Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University.
Nola’s Ph.D. dissertation research investigates how Aboriginal traditional knowledge has been collected and integrated into the many components of environmental assessments (EA) conducted in Canada. She further explores how traditional knowledge data is protected and investigates the degree to which descendent communities are involved in the EA process. The objective of her research is to challenge the current environmental decision-making process in Canada to grant Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge equal consideration to Western Scientific paradigms.
Nola is Saulteaux, a member of the O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation community in Manitoba. For the past two decades Nola has worked in collaboration on an array of projects with numerous First Nation communities within the Southern Interior of British Columbia, the Yukon and Northern Ontario. Some of these projects include traditional land use studies, archaeological assessments, developing heritage policies and guidelines, aboriginal rights research, archival research, and archaeological and ethnographic training workshops. For the past 20 years, Nola has worked as a project manager on a variety of cultural resource management projects, archaeological training, and Aboriginal components of environmental assessments.
Nola completed her MA in Anthropology at Simon Fraser University (2001). Her thesis Data "Gathering Dust": An Analysis of Traditional Use Studies Conducted within Aboriginal Communities in British Columbia critically analysed the methodologies used to collect the data and the government bureaucracy behind funding these projects. Nola’s other interests include Aboriginal environmental assessments, ethnobotany, intellectual property rights, cultural sensitivity training, incorporating oral history with archaeology, and aboriginal engagement.
