Ian McCallum (Munsee-Delaware Nation)
September 11, 2025@7:30 via zoom
Title: Asiiskusiipuw waak Munsiiwak (The Muddy River and the Munsee)
Abstract: “Asiiskusiipuw waak Munsiiwak” explores the relationship between the Munsee People and the Thames River. Looking at this relationship through several canoe journeys stretching from London to Thamesville, this presentation highlights the rich historical, linguistic, cultural and environmental connections of the Munsee people with the Thames River and Southern Ontario.
Bio: Ian McCallum is a member of the Munsee-Delaware First Nation. He works with his community promoting culture, and history and is an educator working with the Munsee language. As a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto, Ian is currently researching strategies to support Munsee language revitalization. His most current work looks at connections between the Munsee language, the Thames River and the Carolinian Forest ecosystem. Ian is an Education Officer in the Indigenous Education Office for the Ministry of Education in Ontario. He has worked in the field of education for more than 20 years in the capacity of classroom and resource teacher as well as supporting teacher candidates as a seconded faculty of education member.
Registration Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ja0rT_n2QXiub40zNwin8w
Dr. Tiziana Gallo – Lecturer University of Toronto Mississauga.
October 9, 2024 @ 7:30 pm via zoom
Title: Diverse histories of ground stone gorgets in Southern Ontario
Abstract: In this talk, I present an assemblage of ground stone gorgets from the Royal Ontario Museum’s Archaeology of the Americas legacy collections through the lens of object histories. Combining technological and usewear analyses with museum catalogue entries allows to reconsider the temporal and functional attributions of this understudied object category: gorgets are typically dated to ca. 3000-1500 BP and their function is uncertain. Additionally, it brings forward their varied and continued histories as Indigenous belongings as well as their complicated post-contact trajectories as antiquarianist collectibles and museum objects. Revisiting these often decontextualized gorgets and their ongoing relations helps challenge some of archaeology’s core concepts (hylomorphism, typology, authenticity, and the importance of context) and find new avenues for making legacy collections more accessible and meaningful in the present.
Bio: Tiziana Gallo is a Research Associate at the Royal Ontario Museum, where she recently completed a Rebanks Postdoctoral Fellowship of Ontario. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Toronto and a M.Sc. in Anthropology from Université de Montréal. Specializing in ground stone artifacts, her doctoral dissertation focused on ground stone celts found on ancestral and historic Wendat village sites in Ontario. She explored how different types of stones used to make celts became meaningful for the Wendat and how these impacted cultural practices and understandings of landscapes. For her postdoctoral project, she studied ROM’s extensive birdstone and gorget collections from a multidisciplinary perspective encompassing geology, technological, functional, and spatial analyses (GIS). Her research seeks to retrace these cultural belongings’ provenience and acquisition history to facilitate transparency and Indigenous access, while critically addressing the impacts of Western epistemologies on Indigenous Peoples, lands, and histories.
Registration Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ZierGdwQSOmE2JLv9UMXoA
Dr. John Walden – Assistant Professor at Galen University Belize
November 13, 2025 @ 7:30pm via zoom
Title: Modeling Classic Maya Kinship Networks in the Belize River Valley
Abstract: The Classic Maya political landscape was dominated by multiple ancient kingdoms, each with rulers, subordinate elites based at smaller centers, and vast multitudes of commoner subjects. Politics, economics, and religious life were interwoven into this web of relationships between these hierarchically nested political actors. Modeling Classic Maya kinship networks using ancient DNA and traditional archaeological approaches offers tangible insights into the interconnectedness of social actors situated at different levels of society. This reconstruction of kinship networks will revolutionize our understanding of how ancient political and economic systems emerged, persisted, and collapsed. I present on ongoing aDNA analysis of 350 apical elite, intermediate elite, and commoners individuals from eight Classic Maya polities in the Belize River Valley.
Bio: John Walden is an Assistant Professor of Archaeology at Galen University, Belize, and a Research Affiliate at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. Walden codeveloped the Ancient Maya Kinship Project while a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University from 2022-2024. John Walden is an anthropological archaeologist who is interested in the ways in which relationships of inequality were created and perpetuated between Classic Maya rulers, intermediate elites, and commoners. His research employs aDNA and archaeological data to reconstruct Classic Maya kinship networks. John is Assistant Director of the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance project and directs research and an outreach and engagement program at Lower Dover, Belize and its hinterland districts of Barton Ramie, Floral Park, and Tutu Uitz Na.
Registration Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/dxYS9BSJS5G_yUib_BCcBA
HOLIDAY EVENT
December 4, 2025 @ 6:00pm
Menu:
Appetizer: Roast beet and goat cheese salad
Dinner: Roast Pork Dinner with Apple Butter, Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans
Dessert: Pumpkin Pie
Please let us know of any dietary restrictions and we will work with Anderson’s to ensure that there is an appropriate alternative prepared for you.
Title: Homo imbibens: Beer and Archaeology (with a dash of Ontario flavour)
Abstract: Beer has been with us for a long time — longer, perhaps, than writing, money, or even the wheel. Across millennia, it has shaped economies, belief systems, and daily life, yet its role in human history is often downplayed or dismissed as trivial. This talk explores how beer and other forms of alcohol have influenced human development and culture through an archaeological lens, from ancient brewers to modern craft taps.
Drawing from my own research and several years of teaching Beer and Archaeology at Western University, I’ll share stories and discoveries that highlight how alcohol connects people — past and present — and how Ontario fits into this bigger picture of fermentation, celebration, and social change.
So, raise a glass and join us for a lively discussion about what beer can teach us about being human.
Bio: Dr. Beaudoin is a Principal at TMHC and an adjunct instructor at Western University. Most days, he’s busy overseeing cultural resource management projects and helping others navigate Ontario’s complex archaeological processes — but he also finds time to pursue the topics that spark his curiosity.
One of those passions is beer. What started as a grad school effort to save a few dollars on homebrewing quickly fermented into a serious academic interest, leading Matthew to develop and teach The Archaeology of Beer and Brewing course at Western. His work explores how beer connects people across time, revealing that our shared love of fermentation says a lot about what it means to be human.
Tickets are available through Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/london-chapter-holiday-dinner-tickets-1886805489009?aff=oddtdtcreator