Speaker Bios

Terry Tobias

President, Tobias and Associates

Terry is President of Tobias and Associates a small consultancy that specializes in use-and- occupancy research. He has helped design dozens of First Nation, Métis and Inuit research projects in most provinces and territories in Canada, and assisted aboriginal nations with the introduction of use- and-occupancy mapping in Australia. He has 33 years of full-time experience doing mapping, traditional ecological knowledge research, quantitative bush-harvest surveys and a variety of other applied cultural research. Virtually all his work has been with indigenous communities. During the 1990s Terry concentrated on delivering a variety of workshops aimed at transferring research capacity to communities. Since 2000 much of his professional energies have been focused on developing instructional material for aboriginal community- based research, starting with Chief Kerry’s Moose, A Guidebook to Land Use and Occupancy Mapping (2000). The popularity of the guidebook, which quickly went to a second printing and was translated into Cantonese and Spanish, led to requests for a much more detailed treatment of the discipline. Terry then devoted five full-time working years to the non-profit, 468-page sequel to the guidebook, Living Proof, The Essential Data-Collection Guide for Indigenous Use-and-Occupancy Map Surveys (2009) that is published jointly by the Union of BC Indian Chiefs and Ecotrust Canada. Living Proof won the Alcuin Society award for the best-designed reference book in Canada, and has been translated into Inuktitut. The book is a full methods text that explains how to put the general advice found in Chief Kerry’s Moose into practice. It is a synthesis of best practices based on interviews with 110 practitioners representing over 1,000 years of experience with use-and-occupancy mapping. The book reflect’s Terry’s commitment to excellence. His bottom-line proposition: all applied cultural research must respect the fundamentals of science so that the final information products have credibility with even the most unfriendly of audiences.

Raleigh SeamsterProgram Manager, Google Earth Outreach

Raleigh helps nonprofits and indigenous communities use Google's tools to visualize their data, create their own maps and tell their stories. She has been at Google for 7 years. Before life at Google, Raleigh managed international exchange programs at the nonprofit American Councils for International Education in Washington, DC, taught English and trained teachers as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine and studied cultural anthropology at James Madison University in Virginia.

Christiaan Adams Developer Advocate, Google Earth Outreach

Christiaan is a Developer Advocate, GIS specialist, and KML designer with the Google Earth Outreach team, where he helps nonprofits to use Google's online mapping tools to tell their stories, visualize their data, and share their work work with the world. Christiaan focuses on working with Crisis Response and Conservation organizations. His background is in Environmental Engineering, Technology Policy, GIS and international development. When he's not playing with digital maps, Christiaan can be found mountain biking, hiking, or "fixing" things in his workshop.

Steven DeRoyDirector, The Firelight Group

Steve is Anishinabe/Saulteaux and a member of the Ebb and Flow First Nation from Manitoba. He is a director and past president of the Firelight Group. Since 1998, Steve has worked as a professional cartographer and geographic information systems (GIS) specialist, primarily with Aboriginal groups in North America. Through his work, Steve has provided advisory and technical support for: the collection and protection of indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage; health and social issues; land use planning; treaty land entitlement; and natural resource management. The other aspect of his work is to promote the transfer of knowledge by facilitating hands-on technical training and mentorship with First Nation practitioners. He has facilitated workshops in communities and presented at numerous conferences. Aside from providing technical and analytical support, Steve is a moderator of the Open Forum on Participatory Geographic Information Systems and Technologies, a co-moderator of the Aboriginal Mapping Network, and a trainer of the Google Earth Outreach Trainers Network.

Ginger GibsonDirector and President, The Firelight Group

Dr. Ginger Gibson is the President and Director of the Firelight Group Research Cooperative. She works as a negotiator and implementation coordinator for First Nations on land use and mining issues. Her research is on impact assessment, negotiation and implementation of Impact and Benefit Agreements. She is the co-author of The Community Toolkit for Negotiation of Impact and Benefit Agreements. As a Trudeau Scholar, she completed a PhD in Mining Engineering at the University of British Columbia and is now an Adjunct Professor there.