Students

Jessie Taylor

Jessie Taylor is a graduate student in the M.A. of Cultural Studies program’s Texts and Cultures stream at the University of Winnipeg. She received a B.A. from the University of Manitoba in 2023, where she also worked in various academic positions. She also has experience as an editor, and in early childhood education. Her academic interests include feminist literatures, body politics, and interdisciplinary approaches to knowledge-building.

Jessie is also an aspiring poet (she was awarded the Dallas Taylor Memorial Prize for Creative Writing from the University of Manitoba in 2019) and enjoys hiking and travelling in her free time.

She is excited to join the Six Seasons Project as a Research Assistant to Dr. Melanie Braith.

Bukola Ajayi-Afuwape

Bukola Ajayi-Afuwape is a Nigerian native who has been working as an editor and writer for more than 15 years. She has worked for a variety of print media outlets, including business and IT publications. She has had the chance to go outside of Nigeria to locations like Dubai, South Africa, and London, where she has interviewed influential businesspeople and covered a wide range of events and conferences. In 2012, she received a nomination from the Nigerian Financial Technology Association for Best Financial Technology Journalist of the Year. In addition to her duties as Editor, Bukola serves on the board of TNB Media Limited, the company behind the website The NewsBeam. She also runs a personal blog called Goodsworth, a comprehensive web-based products and services reviews website that offers unbiased and independent guidance on what to buy and helps shoppers make the best buying decision. Bukola holds a B.A. in Linguistics from the University of Ilorin in Nigeria, a diploma in English Grammar and Style from the University of Queensland in Australia, and she is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Cultural Studies (Text and Culture) at the University of Winnipeg. Her interests include gender studies, culture, linguistics, and languages. She is thrilled to be a member of the Six Seasons Project and is looking forward to expanding her knowledge of it.

Donglin Guo

Donglin is an MA student in Cultural Studies at the University of Winnipeg and a Research Assistant in the Six Seasons Project. Before coming to Winnipeg, he studied, worked, and lived in Wuhan, China. There, he obtained his Master’s degree in English Language and Literature at Central China Normal University, and then became an English Teacher at Zhixing College, where he enjoyed his career and met super nice people. His academic interests lie in modern literature, critical theory, power/knowledge, identity, and cultures. He is excited to participate in this wonderful and valuable work with the indigenous culture and to make his share of contributions.

Nikki Brasseur

Nikki Brasseur (she/her) is a student at the University of Winnipeg in the M.A. Cultural Studies program - Curatorial Practices stream. During her B.F.A. Honors at Brandon University, she saw a disparity in the arts sector when it came to accessibility. In achieving her Masters, she hopes to not only address these gaps but challenge the colonial institution by advocating for artists and patrons who exist at the intersections of disability. Through a praxis rooted in ethical imperatives and socially engaged methods of care, she hopes to establish means of access and engagement which engender space and place-making for communities and sectors still struggling to achieve it.

Kristina Colmer

Governance and Management Team

Kristina Colmer is a woman of Filipino and Ukrainian descent, born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Currently, she is an undergraduate student studying biology at the University of Winnipeg. Her areas of research interest include community health, Indigenous history and governance, and conservation biology. In the future, Kristina is looking to pursue an MSc in Community Health at the University of Manitoba. Additionally, she enjoys bird watching and exploring Manitoba’s diverse landscape in her spare time.

She looks forward to her involvement with the Six Seasons project and how it will contribute to her understanding of Indigenous languages.

Steph Skelton

Archaeology Team

My name is Steph Skelton (they/them). I graduated from the University of Winnipeg in 2020 with a BSc. hon Bio-Anthropology. I am now a part of the Six Seasons archaeology team (Lakehead University), as a graduate student at the master’s level. My work is part of an effort to establish how archaeologists can best determine past human diet from archaeologically recovered ceramics, non-destructively. I’ve been interested in Six Seasons for several years now and I’m glad to now be part of this project myself. Outside of Six Seasons, I spend a fair amount of time researching and canoeing fur trade routes and working on my own experimental archaeology projects.

Amanda Laverdure

Governance and Management Team

Hi! My name is Amanda Laverdure and I am originally from the woody expanse of North Western Ontario. I completed my undergraduate at the University of Winnipeg in Creative Writing and History and I am currently working towards my Masters in Cultural Studies. During my placement with the Six Seasons Project, I will be working with Dr. Melanie Braith. I look forward to working with and meeting everyone in the Six Seasons Project and I am excited for all the new things I will learn during my time here.

