). This program will last approximately seventy-five minutes followed by Q & A.

Harvey Locke Harvey Locke 
Senior Fellow for Nature and Environment, China Institute, University of Alberta

Dr. Harvey Locke is a conservationist, writer, and photographer who is a recognized global leader in the field of parks, wilderness and large landscape conservation based in Banff. Named one of Canada's leaders for the 21st century by Time Magazine, Harvey received the Fred M. Packard International Parks Merit Award at the IUCN World Parks Congress in Australia. Since 2018 he has been very active in China including serving as an expert member of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development’s Special Policy Studies group for the Convention on Biological Diversity and working with members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Environment and Ecology.

Leroy Little Bear Leroy Little Bear Blackfoot (Kainai Nation) Leader
Professor Emeritus, University of Lethbridge


Dr. Leroy Little Bear is a renowned indigenous scholar, lawyer, and thinker. He is the founder of the Native American Studies Department at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada – where he served as Chair for 21 years – was also the founding Director of Harvard University’s Native American Program. Dr Little Bear was one of the initiators of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He co-authored Pathways to Self-Determination: Native Indian Leaders Perspectives on Self-Government and Quest for Justice: Aboriginal Rights in Canada. He is member of the Order of Canada and an esteemed member of the Blackfoot Confederacy. Little Bear is a leading force behind a major modern Treaty amongst First Nations of Canada and US Tribes: The Buffalo: A Treaty of Cooperation, Renewal and Restoration.

Yang Rui Rui Yang
Professor, Tsinghua University, China

Dr. Rui Yang is the co-founder, head, and professor of the Department of Landscape Studies, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, and Director of the National Park Research Institute of Tsinghua University and Vice Chairman of the Chinese Society of Landscape Architecture. He obtained his Bachelor, Master, and Doctor in Landscape Architecture from Tsinghua University. He was a Visiting Scholar in the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. In 1998, he proposed to build a “Northwest Yunnan National Park and Protected Area System” and carried out many research projects in this area. He presided over 20 national parks and nature reserves’ planning and design, among which the Meili Snow Mountain Master Plan was awarded the first prize by the China Construction Science and Technology and the first prize of Excellent Landscape Architecture Planning and Design of the First Chinese Society of Landscape Architecture.



Presented by The University of Alberta’s China Institute and the Art Gallery of Alberta this online webinar is part of the programming for the upcoming Cornelia Hahn Oberlander: Genius Loci Exhibition.

#AGAlive is made possible with the support of the EPCOR Heart + Soul Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts