Yana Nafysa Dombrowsky-M’Baye is a pluridisciplinary researcher and educator from Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa. Her matrilineal ancestry returns to Senegal and France, while her patrilineal lineage is of Polish and Czech descent.
Through iterative and ritualistic processes, Yana’s practice is a poetic inquiry into the material and immaterial conditions of belonging, approaching artistic practice as archaeological gesture — unearthing the spectral presence of intercultural identities embedded within sites of colonial history and personal heritage.
At present, Yana is at the Cité Internationale des Arts de Paris, participating as one of ten internationally selected artists in the In Situ program, which will conclude March 2026.
Through iterative and ritualistic processes, Yana’s practice is a poetic inquiry into the material and immaterial conditions of belonging, approaching artistic practice as archaeological gesture — unearthing the spectral presence of intercultural identities embedded within sites of colonial history and personal heritage.
At present, Yana is at the Cité Internationale des Arts de Paris, participating as one of ten internationally selected artists in the In Situ program, which will conclude March 2026.