Grace Braniff

Curriculum Team

My name is Grace Braniff, I am a MA Cultural Studies student at the University of Winnipeg. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be part of such an extensive and collaborative project, that brings knowledge to future generations, creates written records, and explores Rocky Cree material culture through storytelling. I will be working with the curriculum team under the guidance of Dr. Doris Wolf. I am keen to contribute to and learn about making this knowledge accessible and engaging to middle-year students.

Shalaka Jadhav

Governance and Management Team

Shalaka spent their childhood between cities in India, and in Dubai, before moving to the Greater Toronto Area. As a twice-over immigrant, Shalaka is interested in pursuing questions around value relating to power and authority.

They worked in an editorial role to launch the inaugural issue, and continue now as Community Manger for Textile, a magazine and hyperlocal community project focused on uplifting and prioritizing underrepresented voices along a portion of the Haldimand Tract (Waterloo Region), during which they supported workshop development. Shalaka is interested in how arts-based methodologies can provoke new collaborations and insights, and has worked with elders from Saddle Lake Cree Nation and graduate students at the University of Alberta to produce an augmented reality installation that prioritized Indigenous approaches to knowledge and storytelling.

Shalaka has also co-produced a museum exhibit evaluating decent work and migrant worker justice as part of an interdisciplinary design team, and worked in the urban planning departments for several municipal governments. They have performed work at the 2019 Common Waters festival and recently published work with the Indigenous Curatorial Collective.

Trained as an urban planner, they are following the advice of aptitude tests to pursue curatorial studies. They’ll likely point out the names of “weeds” as you walk together, enjoy studying the menus of local restaurants for fun, and always order dessert.

Ben Roloff

Production Team

Ben Roloff is of Red River Métis descent, and was born and raised in Dauphin, MB. Completing his Bachelor of Music at Brandon University in 2018, Ben now lives in Winnipeg and is enrolled in the Faculty of Education's After-Degree Program at the University of Winnipeg. Ben's areas of research interest include music analysis and composition, English literature, and Indigenous history, governance, and traditional knowledge systems. His interest is intensified when these particular subject areas interact with one another, such as the analysis of Indigenous texts, literature, or music. Ben's interest in interdisciplinary research was sparked after being invited to present an analytical comparison of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Duke Ellington's 1957 jazz composition "Up and Down, Up and Down, I Will Lead Them Up and Down" at the 2018 Northern Plains Conference for Early British Literature.

In addition to joining the Six Seasons Production Team by way of the Indigenous Summer Scholars Program (ISSP), Ben is also working with University of Winnipeg professor Dr. Gabriel Nemogá Soto on developing an English translation of ¿Qué pasarí si la escuela...?, a document detailing the history and development of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) and the Bilingual and Intercultural Education Program (PEBI) in Colombia.

Alex Oldroyd

History Team

Alex is an American graduate student from Utah and Hawai'i studying in the MDP in Indigenous Development program at the University of Winnipeg. He graduated recently with a BA in English Language and Literature and a certificate in social innovation and entrepreneurship from Brigham Young University. His undergraduate thesis involved research into the 1819 Hawaiian Iconoclasm which was distilled into a historical fiction novella. As an undergraduate, he also received a grant to write and illustrate two Native Hawaiian language children's books for use in immersion preschools. Over the past several years, Alex has volunteered and worked for several nonprofits and government entities including the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation, the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, the Utah State Legislature, and Indigenous International. In his work with Indigenous International, he helped produce one of the first ever reports of its kind on economic development challenges specific to the eight tribes of Utah for us by the Utah Division of Indian Affairs. He has also worked for and started his own consulting business to help nonprofits and Native American organizations raise funds for development projects. As a graduate student, he hopes to further the important work of decolonization and strengthening Indigenous nations, particularly when it comes to economic development, public policy, digital sovereignty, language revitalization. Alex is excited to be a part of the Six Seasons Project and to assist in the ongoing work of reclaiming language, histories, and knowledges among the Asiniskow Ithiniwak.

Kiera Kowalski

Curriculum Team

Kiera Kowalski is a first year student in the Master’s in Development Practice: Indigenous Development Program. She holds membership with the Manitoba Metis Federation and has Ukrainian, and German ancestry. While her family is from Winnipeg, she grew up four hours east of the city in Fort Frances, Ontario. She completed a combined honours undergraduate degree in Journalism and Communication at Carleton University in Ottawa in June of 2019. She has been privileged to practice journalism in many cities, including Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Ottawa and Winnipeg. Currently, Kiera’s interests reside in decolonization of the education system in Canada. She hopes to work towards Indigenous representation within educational institutions and curricula upon completion of her degree.

