The Board

Originally from Bay d’ Espoir, NL, Latonia now lives in St. John’s. She received a BAH in Anthropology from Memorial University of Newfoundland, as well as an MA and PhD in Archaeology from the University of Calgary. Her research interests include circumpolar archaeology as well as the archaeology of Newfoundland & Labrador, with a focus on hunter-gatherer studies, settlement and subsistence analysis, lithic theory and technology, zooarchaeology, paleoethnobotany and art. For the last 15 years her attention has been focused on Newfoundland’s Northern Peninsula with the Bird Cove-Plum Point Archaeology project which she has co-directed/directed and published on since 2000.

Latonia is an established filmmaker who has written and directed, as well as production managed and field produced, documentaries for the CBC. She has also directed a number of narrative short films such as Escape Routes, Wind Money and SADIE. She is the CEO of LJH Films Inc. a production company that not only produces films, but is also devoted to assessing film and television scripts for historical accuracy. Latonia also works as a resource staff archaeologist for the cruise ship company Adventure Canada, is a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society,  and won the Canada’s Outstanding Young Person Award in 2010. In 2016, she won the Cruise Vision Award, for her work with the cruise tourism industry in NL, and the Arctic. She is a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (2015) and Fellow of The New York City Explorers Club (2016) and on their list of 50 People Changing the World (2021).

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Born and raised in New Harbour, NL., John received his B.A.(Honours) in Anthropology (Archaeology) and Medieval Studies with a diploma in Heritage Resource Management from Memorial University in 2005. In 2008, he completed an MA in Archaeology focusing on Inuit ground stone tool technology in Northern Labrador. His research interests include: Arctic and North American archaeology, lithic technology, experimental archaeology, cultural resource management, Canadian history and medieval history.

Over the last decade, he has worked on a variety of prehistoric and historic sites across Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut and Ontario. This has included academic research into Thule, Historic Inuit and Late Dorset sites in Northern Labrador; terrestrial and helicopter site surveys within Parks Canada’s Torngat Mountains National Park; excavation of Dorset and Groswater Palaeoeskimo and Little Passage/ Pre-contact Beothuk sites in Newfoundland; community based excavation of a French and English Fort with the Placentia Uncovered Archaeology Project; Arctic research with the Canadian Museum of History; archaeological monitoring in Northern Labrador with geologists from the Swedish Museum of Natural History, as well as other consulting work in Nunavut (Baffin Island) and Ontario.

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Born in Providence, RI and raised in various parts of the world including Hong Kong and the SE United States, Steven studies Anthropology at Dartmouth College under Elmer Harp and Bob McKennan. After his undergrad, he enrolled at Harvard University where he received an MA in Archaeology/Anthropology as well as a PhD in archaeology, which was based on fieldwork at Okak, Labrador. His research interests include the prehistory of New England, Canada, and Alaska, circumpolar cultures and environment, ethnohistory and ethnoarcheology in northern regions, development of maritime adaptations, coastal and interior-coastal exchange systems, and subsistence-settlement system analysis.

Steven has had a number of teaching positions, including at Bowdoin College and Harvard, but most of his teaching efforts were focused in the Center for Northern Studies in Vermont from 1987 to 2003. In addition, he has had extensive involvement with the Maine State Museum since 1992 and currently retains a position there as an adjunct curator. Steven also has over 25 years of consulting experience throughout the state of Maine. His varied archaeological experience has produced numerous published articles on a wide variety of topics. His 1977 PhD thesis Prehistoric Settlement and Culture Change at Okak, Labrador is still considered one of the most important works on Palaeoeskimo settlement and subsistence in Labrador.

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Originally from Bay d’ Espoir, NL, Dena now lives in St. John’s.  She attended Memorial University, and also has a diploma from Eastern College in administration, where she was awarded top graduate honours in her program. She has been in the sales and management industry since 1998, across Canada, at companies such as Azko Noble. She currently works as an administrator at Action Insurance. Growing up on the south coast of Newfoundland has provided Dena with a great love of the outdoors from fishing, camping, hiking, skiing, to snowmobiling. She is also a certified PADI open water diver, and has spent many weekends on boating excursions to the family cabin. Her passion for the scenic surroundings of Newfoundland is being passed on to her two young girls, Tucker and Harper.

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Alison is an MA student in the Department of Archaeology at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her research is interdisciplinary, combining biochemical analysis with archaeological interpretation to study the diets and mobility patterns of past populations. She is currently working as part of a SSHRC-funded, collaborative, interdisciplinary research team that is exploring the origins, biocultural relationships, and subsistence patterns of Newfoundland’s past Amerindian people using an approach combining isotopic, genetic, and ethnohistoric analyses. Her research interests cover a range of topics in archaeology and archaeological science, including the archaeology of childhood, the human occupation of so-called marginal environments, stable isotope techniques, and palaeodietary reconstruction. Alison’s past research has explored human-animal interactions among the Inuit and Dorset Paleoeskimo.  She has also been involved with archaeological projects in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland.

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