Pamela Spalding

Taanishi! My name is Pamela Spalding, and I am a Métis Canadian (Scottish, Cree and Ojibwe of the Red River, Manitoba territory), and an enrolled citizen of Métis Nation BC and the Métis Nation of Greater Victoria.

I am delighted to be joining the faculty in Indigenous Studies at the University of Victoria as an Assistant Professor. I am an ethnobotanist, and my research examines dimensions of Indigenous people’s relationships with plants, ecosystems, resource stewardship, Indigenous feminism, Indigenous legal orders, and customary legal landscapes. My collaborative research with T’Sou-ke Nation over the last decade indicates that the magnitude of plant use in the traditional economies and lifeways of Indigenous peoples (particularly women) across North America warrants a much larger discussion about Indigenous plant use and ecosystem management in Canadian, US, and Indigenous governance. I recently held a Mellon postdoctoral fellowship in the Center for Global Indigenous Cultures and Environmental Justice at Syracuse University where I was introduced to how Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee relationships with the more than human world are expressed in law.

I enjoy activities that allow me to be with my plant friends: gardening, harvesting, camping, hiking and kayaking. After several years of supporting my kids in music, this winter I look forward to learning Métis fiddle. Ekosi.