tânisi kiyawâw (greetings to you all). I am maskēkow-ininiw (Swampy Cree) and Scottish-Canadian and anēhinawēwin/nēhiyawēwin/nēhithawīwin language learner and language warrior. My Cree family is from Norway House and Cross Lake in northern Manitoba. I was born and raised in northern Saskatchewan and have been a grateful visitor in SENĆOŦEN and Lekwungen speaking territories for over 20 years. I completed a PhD in Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia in 2012. My dissertation îkakwiy nihiyawiyân: I am learning [to be] Cree explored the largely understudied area of adult Indigenous language learning.

As a Professor of Indigenous Education in the Department of Indigenous Education at UVIC, I teach, supervise graduate students, and contribute to both the undergraduate and graduate programs in Indigenous language revitalization. My current areas of research span the fields of Indigenous language revitalization, immersion and bilingual education, sociocultural language learning, additional language acquisition, Indigenous education, and Indigenous health and well-being.

Select a topic to view Dr. McIvor’s Publications.

Ewa Czaykowska is a Professor and linguist at the University of Victoria, Canada. She has had the honour of working for many years with the W̱SÁNEĆ community and with the Nxaʔamxčín Language Program of Colville Tribes. Her work has included supporting and contributing to community language reclamation projects, digital dictionary construction, and expanding community-based research methodology in language documentation. Ewa has taught in the Linguistics department and in Indigenous Education, and has been a founding participant in the development and delivery of all the undergraduate and graduate programs in Indigenous Language Revitalization at UVic.

Ha7lh Skwáyel (greetings). Tiná7 chen tkwa Wiwiḵ’em (I come from the Squamish Nation village, Wiwiḵ’em, near Brackendale, BC). Galuła̱n lax̱ Tsax̱is (I am also from the Kwaguł village of Tsax̱is, Fort Rupert, BC). My MA thesis was on subordinate clauses in the Sḵwx̱wu7mesh snichim (the Squamish language). My Ph.D. dissertation was on the syntax and semantics of agent control constructions in Sḵwx̱wu7mesh.

I worked for over 25 years at the Squamish Nation in language revitalization of the Sḵwx̱wu7mesh snichim, the language of my father’s side of my family. I also conduct research on Kwak’wala, the language of my mother’s side of my family. I taught at the University of Victoria before teaching at Simon Fraser University, where I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics. As a NEȾOLṈEW̱ co-principal investigator, I am humbled to work alongside the 9 First Nations Partners from across Canada.

Dẕenēs̱ hoti’e! Edōsdi ushyē. Tałsetān didene hots’ih. Tsesk’iye esdā tsehi. Tlabānotine hots’ih ja’ sini. My name is Edōsdi (Judy Thompson) and I am a member of the Tahltan Nation. I was the Language Reclamation Director for my Nation from 2012-2019 and I am a learner of my Tāłtān language. I have been teaching at the post-secondary level for over 25 years and am an associate professor in the Department of Indigenous Education at the University of Victoria. I am excited to continue my learning, teaching, and research journey out of Victoria, and to continue to build relationships with the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples.

My research interests include Indigenous language revitalization; Indigenous language and health and wellbeing; Indigenous research methodologies; Indigenous based curriculum and pedagogy; and Indigenous knowledge systems.

Alex Carter is a settler of English, Italian and German ancestry, born and raised in Tkaronto on many Nations’ traditional territories, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. Alex completed a M.A. in Cultural Analysis and Social Theory in 2021, focusing her research on cultural appropriation, systemic racism, and material manifestations of neocolonialism that permeate Canada’s national mythology. Since then, she has traveled west and is now a grateful visitor on W̱SÁNEĆ and lək̓ʷəŋən territories in Victoria. Alex is passionate about decolonization work and is delighted to fulfill the role as the NEȾOLṈEW̱ and President’s Chair Projects Manager.

Oki, my name is Nicole Goodstriker and I am a member of the Kainai Blood Nation. I was raised in Calgary, Alberta on Treaty 7 land. My educational path has been in Business and Psychology, leading to exceptional skills in organization, planning, graphic design and administration.