Laura Gosse

Archaeology Team

Laura Gosse is from Red Deer, Alberta. She has a BA in Psychology and a BSc in Archaeology & Geography. She will be pursuing a Master of Environmental Studies at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay in the Fall of 2019. Her focus is looking at community-based archaeology and how it can engage multiple communities that can create lasting positive impacts in the revitalization of the traditional Indigenous culture of the Asiniskow Ithiniwak. She will be helping to develop archaeology-based activities for teachers to utilize in the classroom.

Waylon Wilson

Production Team

To come.

Lesley Beardy

History Team

Tansi/Boozhoo. Hello, my name is Lesley Beardy. I am both Cree and Annishnaabe from the Missipwastic Cree Nation in Treaty Five Territory. I am attending the Winnipeg Education Centre at the University of Winnipeg. I have attained a Bachelor of Arts in History and plan to finish my education degree. I would also like to enroll in the Master in Indigenous Governance program at the University of Winnipeg in the future. I am a part-time research assistant for the Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak Project, and I also work as a causal administrative assistant for a consulting firm. I am the 2017-2018 recipient of the Harington Fellowship, and a 2018 Indigenous Summer Scholar Student. I will be working in partnership with the Winnipeg Art Gallery for the summer and fall.

It is an honour to be a part of the history team on the Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak Project. I believe that reclaiming our culture will help with our healing journey as a nation. I enjoy the research work, I know this work is valuable for many people in the South Indian Lake region, and it’s a good feeling to know that the community is also on board with this project. I love that I am making factual history for future generations.

Zeb Kawei

Archaeology Team

Zebedee Kawei is an archaeologist out of Lakehead University. He was recently accepted into the Masters of Environmental Sciences program at Lakehead University. The overall aim of his thesis is to reconstruct the paleo-environment of his study area in virtual reality (VR).

For the Six Seasons project, he is working closely with Dr. Scott Hamilton, Professor of Anthropology at Lakehead University, and Kevin Brownlee, Curator of Archaeology at The Manitoba Museum. Zebedee is tasked with creating photorealistic 3D renders of artifacts. Development of these models will contribute to creation of landscape renderings to aid the objectives of the Six Seasons project.

In his spare time, Zeb does photography and plays billiards.

Jane Shulman

Knowledge Mobilization

Jane Shulman is a Research Assistant with the Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwakproject, and a student in the M.A. in Cultural Studies program at the University of Winnipeg. She is researching Indigenous knowledge mobilization and communications strategies for the project. A trained journalist, Jane has worked in NGO and academic settings for 20 years, focusing on women’s and queer people’s health, and environmental protection.

Before joining the University of Winnipeg, Jane was the Director of Knowledge Exchange at the Canadian Women’s Health Network, and worked on research projects at McGill, UBC, and University of Manitoba.

Thamer Linklater

Story Team, History Team

Thamer Linklater is a member of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation and a survivor of the Child Welfare system in Manitoba. She recently graduated from the University of Winnipeg with a B.A. in English and is now working on her Master’s in Indigenous Studies at Trent University. She has worked in various teams for the Six Seasons Project. She has been involved with Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak and is an active First Nations advocate. Thamer has recently started work on her collection of poems and hopes to publish them soon. In her free time, she enjoys reading novels, studying her culture, and painting. She has developed a passion for her culture and pursues any chance at learning more about her people.

Haley Pauls

Curriculum Team

Haley Pauls is a student at the University of Winnipeg in the MA in Cultural Studies Program. Growing up in Winnipeg’s inner-city and dabbling in the world of non-profits has contributed to her growing interest in art as resistance, particularly in a settler colonial context. She is interested in identity, space/place, affect, and world-making, and hopes that the theoretical basis provided to her by the Cultural Studies MA might be a starting point from which to embark on more creative projects in the future.

She looks forward to her involvement with the Six Seasons project might and the ways it will contribute to her understanding of the work that is being done to decolonize pedagogical methods in Manitoba.

Miriam Sainnawap

Production Team, Curriculum Team

Miriam Sainnawap is Anishinini and originally from a community called Kingfisher Lake in northwestern Ontario. She has grown very fond of the prairies, and made Winnipeg home for number of years now. In 2018, Miriam joined the Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw ĪthiniwakProject working under the guidance of Dr. Doris Wolf, which helped contribute to her understandings and perspective as an Anishinini ikwe. She is a recent graduate of the Young People’s Texts and Cultures stream at the University of Winnipeg.

Chantelle Ranville

History Team

Chantelle is a proud member of Opaskwayak Cree Nation and community member of the North End. Chantelle graduated from the Aboriginal Self-Government Administration Program at Red River College in 2018 and currently in the joint program at University of Winnipeg in Indigenous Studies. In the future, Chantelle is looking to pursue a PhD in Indigenous Studies and publish Indigenous material coming from an Indigenous perspective. In their spare time, Chantelle enjoys reading and working on poetry.

