Meet our Team
NEȾOLṈEW̱ is a collective of Indigenous and other scholars, community members, students, and allies working together towards Indigenous language revitalization.
Research Leaders & Project Staff
Current Research Trainees
Project Alumni – HÍSW̱ḴE SIÁM
Many people have made valuable contributions to NEȾOLṈEW̱ over the years. They are (alphabetically by last name):
Adar Anisman, Carolyn Belleau, Nicki Benson, Dr. Kari A. B. Chew, Emily Comeau, Nicole Davies, Jackie Dormer, Shirina Evans, Robyn Giffen, Tehota’kerá:ton (Dr. Jeremy D. Green), Kanen’tó:kon Hemlock, Pierre Iachetti, Samaya Jardey, Barbara Jenni, Zola Kell, Anureet Lotay, Jacob Manatowa-Bailey, chuutsqa Layla Rorick, Robby Smoker-Peters, Satuts Stsuhwum (Angela Marston), Dr. Adam Stone, Danielle Sullivan, and Marleen Willems.
In Memoriam
Dr. T’łat’laḵuł Trish (Patricia) Rosborough
Co-Principal Investigator
T’łat’laḵuł Trish Rosborough focused her scholarship on Indigenous language revitalization. An adult learner of her late mother’s first language, Kwak’wala, Trish used a narrative approach to her research, sharing stories of her personal journey as a language learner, teacher and researcher.
Her SSHRC Insight grant research project, Beautiful Words: Enriching and Indigenizing Language Revitalization through Understandings of Linguistic Structure, stemmed from her view that it is important to consider both how to retain Indigenous languages and how to retain the worldview understandings within the languages.
Trish was a co-Principal Investigator with the NEȾOLṈEW̱ Partnership, where she supported community Partner research and helped to guide the overall Partnership. She is missed greatly by all members of the NEȾOLṈEW̱ Partnership. Her intelligence, compassion, and fierce determination continues to guide us as we carry on with the work Trish was so deeply committed to.
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.
McIvor, O. (2020). Indigenous Language Revitalization and Applied Linguistics: Parallel Histories, Shared Futures? Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 40, 78-96. doi:10.1017/S0267190520000094.
McIvor, O. & Anisman, A. (2018). Keeping our languages alive: Strategies for Indigenous language revitalization and maintenance. In Y. Watanabe (Ed.), Handbook of Cultural Security, (pp. 90-109). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
McIvor, O. (2018). Indigenous languages in Canada: What you need to know. Ottawa, ON, Canada: CCUNESCO.
Czaykowska-Higgins, E., Burton, S., McIvor, O., & Marinakis, A. (2017). Supporting Indigenous language revitalisation through collaborative post-secondary proficiency-building curriculum. In W. Y. Leonard & H. De Korne (Eds.), Language Documentation and Description, vol 14. (pp. 136-159). London: EL Publishing.
McIvor, O. & McCarty, T.L. (2017). Indigenous Bilingual and Revitalization-Immersion Education in Canada and the USA. In García, O., Lin, A., & May, S. (Eds), Bilingual and Multilingual Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education (3rd ed.). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Jenni, B., Anisman, A., McIvor, O. & Jacobs, P. (2017). An Exploration of the effects of Mentor-Apprentice Programs on Mentors’ and Apprentices’ wellbeing. International Journal of Indigenous Health, 12(2), 25-42.
McIvor, O., & Parker, A. (2016). Back to the Future: Recreating natural Indigenous language learning environments through Language Nest early childhood immersion programs. The International Journal of Holistic Early Learning and Development, 3, 21-35.
McIvor, O. (2015). Reviving your language through education: BC First Nations language education planning workbook. Vancouver, BC: First Nations Education Steering Committee (FNESC).
McIvor, O. (2015). Adult Indigenous language learning in Western Canada: What is holding us back? In K. Michel, P. Walton, E. Bourassa, & J. Miller (Eds.), Our living languages: Papers from the 19th Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Symposium, (pp. 37-49). New York, NY: Linus Learning.
McIvor, O. (2013). Life and death of Canada’s founding languages (and not the two you think). In M.S. Smith (Ed.), Transforming the academy: Indigenous education, knowledges and relations (pp. 41-44). Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta.
McIvor, O. (2013). The protective effects of language learning, use and culture on the health and well-being of Aboriginal people in Canada. Proceedings of the 17th FEL Conference, FEL XVII: Endangered Languages Beyond Boundaries: Community Connections, Collaborative Approaches and Cross-Disciplinary Research, (pp. 123-131). Ottawa, ON: Published by the Foundation for Endangered Languages in association with Carleton University.
McIvor, O., Napoleon, A., & Dickie, K.M. (2009). Language and culture as protective factors for at-risk communities. International Journal of Indigenous Health, 5(1).
Riddell, J.K., Salamanca, A., Pepler, D.J., Cardinal, S. & McIvor, O. (2017). Laying the groundwork: A practical guide for ethical research with Indigenous communities. The International Indigenous Policy Journal, 8(2), 1-20.
McIvor, O. (2010). I Am My Subject: Blending Indigenous research methodology and autoethnography through integrity-based, spirit-based research. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 33(1), 137-155.
