Brian Beaton is a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Education at the University of New Brunswick and a researcher with the First Nations Innovation project. He is a Research Associate of the Keewaytinook Okimakanak (KO) Research Institute and the former Coordinator of KO’s Kuhkenah Network. He worked with KO from 1994 to 2013 building and supporting a variety of community-owned telecommunications infrastructures and social enterprises that are operational in remote and rural First Nations across Ontario and other parts of Canada.

David Perley is the Director of the Míkmaq-Wolastoqey Centre at the University of New Brunswick and an instructor at UNB and St. Thomas University. He is a co-founder of the Wolastoq Language and Culture Centers in Tobique and St. Mary’s First Nations in New Brunswick. David is the former Chief and Councillor of the Maliseet Nation at Tobique and has been employed as consultant for federal and provincial departments over the years specializing in Aboriginal Education. His research work supports indigenizing the curriculum with Maliseet and Míkmaq language and resources.

Chris George is a graduate student in the Interdisciplinary Studies program at the University of New Brunswick. Chris, whose home community is Eel River Bar First Nation in New Brunswick, is currently conducting research on ‘Nikmájtut Apoqnmatultinej: Reclaiming Indigeneity via ancestral wisdom and new ways of thinking’ that is exploring how indigenous methodologies can be conducted within western educational institutions.

Susan O’Donnell is an adjunct professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick and a senior researcher at the National Research Council of Canada where she is Vice-Chair of the Research Ethics Board. She has published extensively with her First Nation partners on technology use in remote and rural First Nation communities, including work on research methodologies. O’Donnell is currently the principal investigator of the First Nations Innovation project (http://fn-innovation-pn.com) and the First Mile project (http://firstmile.ca) in partnership with First Nation organizations in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and Ontario.