BRIAN THOM is [as of July 1st 2016] an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Victoria, where he founded in 2010 the Ethnographic Mapping Lab (http://ethnographicmapping.uvic.ca). From 1994-1997, 2000-2010 he acted as researcher, senior advisor, and negotiator for several Coast Salish First Nations (Canada) engaged in treaty, land claims, and self-government negotiations. His research is focused on issues of indigenous territory, knowledge and governance, revealing contemporary practices of indigenous law, and clarifying the ontological imperatives behind indigenous political strategies. His research is community-driven, politically engaged and aims transform public and political discourses, and contribute practical outcomes in matters of contemporary social significance. In particular, he has published the following papers:

2017 – Ancestral Territories for the 21st Century.  In Entangled Territorialities: Negotiating Indigenous Lands in Australia and Canada.  Edited by Françoise Dussart and Sylvie Poirier.  Toronto: University of Toronto Press.  Pp. 140-162.

2016 – Thom, Brian, Benedict Colombi and Tatiana Degai – Bringing Indigenous Kamchatka to Google Earth:  Collaborative Digital Mapping with Itelmen Peoples.  Sibirica. 15(3):1-30. http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/sib.2016.150301 (original) https://dspace.library.uvic.ca//handle/1828/8405 (open access version).

2014 – Reframing Indigenous Territories: Private Property, Human Rights and Overlapping Claims.  American Indian Culture and Research Journal.  38(4):3-28. http://dx.doi.org/10.17953/aicr.38.4.6372163053512w6x (original version) http://hdl.handle.net/1828/6270 (open access version)

2014 – Confusion sur les territoires autochtones au Canada. In Terres, territoires, ressources : Politiques, pratiques et droits des peuples autochtones, edited by Irène Bellier. Paris, L’Harmattan, pp. 89-106.  http://www.editions-harmattan.fr/index.asp?navig=catalogue&obj=livre&no=46070