Mary Kelly

Biography

During my undergraduate education at Dalhousie University in Mi'kma'ki, the Territory of the Mi'kmaq People, I was welcomed into Dr. Melanie Zurba's Community Engaged Colab, a research group focused on supporting communities through collaborative research. The Colab steered my passions towards collaborative environmental management, particularly in reimaging systems to support Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty.

I am honoured to be part of the Xwe’etay/Lasqueti Archaeology Project as part of my research project through the Master's of Resource and Environmental Management Program. My project focuses on how First Nations are exerting self-determination through cultural heritage policies and the responses from local municipalities. As a settler working on this project, I am deeply grateful and privileged to part of this work as I continue to learn from our Indigenous partners.