Project Coordinator, Research Support & Advancement, School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies

Chelsee Arbour, PhD candidate (Settler, she/her), is an archaeologist and cultural heritage researcher who focuses on narrative construction, researcher positionality, and most importantly collaborative knowledge mobilization. She utilizes relational approaches to research to better understand how differing narrative practices story, engage with, and understand Indigenous histories of the ‘deep past’, centering community voices within the larger discourse of how the past is brought into being in the present.

For the past 10 years, Chelsee has primarily worked in partnership with the Innu Nation and the communities of Sheshatshit and Natuashish on community-oriented heritage and archaeological projects that problematize settler narratives of Innu histories and the deep past in the Quebec/Labrador peninsula. Additionally, she has worked on a number of heritage-related projects with various Labrador stakeholders including the Innu Nation, Nunatsiavut, and NunatuKavut. Her larger research goals and interests include collaborative and relational research practices, repatriation, the decolonization of archaeology, museums, and academia, and the development of Indigenous-led curricula and tools utilizing digital approaches to education and learning.

In her role as Project Coordinator (Research Support & Advancement) for the School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies, Chelsee is working closely with leaders and community members in Labrador, at Memorial, and with fellow SASS researchers and staff to support Northern- and Indigenous-led research. Specifically, she supports faculty and staff on research planning and development, assists with research grants and funding applications to support the strategic growth, curriculum development, and ongoing research and operations of SASS, works closely with project partners and researchers to identify new opportunities for collaborative research, growth and development, and helps support the on-going management of the Pye Centre for Northern Boreal Food Systems.

Chelsee is thrilled to have permanently relocated to Happy Valley-Goose Bay with her partner.

Email: chelsee.arbour@mun.ca