John S Costello (they/them)
M.Sc. Student, UVic Computer Science.
I’m a settler from the U.S. My mother’s family emigrated from Poland and arrived in Dakota territory in the early 1900s, and my father’s family emigrated from Ireland and arrived in Dakota territory in the 1850s. I and my husband have been living and working in lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ territory since 2019.
I’m interested in collaborating with Indigenous communities and researchers to build good geographic tools. I’m also interested in mapmaking as a rhetorical process—especially, a storytelling process. What is needed so that existing technologies like Google Earth Pro and up-and-coming technologies like Augmented Reality can fulfill their potential as tools for people to tell new, complex, and creative stories? This is what I’m hoping to find out.
Aidan Gowland
M.A. student, UVic Geography
Aidan is a Master of Arts student in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria. Aidan’s research focuses on Indigenous access to public spaces, particularly National Parks, and how reduced access to (and jurisdiction over) these lands affects Canada’s compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. How, for instance, can reconciliation between Parks Canada and Indigenous nations be achieved while Indigenous territories are still legally under Parks Canada’s control? Aidan is also a co-chair of the Canadian Herpetological Society’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, focusing on making the applied sciences a safer and more comfortable space for queer, transgender, Indigenous, and POC practitioners. While currently situated in critical human-environmental-political geography, Aidan’s background is in history, political science, applied physical geography, ecology, and spatial analysis.
Kate Herchak (Inuk from Kuujjuaq, QC, with ties to Nunavut)
MA student, UVic Geography
Kate is VIDEA’s Manager of Indigenous Governance and Decolonial Practices & Policy. Kate’s background is in Indigenous Family Support Work and in Justice Studies at Royal Roads University where she was awarded the Lt. Governor’s Medal for Inclusion, Democracy & Reconciliation. Now, Kate is completing her Masters of Geography at the University of Victoria. Her research is centring Maasai youth in traditional economies and community.
Kate is passionate decolonizing education and integrating Indigenous knowledge systems and perspectives into spaces to create meaningful relationships and change.
Taylor Nishimura
Undergraduate Honours student, UVic Geography
Taylor is an undergraduate honours student completing her BA in Geography and Political Sciences at the University of Victoria. She is a settler of mixed Korean, Japanese, and Scottish-Irish descent. Taylor’s research focuses on the visibility of Indigenous place-making practices relating to the colonial categorization of land. She is interested in the affective nature of Indigenous place-making, particularly in urban environments. Taylor is passionate about art and creative tools as a means to subvert contemporary settler-colonial narratives and build meaningful bonds within and between communities.
Jugal Patel
Community Lab Member
Jugal is a GIS specialist and animal geographer studying participatory agent-based models of socio-ecological complex adaptive systems. As a research associate, Jugal assists and consults with Indigenous communities applying Geographic Information Systems to solve socio-ecological issues. As an industry professional Jugal designs and develops custom, full-stack data analytics and visualisation solutions. Jugal is particularly interested in GIScience, mobility, complex systems, critical education, and Indigenous self-determination.
Rhea (Emileigh) Pearson, She/They
Community Lab Member, Alumni
Rhea is an alumni of the UVic Geography department, completing her BSc in Geography in 2022. She is also a settler of mixed european descent, who originally came to Victoria from the territories of the Stó:lō Nation and Treaty 7 territory.
She currently works full time as a GIS Officer with the Canadian Red Cross, focusing on improving open-source basemaps and involving communities across the country in mapping areas of local interest. She is passionate about disaster management, and how open-source mapping can support community-based preparedness for and response to these events. In 2021, she participated in wildfire responses to the White Rock Lake and Lytton Creek fires, and also worked closely with communities impacted by the floods that same year.
Rhea is also very interested in exploring the influence of the urban environment on perceptions of safety in minority groups, natural processes, and how mapping can be adapted to accommodate and grow to the needs of Indigenous users and their knowledge systems.
Camryn Riccitelli
MA Student, UVic Geography
Hello, my name is Camryn Riccitelli and I am a Master of Arts student in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria. Originally from Southern California, I came to UVic to complete my B.A. in Geography and Environmental Studies and then stayed to continue my education further. My research focuses on the potential of games (video games, board games, tabletop roleplay games, etc.) as a tool for decolonization, education, and community building. I also want to look at the reciprocal relationship between player and game space and how they inform and affect each other.
Deondre Smiles (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe)
Director of the GIF Lab, Assistant Professor, UVic Geography
Christine Todd
Community Lab Member
Christine is a Pakeha (settler), from Aotearoa/New Zealand, mum, and scholar in Critical Indigenous Geography. She has lived and worked in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, California, and Vancouver Island on the traditional territories of the Ngati Whatua, Yugambeh, Kumeyaay, Lekwungen, and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. Her research draws on Indigenous theory to reconsider the role of geography in the structured repossession of Indigenous lands, resources, and cultures. Christine has assisted on a GIF project looking at Indigenous actions and responses to Climate Change.
Indigo Underwood
MA Student, UVic Geography
Hi! I’m Indigo (they/them) and I am working towards a Master of Arts in Geography at the University of Victoria. I am originally from Texas and have spent most of my collegiate and professional careers in Oklahoma working with native plants in the fields of horticulture and environmental science. Here my research interests include looking at the term “resilience” and how that term is applied and viewed differently in Indigenous and colonial frameworks. Especially with how this term of resilience applies to practices and future planning related to global environmental change. In my free time I enjoy spending time in nature, cultivating plants, playing boardgames, and putting together jigsaw puzzles while listening to music/podcasts. Thanks!
Riley Watts
Undergraduate student, UVic Geography
Riley is an undergraduate student pursuing a BA in Geography with a minor in Technology and Society at the University of Victoria. Raised on the territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, they are a descendent of several generations of Gaelic, German, and French settlers on the lands of the Anishinaabe and the Haudenosaunee.
Riley is interested in collaborating towards Indigenous self-determination through the weaving of counter-mapping, disaster studies and knowledge-creation ethics. Their perspective is grounded especially in learnings from Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, shíshálh, Kahnawákeró:non, Onyota’a:ká: and Mi’kmaq communities as well as experience in fields such as risk assessment, ecosystem-based adaptation, and policy monitoring and evaluation. Passionate about learning and dialogue that can take place outside of classrooms or boardrooms, they are also in training to facilitate critical outdoor education that centers on relationality, accessibility, and accountability.
Marissa Weaselboy (Shoshone-Yomba Nation/Cree)
Ph.D. student, UVic Geography
GIF Lab alumni include: Brontë Elphick-Miner (Bachelor’s in Geography with honours, UVic Geography, 2023), Ashley Churchill, and Matt Gilbert.
Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles, Ph.D. 