I am the Administrative Assistant for the NEȾOLṈEW̱ ‘one mind, one people’ SSHRC Partnership Grant and the President’s Research Chair in Indigenous Education at the University of Victoria. I look forward to continuing my learning journey here in Lekwungen and SENĆOŦEN speaking territories.

Jessica Ball, MPH, PhD, is a Full Professor in Child, Youth, Family and Community Studies at the University of Victoria, Canada. She is a settler of English and Irish descent, living on unceded lands of the Tswaout First Nation. Many Indigenous communities, institutions and governing bodies in Canada and globally have worked with Jessica to strengthen their capacity for culturally based and community fitting approaches to multilingual education, revitalization of Indigenous languages, early childhood programs, assessment, parent support, mental health, program evaluation, and interventions for migrant youth. Jessica’s work has earned her many awards for teaching, knowledge mobilization, contributions to Indigenous children’s well-being, and research in service of communities.

Jessica has written and taught countless courses on child and youth health and development, including teaching in universities in Canada, the United States, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Bangladesh. At UVic, she was a founding faculty member in UVic’s Early Childhood Development Virtual University, teaching initial cohorts of leaders in Africa and the Middle East. She has taught upper level undergraduate courses on mental health and addictive behaviours and graduate courses on social determinants of child, family and community capacity and wellness.

Her program of research includes a range of projects centering on cultural and policy contexts of child wellness, early learning, gender equity, reproductive health justice, and languages in education. Please visit her website at www.ecdip.org to learn about her program of research and practice, her colleagues, and resources available to download.

Dr. Charlotte Loppie is from Nova Scotia, born to Mi’Kmaq and French-Canadian parents. She is a Professor Emerita from the School of Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria, the former Director of the Centre for Indigenous Research and Community-Led Engagement (CIRCLE), and the former NPI of the BC NEIHR (British Columbia Network Environment for Indigenous Health Research).

Dr. Loppie’s guiding principle was to be of service to the Indigenous communities who would benefit from her research. To that end, she has made it her life’s work to bring Indigenous Peoples into research projects that touch their lives. Her goal was to empower communities, build research capacity and tackle the health disparities faced by Indigenous Peoples.

Through partnering with First Nation communities, regional and national Indigenous organizations, health charities and government bodies on a range of projects she accomplished this goal many times over. We wish her all the best in her well-deserved retirement years.

Adam Stone is an English Settler and Jewish, born on the shores of the Pasapkedjinawong (Rideau River) that flows through the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin People where Ottawa currently stands. He completed a Doctorate in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies at Carleton University in 2020. His doctoral research focused on developing a systematic way of understanding the contexts and techniques involved in making maps of the world’s languages and parts of language, and in the following two years worked as a Research Associate with the Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Adam has been a part of the NEȾOLṈEW̱ Research Assistant team for over the past 5 years and is excited and grateful to shift his role to post-doctoral fellow. In his ongoing journey with NEȾOLṈEW̱, Adam looks forward to continuing to support Indigenous language educators, researchers, and activists, while also leading the NEȾOLṈEW̱ Indigenous Language Learning Atlas (NILLA) to completion.

View Dr. Stones’s Publications below.

Dr. Kari A. B. Chew is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. Her scholarship focuses on the motivations and experiences of adult additional language learners who are reclaiming their Indigenous heritage languages. Dr. Chew earned her Doctorate in Language, Reading, and Culture from the University of Arizona in 2016 and she is now an Assistant Professor in Indigenous Education at the University of Oklahoma.

Her current research focuses on adult Indigenous language learners, Indigenous language curriculum, and the role of technology in Indigenous language education (e.g. by connecting learners who live outside their communities to their languages).

While her Postdoc Fellowship concluded in the summer of 2020, she remains involved with the NEȾOLṈEW̱ Partnership as a collaborator. She also is a co-investigator on the SSHRC Connection Grant project “Exploring Innovative and Successful Adult Language Learning Methods in Canadian and US Indigenous Communities” (2018-2021).

View Dr. Chew’s Publications below.

Kanien’kehá:ka from Kahnawà:ke, Bear Clan.

Currently working toward PhD at University of Hilo in Language and Culture Revitalization. He is a Research Coordinator for the Covid-19 impacts on Language revitalization project and the 7000 Languages project.

