Marieka is a white settler and always a guest in the territory of one or more Indigenous peoples. She was born in Regina on Treaty 4 territory and has lived in Prince George on unceded Lheidli T’enneh territory since 2017. Marieka has a doctorate in cultural anthropology from Carleton University, for which she lived on the territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation in Ottawa and the peasant Indigenous community of San Juan Bautista de Cañaris in Peru.
Marieka has produced tools to facilitate conversations around the cumulative impacts of natural resource development, carried out research on how to implement gender-based plus analysis (GBA+) in impact assessment, and delivered workshops using arts-based methods to explore experiences of living and working alongside the cycle of resource buzz, boom, and bust.
Marieka enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking, biking, and skiing, and getting creative through painting, sewing, and gardening.