Our Staff
Bldg. #10-7201 Vedder Road
Chilliwack, BC V2R 4G5
Phone: 604-824-2420
Fax: 604-824-0278
Toll free: 1-800-565-6004
“We respectfully acknowledge that the SRRMC is on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Ts’elxwéyeqw Tribe, a Tribe of Stó:lō-Coast Salish, Halq'eméylem speaking Peoples.”
David Schaepe, Ph.D. - Director / Senior Archaeologist
Dr. David Schaepe is the Director & Senior Archaeologist of the Stó:lō Research and Resource Management Centre at Stó:lō Nation. He has worked for over 15 years as a community-based researcher addressing issues of aboriginal rights and title, heritage management policy and practice, repatriation, land use planning, archaeological research, and education and outreach. He earned his PhD in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia in 2009. In addition to working at Stó:lō Nation, he is an adjunct professor in Simon Fraser University’s School of Resource and Environmental Management, and an instructor of Indigenous Studies at the University of the Fraser Valley. His research interests are multi-disciplinary in nature and include household archaeology, oral history, Stó:lō-Coast Salish settlement patterning and community organization, cultural landscape management, and issues of aboriginal rights and title. Dr. Schaepe has over 25 years of experience in archaeology/anthropology, and cultural heritage research and resource management.
http://www.srrmcentre.com/files/David_Schaepe_CV_2020.pdf
Dave.Schaepe@stolonation.bc.ca
Naxaxalhts’i, Albert (Sonny) McHalsie - Cultural Advisor/Historian and Honorary Doctorate of Law, University of Victoria.
Dr. Naxaxalhts’i is the Cultural Advisor/Historian of the Stó:lō Research and Resource Management Centre. Naxaxalhts’i has worked for the Stó:lō as a researcher in cultural heritage and aboriginal rights and title issues since 1985. He currently acts as the cultural advisor on the Treaty Negotiation Team for the Stó:lō Xwexwilmexw Treaty Association. He was a co-author of the book I Am Stó:lō: Katherine Explores Her Heritage (1997) – focusing on his family and his daughter. He contributed to and served on the editorial board of the award winning publication A Stó:lō Coast Salish Historical Atlas (2001). He was also the author of We Have To Take Care OF Everything That Belongs To Us in Bruce Miller’s Be of Good Mind (2007). He also wrote the foreword in Keith Thor Carlson’s The Power Of Place, The Problem Of Time (2010). His areas of expertise include Halq’eméylem Place Names, Fishing, and Stó:lō Oral History. He has also been featured in many television documentaries for the CBC, APTN and Omni. He is a member of the Shxw’ow’hamel First Nation, the proud father of two girls and six boys, and has six grandchildren. He continues to fish at his ancestral fishing ground at Aseláw in the Stó:lō Five Fishery in the lower Fraser River canyon.
Sonny.McHalsie@stolonation.bc.ca
Tracey Joe - Aylexwlemot - Operations Manager
Tracey is a member of Chi’yaqtel First Nation and her Xwelmexw name is Aylexwlemot. Tracey’s employment began in 1995 as a researcher to assist with the three SRRMC publications that would be produced over the next five years: You Are Asked To Witness, A Stó:lō Coast Salish Historical Atlas, and I Am Stó:lō. Tracey has been a coordinator for the People of the River conferences since 1997. She has also coordinated two trans-border (BC and Washington State) environment conferences and the 2008 BC Archaeology Forum. Tracey has assisted in other projects, including the Yale Air Quality Study, The Lynching of Louie Sam film, treaty orientation sessions, Transformer Narratives project, and field schools, just to name a few.
Currently, Tracey provides operational and administrative support to the SRRMC department. Her primary responsibility is to liaise with the Stó:lō Service Agency Finance and Administrative staff to ensure their policies and procedures are adhered to for routine transactions such as financial accounting and bi-weekly Payroll, monitoring of funding and service contracts, telecommunications, supply requests and office equipment monitoring, information technology software and hardware requests, and human resources and personnel-related needs.
Tara Green – Executive Administration Assistant
Lana Baptiste – Administrative Assistant
Lana.Baptiste@stolonation.bc.ca
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Colin Green – Geographic Information Systems and Geomatics Manager
Colin Green is the GIS Analyst for SRRMC. Colin has a Mining Engineering Technology diploma from BCIT and had worked in industry for over 20 years. He is a member of Duncan’s First Nation, in northern Alberta, and has been living in the lower mainland for 12 years. Colin manages the GIS group at SRRMC, which provides mapping and database support for the other teams.
Heritage Stewardship and Archaeology
Cara Brendzy, B.A., B.App.GIS, B.Tech.ForensicInvestigation, RPCA – Heritage Stewardship & Heritage & Archaeology Manager
Cara is the Heritage Stewardship and Archaeology Manager and has been working with the Stó:lō Research and Resource Management Centre since 2007. Cara administers the Stó:lō Heritage Investigation permitting system. She received her B.A. in archaeology from SFU in 2002, her Bachelor of GIS from SAIT Polytechnic in 2005, and her B.Tech in Forensic Investigation from BCIT in 2018.
Cara.Brendzy@stolonation.bc.ca
Language, Archives, Cultural Education and Tours
Amber D. Kostuchenko, B.A., M.A. – Language, Arts, Cultural Education & Tours Manager
Amber is a XwelÍtem (Halq’eméylem for non-Indigenous) Canadian of Frisian and Ukrainian roots. Her education includes degrees in archaeology (BA, Simon Fraser University) and history (MA, University of Saskatchewan), as well as certificates in public history and paralegal studies. Prior to joining the SRRMC in 2016, she had the good fortune to have several opportunities to research and work with Stó:lō individuals and communities, participating in three archaeological and ethnohistorical field schools. Amber also spent 16 years working for the Canadian Federal Government, including 14 years coordinating research into Indian Residential Schools, which culminated in the opportunity to work with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the transfer of over 1 million documents related to the operations of the schools, which are now housed at the National Research Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba. Amber is pleased to bring her research skills, diverse knowledge sets, and program management experience to the SRRMC to support the Library/Archives, and Cultural Education and Tours programs.
Amber.kostuchenko@stolonation.bc.ca
People of the River Referrals Office
For more information about the PRRO, please visit https://thestsa.ca/stsa-operations/prro/
Matt McGinity, B.A., Adv.GIS Dip. – People of the River Office Manager
Matt was the first of his family to be born in Canada, his parents both being born to New Zealand settler families. Graduating from UBC with a Major in Anthropology, he worked as a field archaeologist across BC before returning to school at BCIT for an Advance Diploma in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Following his graduation from that program, he was hired at the SRRMC in 2012 just as PRRO’s referral management web portal, StoloConnect.com and The People of the River Referrals Office (PRRO) were about to launch.
MMcGinity@peopleoftheriver.com
Research & Special Projects - Jamie Benton, Research & Special Projects Manager
Jamie.Benton@stolonation.bc.ca