Crystal Tremblay

Crystal Tremblay

UVic Community Engaged Scholarship – Special Advisor to Provost

I have been a visitor on the Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples territories for over 16 years, originating from Quebec with French-Canadian, Irish, Scottish and German ancestry. I am so grateful to live and work on these lands and waters. I also teach and do research at the University of Victoria, where I co-chair the Geography Map Shop and help lead the Salish Sea Hub, both with missions to be of service to the community through facilitating community-driven and action oriented research and learning opportunities that address community needs. I am passionate about supporting initiatives and building relationships that contribute to an inclusive, sustainable, decolonized and just world. I also like to produce community films and arts-based interventions focused on enhancing livelihoods, and for social-environmental justice.  Some of them can be found here. I will be supporting the Living Lab projects as an Advisor at Uvic in community-engaged research, participatory methods, and knowledge mobilization.

Rhianna Nagel

UVic Community Engaged Learning Coordinator

As a coordinator for Community-Engaged Learning at UVic, I am keen to connect community and students in endeavours that support learning and community. The Living Lab is an essential network for connecting, creating and supporting opportunities that help us work, learn and play in relation to the land, the sea and each other. What a wonderful endeavour for UVic students to engage with! I am excited to support learning processes and relationships of mutual benefit with the Living Lab.

Darcy Mathews

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Assistant Professor, School of Environmental Studies, UVic.
UVic Academic Co-Leads

I am an Archaeologist and Ethnoecologist working primarily via UVic with the Songhees Nation. We are working collaboratively at Tl’ches (Chatham/Discovery Island), looking at the ways in which the Lekwungen peoples there managed their ecosystems through time. This includes plant foods, such as blue camas, and Springbank clover. We are also looking at the archaeological record of the islands, including three large village sites. These are places where we can bring together community knowledge and science to co-discover the deep history of the islands and the ways in which its inhabitants so successfully and sustainably managed their home over hundreds and thousands of years.

As a father and community-focused person, I particularly enjoy working with youth as part of the Living Lab Program. I have been asked by Songhees elder Sellemah/Joan Morris, to work towards getting the youth back to the islands, and back to the land. I also love archaeology and gardening, and this is an excellent opportunity for us to all get our hands dirty caring for culturally important plants, and also work with village sites to learn more about traditional foods, history, and ways of life.