LiDona Wagner: June 2019

Welcome to a Visit with Our Ancestors

LiDoña Wagner’s artistic work honors the courage and innovation of our ancestors who left East Africa 75,000 to 50,000 years ago and walked or sailed to every corner of planet Earth. The intent of the installation is to establish an environment that evokes reflection on our global family, the human genome.

Our African Homeland

Homo sapiens evolved in Africa more than 800,000 years ago. All humans alive today are descendants of those first Homo sapiens. From a tiny population, they multiplied and migrated to every corner of planet Earth.

Southwest Asia

The first Homo sapiens to leave Africa crossed the Gate of Tears at the south end of the Red Sea around 75,000 - 60,000 years ago. Navigating by sun, moon and stars, they followed the coast (and fish) going east. Some humans settled in areas along the way, a tiny blip in a world dominated by wildlife. Their descendants are found today in Arabia, Iran, and India.

Southeast Asia

A seismic eruption 72,000 years ago on the island of Sumatra sent volcanic ash as far away as India, affecting the earth’s climate. Descendants of the first coastal migration from Africa reached Southeast Asia 60,000 - 40,000 years ago. For centuries the fertile Mekong Delta drew migrants along the coasts and up and down the numerous rivers flowing from the Himalayan mountains.

The Global Journey

Migration maps from the geneographic project of the National Geographic Society

The Rising

Introducing Homo sapiens first land migration into the land of the rising sun,
later called the fertile crescent.

Ancient Near East

During a warming period on planet Earth 50,000 years ago, a second wave of Homo sapiens left Africa.They traveled north by land, following animals they hunted, through the Nile Valley and into the Sinai Peninsula.These adventurous migrants expanded into the region known today as the Middle East, laying foundations for Western civilization.

Perilous Majesty

Catastrophic environmental events occasion migrations

Oceania

Descendants of the first coastal migration reached Australia 60,000 - 40,000 years ago. Millennia later, 1300–1200 years ago, the last part of the world to be occupied by Homo sapiens–the PolynesianIslands–was reached by indigenous Taiwanese sailors. Through oral tradition, their descendants pass on sophisticated navigation skills: celestial knowledge, wave and wind patterns, sea creature habits, kinesthetic reading of water currents, and more.

Wagner's Ancestral Journey

The migration path of my maternal ancestors, disclosed in a 2010 DNA test, is depicted on My Ancestry stabile to the right. Self-portrait above reflects updated information from a second DNA test in 2013: 41% of my DNA matched that of people in Denmark (Deer– maternal ancestors); 40% matched that of people in Tuscany (Hand symbols – paternal heritage); 17% matched that of people in Southwest Asia (Goddesses –ancestors of first coastal migration).