Research Team
Meet the SILR Research Team — a passionate collective of Indigenous graduate researchers and allies who are boldly reimagining what Indigenous research can be. Led by community, guided by Elders, and rooted in ceremony, they have stepped away from conventional academic frameworks to embrace a searching process grounded in orature, relationality, and Indigenous knowledge systems. With hearts open to listening and a commitment to giving back, this team is not just documenting language — they are breathing life into it, nurturing its power to heal, connect, and guide generations to come.
Team
Dr. Davina Rousell
Research Associate (2023-2025)
Dr. Rousell has specialized in community-driven research and Indigenous research methodologies and has over 18 years of experience working with and for Indigenous communities. Her expertise includes mitigating and preventing racist beliefs and praxis, teaching and learning processes, allyship, leadership, health and well-being. She is honoured to be part of an interdisciplinary research team seeking a deeper understanding of the connections between Indigenous languages and well-being.
Crystal Wood
Graduate Research Associate (GRA)
Crystal Wood is a member of Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation from Fort Simpson, NWT but has always resided on Treaty Six or Seven territory in Alberta. She currently lives with her family in Parkland County, Alberta. Her passion(s) include creating and supporting meaningful change in the community, and currently serves on committees with her children’s school division, and helping where she can. Her drive for meaningful educational change for the inclusion of Indigenous education leveraged her to pursue her PhD. Crystal is excited to be part of the ‘Supporting Indigenous Language Revitalization’ research team to advocate and support the importance of learning and speaking First Nation, Métis, and Inuit ancestral languages on Turtle Island.
Sherryl Sewepagaham
Research Assistant
Sherryl Sewepagaham (MEd, BEd, BMT) is Cree-Dene and is from the Little Red River Cree Nation in Northern Alberta. She is a Research Assistant for the Supporting Indigenous Language Revitalization (SILR) project. Sherryl is a PhD student in Music with an emphasis in Ethnomusicology at the University of British Columbia and is passionate about sharing the Cree language in many facets of her work and research in music. She is a singer and incorporates gifted and newly composed Cree songs in her work in artistic performance, elementary music education, choral composition, and music curriculum resources. Sherryl created the secondary teacher resource, Kanata: Contemporary Indigenous Artists and their Music, in collaboration with MusiCounts Education Charity, composed the theme song, “Music Alive,” and created three Indigenous Arts teacher guides for the National Arts Centre’s Arts Alive program. She is a co-founder of the highly successful 2006 Juno-nominated Indigenous women’s trio, Asani, who performed internationally and released her solo album, Splashing the Water Loudly, in 2014.
Joline Bull
Graduate Research Assistant (GRA)
Joline is a member of the Kisipatnahk Tribe, one of the four nations located in Maskwacis, AB. She holds a BA in First Nations Studies and a minor in Physical Education from Vancouver Island University. A MEd from Gonzaga University, with a focus on leadership and administration from the School of Education. She has a degree in secondary education with a major in Cree and a minor in social studies from the U of A, and is currently a PhD student at the U of A. She is a classroom teacher at her grassroots community of Kisipatnahk and has four children. Joline is an active member of the Wetaskiwin Regional Public School Board of Trustees and is the Maskwacis Representative appointed by the four chiefs of Maskwacis to help and support our children attending WRPS schools. She is an active advocate for helping to strengthen the truth and reconciliation calls to action in policy development, focusing on indigenous ways of learning and language revitalization.
Velvalee Georges
Graduate Research Assistant (GRA)
Dr. Velvalee Georges is a recent graduate with the Elementary Education at the University of Alberta. She is a Saskatchewan Urban Teacher Education Program (B.ed, 1985) graduate and holds a Master of Education degree in Inclusive Education from the University of Manitoba (2007). She is a Metis scholar interested in Assessment, Indigenous language teacher education, languages, and literacy. She has assisted three Indigenous language research projects, most recently the Supporting Indigenous Languages Revitalization (SILR) Project at the University of Alberta. She teaches Assessing Indigenous languages in classrooms for the Canadian Indigenous Language and Literacy Institute (Cilldi). She is an experienced teacher and administrator. Originally from Sakitawak, Sk (Ile-a-la-Crosse), she speaks some Northern Michif and understands much more. Although she left her home community years ago to pursue employment and study, Indigenous Language resonates strongly in her work, no matter where she goes. She is married, has an adult daughter, and resides in Pigeon Lake, Alberta.
Shuvo Saha
Graduate Research Assistant (GRA)
Being born and brought up in Bangladesh’s cultural hub Old Dhaka and having studied applied linguistics in Bachelors and Masters, Shuvo had been acquainted with the power of language in preserving culture and identity. Coming to Canada to pursue PhD studies in Education, he felt the urge to be involved in community well-being in the area of language, and this is where his path converged with that of Supporting Indigenous Language Revitalization (SILR). As a Graduate Research Assistant for SILR, Shuvo conducts systematic literature review to determine the relationship between ancestral languages and wellbeing in Turtle Island. He has more than eight years of teaching experience at the post-secondary level, which includes English Language Teaching. Shuvo’s current doctoral research at the University of Alberta delves into English speakers of other languages (ESOL) teachers’ lived experiences of loneliness.