Nicki Benson was born and raised on Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, səl̓ilwətaɁɬ, and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm territories in Vancouver and now lives in W̱SÁNEĆ and lək̓ʷəŋən territories in Victoria. She has an M.A. in Language Education and worked for over a decade as a language teacher before turning her focus to research and consulting to support Indigenous language revitalization. Nicki is a PhD candidate in Education at UVic where her research explores strategies for advanced Indigenous language learning. She is an advanced second language speaker of Spanish and is raising her children with Spanish as their first language. Nicki has worked with NEȾOLṈEW̱ since 2018, and is currently a facilitator for the NEȾOLṈEW̱ Research Clusters.

Dr. Myles Creed is a linguist and language instructor living and working on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. His ancestry is English, Irish, and French. He was raised on Qikiqtaġruŋmiut Iñupiat lands in Qikiqtaġruk (Kotzebue), Alaska and graduated with a MA in Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam. Since 2014, he has worked closely with Iñupiaq language revitalization efforts, most closely with the Iḷisaqativut language coalition and at the University of Alaska. He has also worked with Doyon Foundation on Dene languages efforts, including in online language course development and in mentor-apprentice program development. He has consulted for other Indigenous-led organizations and First Nations such as Alaska Native Heritage Center, Northwest Arctic Borough School District, Kawerak Inc., First Peoples’ Cultural Council, Lílw̓at Nation, Aleut Community of St. Paul, and the NEȾOLṈEW̱ Research Partnership.

Shirina Evans awa (This is Shirina Evans). wīthāwa nihithāw iskwīw īkwa kayatī mistahi-sākahikan iskonikanihk kā-kī-ohcīt (she is a Woodland Cree woman and is originally from La Ronge Indian Band). She is proud of her Woodland Cree ancestry on her maternal side and ohkoma is from wapāwikoscikanihk (her grandmother is from Pelican Narrows which means narrows of fear), one of eight Woodland Cree communities that comprise Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation. omosôma was from mistahi-sākahikan iskonikanihk (Shirina’s maternal grandfather was from Lac La Ronge Indian Band) and on her paternal side, she is of English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry.

Shirina is in the Juris Indigenarum Doctor (JID) and Juris Doctor (JD) law program at the University of Victoria and has over eight years of experience working in the Canadian Criminal Justice System. Her educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Saskatchewan, an Indigenous Language Certificate from the First Nations University of Canada, and a certificate in Aboriginal Policing from Saskatchewan Polytechnic. Throughout her time in the JID/JD program, she has become acutely aware of the pivotal role of nihithawīwin (Cree language) and the profound significance of revitalizing withasiwīwina (Cree laws) and legal orders. Shirina’s deep passion lies not only in learning her language but also actively contributing to the revitalization of Cree laws. She is dedicated to pursuing this goal through an artistic and culturally traditional approach, with the aim of positively impacting her community.

Robyn Giffen is of German and English ancestry and grew up on and recently returned to Treaty 7 territory in Calgary, AB. However, she spent most of her adult life in Kelowna, BC, living, studying, and working on the unceded and ancestral territory of the Sylix and Secwepemc people. She now lives as grateful settler on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen peoples. Robyn has an M.A. from the University of British Columbia specializing in Linguistic Anthropology and has worked on Indigenous language revitalization projects in Ghana, Alaska, and British Columbia. Robyn is currently a PhD student in Education at UVIC, focusing on Indigenous language learning assessment. As a NEȾOLṈEW̱ Research Coordinator, Robyn currently oversees the social media portfolio and will be taking up coordination of the Assessment Theme.

Jackie Dormer is of Michif, German, Irish, and Polish ancestry and grew up in Treaty 1 Territory and the homeland of the Metis Nation (Winnipeg, MB). She received a Bachelor’s degree in Linguistics from the University of Manitoba and is now working towards a degree in Native Studies. She supports the collaborative research led by Dr. Kari Chew and 7000 Languages, along with community partners, Hase’ Language Revitalization Society and Prairies to Woodlands Indigenous Language Revitalization Circle. Their research explores how Indigenous communities utilize computer assisted language learning technology.