Collaborators

Philip Baker

Curriculum Team

Philip Baker is currently the Executive Director of the ACCESS programs for the Faculty of Education, University of Winnipeg. This is a family of ACCESS programs such as WEC (Winnipeg Education Centre), CATEP (Community-based Aboriginal Teacher Education Program), ITEP (Immigrant Teacher Education Program), and IKPB (Indigenous Knowledge Post-Baccalaureate Program). He has previously been a classroom teacher, resource teacher, special education teacher, school principal, school psychologist, school consultant, and a special education coordinator. He has also taught at Brandon University, the University of Manitoba, the University of Winnipeg as well as Red River Community College. Phil has taught post-baccalaureate courses in the USA, Thailand and Brazil as well as presented around the world (Russia, England, Germany, Turkey, Israel, China, Portugal). He has been published in several books and journals. He has co-created and continues to teach in the EADP (Educational Assistant Diploma Program) for the University of Winnipeg. Phil has taught in three school divisions over thirty-one years in the province of Manitoba and has been at the University of Winnipeg full-time for the past nineteen years.

Keith Goulet

History Team

To come.

Naomi Hamer

Production Team

Dr. Naomi Hamer is an Assistant Professor in child and youth studies at Ryerson University. Her current research and publications examine the cross-media adaptation of children's literature with a focus on picture books, mobile apps, and children’s museums. She is the co-editor of More Words About Pictures: Current Research on Picture Books and Visual/Verbal Texts for Young People (eds. Hamer, Nodelman and Reimer, 2017), and The Routledge Companion of Fairy-tale Cultures and Media (eds. Greenhill, Rudy, Hamer, and Bosc, 2018). Dr. Hamer received the David Almond Fellowship for Research in Children’s Literature (2013) for research at Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books (Newcastle, UK). She has expanded this project to examine how media is used to negotiate the cultural discourses of childhood, nationalism, gender, race, class, sexuality, and ability within children’s museum exhibits. Framed by "queering the museum" and "the participatory museum" movements, the next phase of this research will invite young people to engage as collaborative-curators. Dr. Hamer serves on the editorial board for the journal Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures. She is also the President of the Association for Research in the Cultures of Young People (ARCYP).

Jim Jones, Jr.

Archaeology Team

To come.

Kevin Lamoureux

Curriculum Team

Kevin Lamoureux is faculty at the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba, and a well-known public speaker. He has recently served as the Associate Vice-President, Indigenous Affairs at the University of Winnipeg and Education Lead for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation on secondment. Lamoureux has also served as co-Chair for the Provincial Task Force on Educational Outcomes for Children in Care, scholar-in-residence for several school divisions, and education consultant throughout Manitoba and across Canada. His writing has been featured frequently in newspapers and many academic journals. Lamoureux is working towards his PhD in the University of Manitoba’s Wellness and Sustainability cohort. He works closely with schools throughout Manitoba in support of Indigenous education and the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives; enrichment and talent development, and works with troubled and disengaged students.

Margaret Mackey

Production Team

Margaret Mackey is a Professor Emerita in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta. She researches and teaches in the overlapping areas of print, media, and digital literacies for young people. Her most recent book, One Child Reading: My Auto-Bibliography (University of Alberta Press, 2016) was acknowledged as the Scholarly and Academic Book of the Year for 2017 by the Book Publishers' Association of Alberta.

Val McKinley

Archaeology Team

To come.

Tomasin Playford

Archaeology Team

Tomasin Playford had always been interested in archaeology as a child, but didn’t realize that it could be her career until she attended Brandon University (BU) and enrolled in anthropology and archaeology courses. After her first year of field work, she was hooked and completed a Four Year Specialist Degree from BU. She continued her education at the University of Saskatchewan where the focus of her Master’s degree was a comparison of Vickers Focus and Blackduck subsistence strategies. She then spent a few years teaching sessional courses at Brandon University before completing her doctoral studies in the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Manitoba. Her dissertation was an extension of her MA thesis in which subsistence strategies of various archaeological groups are compared using quantitative methods. As part of this study, she also developed a growth and development sequence for foetal bison which can be used to estimate site seasonality. She has worked mostly in southwestern Manitoba as a field crew worker, site supervisor or field school assistant for Drs. Bev Nicholson or Scott Hamilton. She spent one summer as the SaskPower summer assistant and was able to see most of Saskatchewan. She was also blessed with the opportunity to work in Northern Manitoba and is always excited about undertaking field work. When she was an undergraduate student, she was actively involved in the Archaeological Society of Southwestern Manitoba and served as President of the Manitoba Archaeological Society. In 2013, Tomasin accepted the role as the Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Archaeological Society (SAS). The SAS delivers over 30 programs and services each year to connect people to Saskatchewan's past.

Deborah Schnitzer

Production Team

Deborah Schnitzer is Professor Emerita at the University of Winnipeg, interested in inter-art relationships and experiential learning as educator, writer, editor, and filmmaker. Her participation in the Six Season of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak project began through her involvement with the Pisim Finds Her Miskanow picture book and curriculum guide project. Her most recent publications include the novel jane dying again, the feature film, before anything you say, and a novella trilogy, Side by Side, currently under construction.

Scott Stephen

History Team

Scott Stephen has spent more than thirty years working in museums, archives, universities, heritage organizations, and anywhere else that a History degree might come in handy. Between 2000 and 2014, he taught history at both the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba. Since 2007, his 'day job' has been with Parks Canada's Winnipeg office, where he has worked on a variety of projects for national historic sites from York Factory to the Yellowhead Pass and beyond. He is particularly interested in the Hudson’s Bay Company and the trading post communities which it helped create: within this larger context, his current research interests includea history of work (overlapping with, but distinct from, labour history) and a history of space, landscape, and soundscape. He lives in Winnipeg with his wife, his son, two cats, and an alarming number of books.

E. Leigh Syms

Archaeology Team

Leigh Syms is the retired, but very active, Curator Emeritus of Archaeology at the Manitoba Museum, an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Manitoba, and a long-standing advocate and promoter of the importance of the ancient heritage/history of First Nations. In addition to writing numerous and technical articles, he has devoted much of his life to presenting knowledge on the richness of First Nations heritage through public presentations at various events; to schools, various conferences and to numerous groups in his Archaeology Lab at the Museum. He has held major workshops in First Nations communities such as Nisichawayasik First Nation and has run lab programs such as the Young Archaeologists Club.

In recent years he has focused on producing highly readable and beautifully illustrated books on First Nations ancient heritage for the public These include: Kayasochi Kikawenow: Our Mother from Long Ago(with Kevin Brownlee) (1999); Inninew (Cree) Material Culture and Heritage at Sipiwesk Lake: Results of the 2003 Archaeological Survey(with Teija Dedi and Wendy Hart-Ross) (2013); and Stories of the Old Ones from the Lee River, Southeastern Manitoba: The Owl Inini, Carver Inini, and the Dance Ikwe) (2014). This latter book was awarded the Canadian Archaeological Association award for an outstanding contribution to Public Communication. He received the Order of Canada in 2015 for his commitment and contributions to returning heritage knowledge to First Nations and developing the appreciation for it.

In 2014-2018 he coordinated and provided extensive information for the TV documentary, Mysteries Beneath: The Story of First Nations Farmersproduced by the First Nations film producer Coleen Rajotte and premiered at the Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival in November 25, 2017. This is a film on the important Lockport Site which has produced outstanding evidence on First Nation cultivation. Syms established a research strategy for the documentary that includes a variety of new scientific techniques to discover new insights into traditional plant use, the results of which will require researchers to develop new approaches to recovering and interpreting resource utilization.