McGregor, C., McIvor, O., & Rosborough, P. (2016). Indigenous communities and community-engaged research: Opportunities and challenges. Engaged Scholar Journal: Community-Engaged Research, Teaching and Learning, 2(1), 1-15.
McIvor, O. & Ball, J. (2019). Language-in-education policies and Indigenous language revitalization efforts in Canada: Considerations for non-dominant language education in the Global South. FIRE : Forum for International Research in Education, 5(3), 136-159.
Rodríguez de France, M., Scully, A., & McIvor, O. (2018). Introduction. In Whitinui P., Rodríguez de France M., & McIvor, O. (Eds.), Promising Practices in Indigenous Teacher Education (pp. 1-7). Singapore: Springer.
Rodríguez de France, M., Scully, A., & McIvor, O. (2018). Beyond the Classroom: The Impact of a Required Indigenous Education Course in the Lives of Pre-service Teachers. In Whitinui P., Rodríguez de France M., & McIvor, O. (Eds.), Promising Practices in Indigenous Teacher Education (pp. 87-102). Singapore: Springer.
McIvor, O., Rosborough T., McGregor C., & Marinakis A. (2018). Lighting a Fire: Community-Based Delivery of a University Indigenous-Language Teacher Education Program. In Whitinui P., Rodríguez de France M., & McIvor, O. (Eds.), Promising Practices in Indigenous Teacher Education (pp. 189-203). Singapore: Springer.
Kēpa, M., Manu’atu, L., Stephens, C., McIvor, O., Kaimikaua, C., & Whitinui, P. (2018). Publish or Perish: Māori, Pāsifika, and International Indigenous Scholars’ Critical Contribution to Public Debates Through the Invited NZARE Symposium, International Organisations Session, AERA 2017, San Antonio, Texas. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 53(1), 135-142.
Whitinui, P., McIvor, O., Robertson, B., Morcom, L., Cashman, K., & Arbon, V. (2015). The World Indigenous Research Alliance (WIRA): Mediating and mobilizing Indigenous Peoples’ educational knowledge and aspirations. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23(120), 1-25.
McIvor, O. (2015). Reviving your language through education: BC First Nations language education planning workbook. Vancouver, BC: First Nations Education Steering Committee (FNESC).
Ball, J. & McIvor, O. (2013). Canada’s big chill: Indigenous languages in education. In C. Benson & K. Kosonen (Eds.), Language issues in Comparative Education: Inclusive teaching and learning in non-dominant languages and cultures, (pp. 19-38). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Dr. Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins
Co-Investigator
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.
Dr. Peter Jacobs
Co-Investigator (On leave)
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.
Edōsdi (Dr. Judy Thompson)
Co-Investigator (On leave)
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
Project Manager
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.
Nicole Goodstriker
Administrative Assistant
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.
Dr. Jessica Ball
Co-Investigator (On leave)
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
Co-Investigator (Retired)
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.
Stone, A., & Anonby, E. J. (2022). A typology for evaluating language maps. In Brunn, S. D. & Kehrein, R. (Eds.), Handbook of the changing world language map (pp. 1–30). Springer.
Anonby, E., Taheri-Ardali, M., & Stone, A. (2022). Toward a picture of Chahar Mahal va Bakhtiari Province, Iran, as a linguistic area. Journal of Linguistic Geography, 1–36. doi:10.1017/jlg.2021.8
Stone, A., & Anonby, E. J. (2019). Cybercartography in Indigenous language education. In D. R. F. Taylor, E. Anonby, & K. Murasugi (Eds.), Further developments in the theory and practice of cybercartography (pp. 441–460). Elsevier.
Stone, A. (2018). Mapping experience: Age and indigeneity as mediating factors in users’ experiences with the Algonquian Linguistic Atlas. Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization, 53(4), 229–240.
Stone, A. (2018). A typology for understanding and evaluating maps of Indigenous languages. In S. Drude, N. Ostler & M. Moser (Eds.), Endangered languages and the land: Mapping landscapes of multilingualism, Proceedings of FEL XXII/2018 (Reykjavík, Iceland), 19–25. FEL & EL Publishing.
Dr. Kari A. B. Chew
Research Associate
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.
McIvor, O. (2020). Indigenous Language Revitalization and Applied Linguistics: Parallel Histories, Shared Futures? Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 40, 78-96. doi:10.1017/S0267190520000094.
McIvor, O. & Anisman, A. (2018). Keeping our languages alive: Strategies for Indigenous language revitalization and maintenance. In Y. Watanabe (Ed.), Handbook of Cultural Security, (pp. 90-109). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Czaykowska-Higgins, E., Burton, S., McIvor, O., & Marinakis, A. (2017). Supporting Indigenous language revitalisation through collaborative post-secondary proficiency-building curriculum. In W. Y. Leonard & H. De Korne (Eds.), Language Documentation and Description, vol 14. (pp. 136-159). London: EL Publishing.
Kanen’tó:kon Hemlock
Research Coordinator
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
Research Coordinator
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
Project Associate
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
Research Coordinator
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
Research Coordinator
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.