Current Student Bios
PhD Candidates
Adam Gaudry
Métis 
Henry Roe Cloud Dissertation Writing Fellow, 2012-2013, Yale University
Masters of Arts, Sociology, Queen's University
Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, Honours, Queen's
I am interested in the connection of Métis history and Métis political thought, which have been disconnected by many historians. As a result, many works have fundamentally misunderstood the motivations and goals of Métis people in the nineteenth century, as well as the relationship they formed with the infant Canadian state in 1870 with the Manitoba Treaty. My dissertation connects the traditional political theory of Metis governance-embodied by the Buffalo Hunt and other community institutions-with the historical development of Métis governance in Assiniboia and Manitoba. By first analyzing the relations between the Hudson's Bay Company and the Métis people, and the refusal of Métis to submit to Company governance, then following this trend to the rejection of Canadian annexation and the formation of the Provisional Government of 1869-1870, we can observe an obvious tendency in Métis governance. Métis consistently understood themselves as a free and independent Indigenous people, who held treaty relations with other Indigenous nations, and were the masters of their own country. Despite this self-perception, and the ability to assert this reality on the Company and Canada-by force if necessary-history has often misunderstood the Métis-Canadian relationship as one of Métis joining Confederation. However, as much of the historical record demonstrates, Métis were more interested in engaging in a confederal relationship with Canada, as equal treaty partners, rather than joining the Canadian federation as a province dominated by central Canada. By connecting Métis political thought, with the critical events at Red River in 1869-1870, a new history-a Métis people's history-emerges.
Download Adam's recent article Insurgent Researh (Wicazo Sa Review Spring 2011).
Robyn Heaslip 
Settler Canadian - French/Irish Heritage
Masters in Resource and Environmental Management, Simon Fraser University
Bachelor of Science, Biology and Anthropology, UVic
Research interests: Understanding Coast Salish perspectives on ethical ways of being and taking up responsibilities in relation to land, place, and community. I'm interested in how these ethics can provide guidance for settlers in grassroots solidarity efforts and initiatives towards decolonization within their own communities. From a basis of Coast Salish teachings, I will explore other philosophies that may provide ideas for enacting an alternate, place-based and anti-colonial praxis. These fields include transformational learning, post-colonialism, community economies, social psychology, and critical race and feminist perspectives. I hope to identity and describe existing settler efforts towards solidarity and decolonization, to explore the narratives of identity, motivation and collective action of those involved in these efforts, and in the process create space for dialogue about settler roles and responsibilities within Coast Salish territories.
Jarrett Martineau
Cree/Dene of Frog Lake First Nation
Master of Arts, Indigenous Governance, UVic Bachelor of Arts, English Literature & Canadian Studies, McGill University
I am interested in the critical intersection of indigeneity, technology, art, aesthetics, music, and digital media. My research focuses on Indigenous hip-hop as a strategy for decolonization, political resistance and cultural resurgence, and a means of culturally remixing/reimagining/revisioning Indigenous identity. By engaging the evolving, ambivalent relationship between Indigenous Peoples and digital technologies, my research examines questions of being, subjectivity, territory, hybridity, and representation; and seeks to articulate strategies for community and youth engagement based on a commitment to Indigenous teachings and lifeways.
MAIG 2012
Sherry Antone
Oneida Nation of the Thames
Bachelor of Arts, Political Science & First Nations Studies, Universityh of Western Ontario
Research Interests: A combined analysis of the decision making processes found within the Indian Act and traditional government systems; in order to examine the methods and the level of involvement and/or role of the community members within this process. This research is intended to provide case studies of imposed and traditional decision making processes in order to understand the level effectiveness and to further identify gaps that could be resolved through the development of contemporary Indigenous Nation decision making protocols.
