Rainer Posselt comes to NATURE lab as part of the NEA Our Town project “Sanctuary Eco-Art Trail” for a “Mental Health and Activism” Residency. Rainer Posselt has worked in the tribal health sphere in various roles including community health programming and evaluation, as well as in tribal food sovereignty and tribal historic preservation. Rainer enjoys learning about tribal history, and Mohican and Munsee language.
During his “Mental Health and Activism” Sanctuary Eco-Art residency, Rainer will will focus on Native education, mental health and healing. He will work on a community participatory art project at NATURE Lab Talking Circle, with collaborative support from artist/educator Jillian Hirsch, at the exterior space of NATURE Lab, a community dialogue, workshops and art activities. He will collaborate with community arts and healing activities and workshops, with Water Justice Lab, People’s Health Sanctuary and Collard City Growers on the campus, and around the community.
Rainer Posselt is a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans. He was born and raised on the Stockbridge reservation in Northern Wisconsin, but has since relocated to Milwaukee to pursue his education. He begins his PhD in Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in the Fall of 2023. His master’s thesis at Mount Mary University in Milwaukee examines how historic trauma has affected attachment patterns in Native American populations. Rainer is an alumnus of Marquette University, completing his Bachelors of Science in Biomedical Sciences, and has also studied Public Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Rainer has worked in the tribal health sphere in various roles including community health programming and evaluation, as well as in tribal food sovereignty and tribal historic preservation. Rainer enjoys learning about tribal history, and Mohican and Munsee language.
