Place

I live and work in an area that is today named Saanich, close by the path to a mountain called PKOLS, a place with a long history for the nations who have lived and sustained themselves here forever. I give my great thanks and respect to the W̱SÁNEĆ, Songhees, and Esquimalt (SXIMEȽEȽ) people for their care of the land and kindness and hospitality to those who came recently. Like many people, I get great joy from this beautiful land and I am so grateful.

Introduction

On this website you will find information about me, work I’ve been involved with at the University of Victoria, and my partnerships in the wider community.

I am a Euro-Canadian with roots in the British Isles and Eastern Europe, for some of my relations by way of the United States. As a child of a military family I felt unrooted but oddly at home wherever I was. I could fit in. My nerdiness came out with friends at Glebe Collegiate Institute in Ottawa, and it hasn’t gone away through my studious pursuits at the University of Toronto (BA, MA, Linguistics), the University of California, San Diego (PhD, Linguistics), Memorial University of Newfoundland, and the University of Victoria.

Through work opportunities with Keren Rice, Fibbie Tatti, and Mick Mallon to start with, I was introduced to research in Dene language communities of the NWT in the 1970s, and have continued these studies in graduate work and beyond. My most enduring partnership has been with the Tłı̨chǫ Community Services Agency, Behchokǫ̀, NWT (and its antecedent Dogrib Divisional Board of Education and the Tłı̨chǫ Community Services Board). Together, TCSA staff, community advisory boards, graduate students, research assistants, colleagues, and I have produced Tłı̨chǫ language dictionaries and related resources. These accomplishments would not be possible without support from our employers and a number of funding agencies, including the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Aurora Research Institute, the Tłı̨chǫ Nation, and others.