Kim Hayward
Settler Canadian, Edmonton Alberta
Bachelor of Fine Art and Design, Anthropology minor, University of Alberta
I am interested the psycho-social barriers that deter settler Canadians from engaging in conversations of decolonization. In my research I am committed to challenging and questioning presumptive Western philosophies and exploring Western cultural biases that perpetuate oppressive colonial relationships. Through my research I hope to challenge the presumption that Indigenous issues are separate from non-Indigenous issues in Canada, and instead conceptualize continual colonial oppression as having real implications for the social and environmental wellbeing of the entire country.
Shane Keepness
Saulteaux Cree, Muscowpetung First Nation, Treaty 4 territory
Bachelor of Science, Environmental Health and Sicence
Certificate in Indian Health Sciences, University of Regina
As Indigenous people, it is our innate responsibility to look after the land, along with advocating the negative impacts from industrialization. I am interested in developing community-based solutions for Indigenous communities to help them to keep their traditional territories pristine and in their natural state. I am also interested in learning more about the numbered treaties and advocating for them as they ensure our survival in the numbered treaty territories.
Daryl Lucero
Isleta Publo
Bachelors of Fine Arts, Studio Arts, Institute of American Indian Arts
I am interested in looking at the socio-political underpinnings of Indigenous communities, as a means to deconstruct colonialism; holding colonial exploitation and destruction accountable on a community level; drawing on historic modes of cultural survivance, I plan to reframe and advocate for community solutions to our current realities.
Mandy McDonald
Swampy Cree
Bachelor of Arts, Honours Political Science, Indigenous Studies minor, UVic
I am interested in investigating the role of traditional activities such as beading, sewing, and moose hide tanning as deliberate sites of resistance, mobilization, and intergenerational knowledge acquisition. Discussing these practices in terms of the Indigenous cultural revitalization movement, and the implications cultural revitalization has for developing governance models that can reflect and empower the aspirations of Indigenous peoples, she hopes to explore, develop and promote accessible options for urban Indigenous youth to reconnect to traditional teachings and practices through land-based, community-driven educational opportunities.
Kirstin Scansen
Nehithaw, Treaty 6, Lac La Ronge Indian Band
Bachelor of Arts, Sociology, Political Science minor, University of British Columbia
My research interests include furthering my understandings of the way that the Settler-Colonial Canadian state is implicated in violence against Indigenous women, the application of Treaty relationships to confront the colonial structure of Canada, and resurgence, decolonization, and community healing based on Nehithaw (Woods Cree) worldview.
Corey Snelgrove
Setter Canandian
Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, Queen's University
I am interested in the relationship between Indigenous nations/peoples and Settler states/people, with a focus on such relationships within Canada. Specifically, I am interested in understanding the relationship between Settler mentality and the current (ongoing) processes of Indigenous dispossession and oppression. Furthermore, to maintain relevancy, I believe research must also focus upon practical applications of research. Thus, praxis will also be an important aspect of my research.
Kaisha Thompson
Canadian, Meaford Ontario
Bachelor of Arts, Honours Political Science with minors in Indigenous Studies and Law, Carleton University
Research interests include mediation and negotiations between municipal and band councils over natural resources, and Indigenous civic engagement.
Jana-Rae Yerxa
Anishinaabe Kwe, Little Eagle and Couchiching First Nation
Masters of Social Work, Lakehead University
Bachelor of Social Work, Honours, Lakehead
I am interested and committed to furthering my understanding of Anishinaabe identity and resurgence and deconstructing Indigenous/settler relations in the contexts of colonization and decolonization.
MAIG 2011
Jessica Benson-Nanagiishkung
Atikameksheng Anishnawbek and Chippewas of Rama First Nation, Anishnabek Nation
Undergraduate degree: Bachelor of Education, Intermediate-Senior Native Studies and History, Lakehead University
Bachelor of Art, History (Laurentian University)
Research interests: Indigenous human rights; Indigenous education; and Native-Newcomer relations in Canada.
