BLUE VESSEL
BLUE VESSEL
ABOUT US
Joe Baker
Founding Lenape Elder
Joe Baker is a founding member of Blue Vessel and a founding member and Executive Director of Lenape Center in Manhattan. An enrolled member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians, he is a widely respected artist, curator, educator, and cultural leader who has spent more than three decades advancing the continuance, visibility, and authority of Lenape arts, culture, and presence. His work has been featured at leading institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design, Brooklyn Museum, Pace School of Law, and Brooklyn Public Library, where it has helped shift how New York and the wider public understand Lenape homelands and history.
At Lenape Center, Baker has led landmark initiatives such as
Lenapehoking,the first Lenape‑curated exhibition in New York City, along with public art, design, and seed rematriation projects that actively return Lenape language, foodways, and memory to Lenapehoking. For Blue Vessel, he brings decisive leadership rooted in living Lenape culture, rigorous artistic practice, and profound intergenerational responsibility, driving the return of Indigenous presence, the protection of cultural continuity, and the renewal of accountable relationships among communities, institutions, and homelands.
Hadrien Coumans
Founding Member, Executive Director
Hadrien Coumans’ work is grounded in lifelong responsibility and enduring commitments within communities. He is a traditionally adopted member of the Lenape WhiteTurkey–Fugate family and co-founder and deputy director of Lenape Center in New York.
Hadrien also bears the responsibility of Қара бақсы (Qara Baqsy*) within Tengrist tradition, bestowed upon him by Kazakh Baqsy Arman Nurmukhanbetov within a Turkic cultural legacy. He has studied under the auspices of Baqsy Nurmukhanbetov for eight years. Hadrien’s foundations were shaped through twelve formative years of study with the late Lakota Holy Man, Chief Phillip CrazyBull, who was a Medicine Man, Heyoka, and SunDance Chief. As his student, Hadrien was deeply committed to supporting Chief CrazyBull and his work throughout this period.
Hadrien holds certifications from the United States Institute of Peace in Conflict Analysis, Mediating Violent Conflict, and Land, Property & Conflict, along with training in Trauma Awareness and Resilience. He has spoken at institutions including the United Nations, Brooklyn Law School, Pace School of Law, and Cardozo Law School’s Ferencz Human Rights & Atrocity Prevention Clinic, as well as before the governments of Australia, Finland, the Netherlands, and Canada.
Lenape Center has the mission of continuing Lenapehoking. For close to twenty years, it has transformed New York City by restoring Lenape presence, history, and knowledge through the arts, culture, education, and institutional partnerships. Lenape Center applies Lenape peacemaking principles to institutional culture, public narrative, and policy. Hadrien’s work extends these commitments. He is co-editor of Lenapehoking: An Anthology, co-published by Lenape Center and Brooklyn Public Library, and has served as Associate Faculty at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. There, he supported adjunct professor Joe Baker in teaching the first Lenape public health course, Indigenous Knowledge and Public Health: Toward Wëlamàlsewakàn and Lenapehoking.
His publications include a co-authored chapter in Voices from Religions on Sustainable Development and the co-authored article “Wëlamàlsewakàn: Reimagining the Right to Health through Lenape Epistemologies” in Harvard’s Health and Human Rights Journal. His legal scholarship includes a co-authored chapter, “Les Lois de la nature selon l’approche croisée des peuples Lenape et Kogis,” in Éthique environnementale pour juristes.
Rachel Bullock
Founding Member, Co-Director
Rachel Bullock carries the name Ngawang Lhakyi, or Powerful Speech of Happy Goddessi from His Holiness the 41st Sakya Trizin. She is a respected artist deeply committed to fostering connection between humanity and Earth. Her exhibitions in galleries in New York and London have received acclaim, and her artwork is celebrated in collections throughout the United States and Europe. Rachel finds deep joy in cultural collaboration and community building, encouraging harmony among individuals and diverse traditions. Her global engagements include working with the Bankhar Dog Project in Inner Mongolia and supporting educational programs in Hakun Quico, Peru, through the Pneuma Organization, demonstrating her dedication to cross-cultural awareness and ecological stewardship. Her studies in transpersonal psychology and world traditions underscore her commitment to holistic understanding and community wellbeing.
Pamela Coumans
Director of Communication
Pamela Coumans is an architect, designer, and cultural advocate of Filipino and Chinese descent with formal training in architecture from the University of New Mexico. With over 27 years of experience creating meaningful interior spaces, she has dedicated her career to preserving and promoting Asian artistic traditions and cultural heritage.
As founder and director of the Mula Project, Pamela documents and celebrates Filipino culture, and artistic legacies. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of Fluid Gold Journal, a publication exploring human experience through the voices and perspectives of diverse Asian cultural creatives in the arts, design, and humanities.
Her collaborative work includes partnerships with Indigenous weavers in the Philippines, supporting the continuation of traditional textile arts. She has provided educational sponsorship to the Ati community, ensuring access to learning opportunities that strengthen cultural continuity. She brings deep expertise in creating spaces—both physical and relational—that honor artistic traditions and foster cross-cultural creative dialogue.
Arman Nurmukhanbetov
Lead Advisor
Arman Nurmukhanbetov is the leading voice in Kazakhstan’s Tengrian renaissance and a respected Baqsï (Kazakh shaman) with decades of dedicated practice. Born in Almaty to an archaeologist father who co-discovered the legendary Golden Man, Nurmukhanbetov has devoted his life to preserving and revitalizing the sacred traditions of the Great Steppe.
As founder of one of Kazakhstan’s first shamanic schools and author of the groundbreaking work Kasiet—the first scholarly publication dedicated to the sacred magical gift of Kazakh shamanism—Nurmukhanbetov has developed innovative methods for revealing and developing shamanic gifts that have drawn students from across the region.
For over 25 years, Nurmukhanbetov has championed the history, culture, and spiritual traditions of the Great Steppe’s nomadic peoples through scholarly articles, poetry, songs, documentary films, and television programs. His work illuminates Kazakhstan’s pre-Islamic spiritual heritage for contemporary audiences, ensuring that the wisdom of the ancestors continues to guide future generations.