Frances Robertson

Research Evaluation and Policy Development Team

Frances Robertson, is a First Nations woman born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, who has ties to Norway House Cree Nation, Peguis First Nation, and Roseau River First Nation. I’m an undergraduate in Education and the Arts, in the CATEP (Community Based Aboriginal Teacher Education Program) at the University of Winnipeg. For a part of this program I work as an Educational Assistant while I take courses at the University. I have a large family and value spending time with them and I’m greatly appreciative of all the support and encouragement my family has shown me while pursuing post-secondary education.

I have interests in incorporating Indigenous knowledges and worldviews into the Manitoba education curriculum. I have been working for the University of Winnipeg as a research assistant for the Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak Project, on the Policy Development and Research Evaluation team and I’m conducting literature searches and on evaluation methodologies. I think this work is important of promoting Indigenous education accounts of history, language, worldviews and knowledges into the mainstream society. Indigenous education may pave the way for creating the context we need to develop a new guiding ideology or education for all in the 21^st century.

Michelle Queskekapow

Production Team

Michelle Queskekapow is a proud Dene/Cree woman from Norway House Cree Nation. She is the first in her immediate family to graduate with a high school diploma (Maples Collegiate, 2008) and the first to receive a Bachelors Degree (University of Winnipeg, 2013). In the Spring of 2019, Michelle will be graduating from the Four-Year Bachelor of Arts program, specializing in Young People’s Texts and Cultures. During the 2018-19 academic year, Michelle acted as a Student Ambassador at the UW’s Aboriginal Student Services Centre, a position that reaffirmed their beliefs in encouraging Indigenous youths to not only value their education but to also pursue post-secondary in the future. In the future, Michelle will be pursuing a Master of Arts in Children’s Literature at University of British Columbia and furthering their love for children’s literature! Michelle is particularly interested in studying texts that challenge dominant, colonial perspectives and the use of the children’s literature genre to voice historical Indigenous atrocities, and more importantly, indigenous resistance and resilience.

Brent Murray

Curriculum Team

I am currently a student at the University of Winnipeg, attaining my Bachelor of Arts degree (Honours) in Geography. My focus has been in the areas of Geomatics and the Human Environment. I am currently working on my Honours Thesis in which I am looking at using Synthetic Aperture Radar for biomass measures of a rainforest in Queensland, Australia. When not in school I have been working with underprivileged youth from the centre of Winnipeg, where we provide them the opportunity to go on a wilderness experience either canoeing, backpacking, hiking, snowshoeing, or backcountry camping.

Anne Lindsay

History Team

Currently pursuing a PhD in history at the University of Manitoba, Anne Lindsay’s career has focused on archival primary source research, particularly in areas relating to Indigenous and fur trade history. She has worked and continues to work as a researcher for a number of Indigenous communities, and in the past has done research for APTN. In addition to this work, Anne has held positions in archives and research with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba and before that with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, and with the Centre for Rupert’s Land Studies at the University of Winnipeg where she worked as assistant to the director.

Patricia Murdock

History Team

Patrica Murdock is currently an undergraduate student at the University of Winnipeg, working towards her Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in history and minoring in sociology. Patricia is Cree and Ojibwe from Lake St. Martin.

Mathieu Godin

Production Team

To come.

Melanie Belmore

Story Team

To come.

Gavin Shields

Archaeology Team

I am born of Irish, Slovenian and German descent and grew up in the suburbs of Kitchener, Ontario near the Grand River. I was home schooled along with my siblings by our father until attending public high school as a teenager. When my family moved to Thunder Bay, I started Confederation College’s Film Production program then transferred to Lakehead University where I completed a double major in Indigenous Learning and Philosophy with an English minor. I have worked as a research assistant on four Indigenous community based research projects and was a member of Lakehead’s varsity cross country running and ski teams throughout my undergrad.

Britney Weber

Archaeology Team

Fascinated with anthropology and archaeology from a young age, I took as many courses as possible in high school that related to those fields, which then lead to my degree in university. I recently graduated from Brandon University with a degree in Anthropology. In my honors thesis I analyzed lithic materials that were surface collected in the Winnipegosis region of Manitoba. I feel fortunate to have done my archaeological field school at Camp Hughes, a National Historic Site, in regards to Canada’s involvement in WWI and trench warfare. I was able to gain a great deal of experience in lithic identification through a course called Rural Museum Archaeological Outreach. This course had several students, including myself, analyze the precontact indigenous artifacts of three museums in southwestern Manitoba. My interests are in archaeology, lithic analysis, bioarchaeology, linguistics/languages, plains pottery, and museum studies. I am excited to be part of this amazing project and look forward to the outcomes!