Ian Ki'laas Caplette
9 Allied Tsimshian Nation Tribes of Lax Kw'alaams Gitando Tribe, Gisbutwaada Clan from the House of Gamiyaam
Undergraduate Degree: First Nations Studies with Political Science Minor, Vancouver Island University
I am interested in decolonization theory as it pertains to fundamental relationships between land (including waters) and the Tsimshian people. Throughout colonization, land alienation has been the goal of the settler state and my interest is to research ways to re-establish the basis of individual and community connection to land through the resurgence of Tsimshian cultural pardigms including traditional name and uses resurgence, language revitalization through experiential learning and storywork, and restoration of ceremonial practices and spaces.
Erika Chase
Na:Tini-Xwe' (Hupa) of the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in Northern CA & Shinnecock of Long Island, NY
Undergraduate degree: Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity, Stanford University
Research interests: the politics and practice of indigenous identity; methods of decolonizing imposed/internalized western governmental norms within tribal communities; indigenous environmental justice movements and acts of resistance; and youth empowerment as a potential path of native nation building.
Ryan Day
St'uxwtews, Secwepemc
Undergraduate degree: Economics, Simon Fraser University
Reserach interests: Indigenous economics; history of economic institutions and systems in Indigenous communities; investigating alternative, culturally-rooted and community-integrated means of poverty elimination to current popular "economic development" initiatives and plans in Indigenous peoples' territories and communities.
Isabella "Bella" Marble
Mi'kmaq from Indian Brook First Nation
Undergraduate degree: History, Dalhousie University
Research interests: education and indigenous people, indigenous women and community governance, traditional forms of justice and restorative justice.
Pablo Miss
Maya Q'eqchi' of Southern Belize, Central America
Undergraduate degree: Geography, University of Hawaii at Hilo
Research interests: The Maya Alcalde System of community governance in Southern Belize as a site of cultural resistance and resurgence; intercultural education and indigenous peoples; economic strategies for indigenous peoples and development with identity.
Tina Powell
Dutch and Irish Ancestry
Undergraduate degree: Globalization studies, Huron University College
I am broadly interested in researcharching the ways in which Indigenous-setter and Indigenous-state relations are necessarily distorted under the dominant new-colonial/capitalist paradigm.
Mylan Tootoosis
Poundmaker First Nation
Undergraduate degree: Indigenous Liberal Studies, Institute of American Indian Arts
Research interests: creating modes of cultural survivance through the use of community operated archives and research centers as means of cultural and community protection and defense, used also to aid in the creation and promotion of indigenous ideas of solution and scholarship, on the most fundamental level of community and nation. Mylan plans to continue to promote and assist in acts of cultural survivance through inquiry and reserach: Postindian
MAIG 2010
Khalilah Alwani
Pakistani and European-Settler Ancestry
Undergraduate degree: Political Science, Women's Studies Minor, University of Victoria
I am interested in the resurgence of cultural land-based practices and sustainable ways of being in relationship with the land, as practices of "disalienation" and reconnection. I am also interested in the fine art of solidarity amongst people and communities with interconnected struggles and shared commitments to processes of decolonization. Of particular intrigue to me in relation to all of this, is the important role of food and traditional food systems--the cultural roles and visceral experiences of growing, gathering, catching, cooking, eating, trading, and sharing foods.
Julie Froekjaer-Jensen
Danish, Resident on Haida Territory, Landed Immigrant to Canada
Undergraduate degree: B.A., Business Management, Honours, DeMontfort University, UK (2000)
Current Graduate Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, UVic
I am currently looking at the relationship between the revitalization of land-based cultural practices and the process of cultural restoration. In particular, I am looking at the ways in which rebuilding a pre-small pox trail system on the north coast of Haida Gwaii may serve as a framework for this, and how land and ocean-based cultural practices in traditional use-territories may have served to inform traditional systems of governance on Haida Gwaii. On behalf of a Haida arts-group, I am currently also working on preparing the pitching of a film project The Reconnecting of the Spiritual Trad Routes based on footage from an arts exchange between a group of Haida and Mayan ceremonial artists in Lago Atitlan, Guatemala in 2009
Taiaiake Alfred
Jeff Corntassel
Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark
James Tully
