Research Team
Darcy Mathews, PhD Archaeology Post-doctoral Fellow
Mr. Mathews is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at the University of Victoria researching funerary ritual and ecological context in the formation of precontact burial cairn and mound cemeteries on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. His doctoral research has been supervised Dr. Quentin Mackie. Henry Chipps and the chief and council of the Scia’new First Nation of Beecher Bay (Metchosin) assisted Darcy’s archaeological studies. As a post doctoral fellow with Nancy, he plans to conduct an inventory-landscape scale research project on Hunter and Calvert islands, focusing on the archaeology and human ecology of the poorly known latter half of the Holocene. This research will complement the ongoing archaeological research of Dr. Duncan MacLaren, with Elroy White and other colleagues (Hakai Ancient Landscapes Project) in the region. Working with the Hakai Ancient Landscapes Project, Darcy looks forward to bringing a greater understanding to the cultural history of this part of the British Columbia coast. His research will emphasize integrating the traditional archaeological approach with an emphasis on cross-disciplinary and collaborative research regarding the multitude of ways in which people shaped, interacted with, and maintained terrestrial, intertidal and marine ecosystems on the central coast over the last five millennia, including in the legacy of culturally modified trees (CMTs).
Fiona Hamersley Chambers, MSc. Environmental Studies, Doctoral Student in Environmental Studies
As a doctoral student in the School of Environmental Studies, Fiona is particularly interested in how humans and plants have co-evolved, to the benefit of both. She has always been passionate about plants, perhaps because she was fortunate to spend her childhood in the bush and in two First Nations' communities (Nitinaht and Penelakut) here on the BC coast. She holds an MA (UVic), Masters of Environmental Design (Ucalgary), and MSc Environmental Change and Management (Oxford). Fiona is multilingual and has worked and travelled extensively . Her dissertation question is, 'To what extent, and in what ways, did Northwest Coast First Peoples manage their berry resources?’ - an exciting and delicious subject. As a full-time farmer since 2004 with a small seed company (www.metchosinfarm.ca) she has a unique and practical perspective on this important research area.
Pamela Spalding, MA, Anthropology, Doctoral Student in Environmental Studies and Research Manager
Pamela is a doctoral student in the School of Environmental Studies. Her doctoral research examines how Indigenous peoples’ long-time connections with plants and their habitats can be integrated into land-use planning on their traditional territories. She is excited to be working with the T'Sou-ke First Nation on southwestern Vancouver Island, as one of three case studies for her doctoral project. Pamela worked for several years in the provincial government on issues such as First Nations’ traditional use studies and land use and treaty negotiations. Pamela received her BA in Anthropology from UBC and her MA in Anthropology from UVic. She joined Nancy’s team in 2011 as her Research Manager and has since assisted Dr. Turner with publications, legal research and several writing projects.
