Affiliate Researchers
Abigail F. Buffington, Ph.D.
Abigail Buffington is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Anthropology at William & Mary. She is an anthropological archaeologist who focuses on human-environment relationships in the past and present, particularly through the study of landscape formation and evolution under pastoral communities. In Oceania, she works on examining the record of niche development and cascade impacts of the introduction of domesticated and commensal biota to islands.
Timothy Tovar DeLaVega
For over thirty years I have been documenting, with large format archival cameras, pre-contact and post-contact sites in the Hawaiian Islands. For example, I have used photographic documentation as a means of historic preservation to help save a historic church on Kauaʻi. I have been honored by the National Anthropological Museum, Governor of Hawaiʻi for my documentation work. One of my photos was recently used for a USPS stamp of Keʻe Beach on Kauaʻi.
As a publisher and writer of books I have been honored to have worked with the OAL on two of my large format documentation books on the history and archaeology of the Nāpali Coast on Kauaʻi. I am presently working on the next book in a series on the Nāpali land districts, "Nualolo Kai,”. Presently I am finishing up two other books that are set for publication this summer, "Magic Lantern Slides of Hawaiʻi” a unique look at Hawaiʻi circa 1870-1930, and “The Miracle at Kaumakani” the story of conserving a historic church, sugar plantation, and village built in 1913 on Kauaʻi.
Diana Izdebski
Di (Diana Izdebski) is an artist and illustrator located on Bowen Island, British Columbia. She holds a BA in Archaeology from Simon Fraser University and has completed field work in British Columbia, Hawaiʻi and on Moʻorea (Society Islands). Her body of work includes map and artifact illustrations for the Bishop Museum in Honolulu; interpretive signage for the Oʻpunohu Valley nature trail on Moʻorea; and illustrations for numerous articles, journals, books and publications. She is passionate about bridging the gap between art and science.
Erika Radewagen, M.A.
Erika has served as Principal Archaeologist in her sole-proprietor cultural resource management business in American Samoa since 2003. She has worked in archaeology since 1994 on various projects in Hawai’i, French Polynesia, and the United States, in addition to American Samoa. OAL-related projects include ‘Opunohu Valley survey and excavation in 2000 and 2004 and coastal Mo’orea excavations in 2017. She graduated from Northwestern University with a BA in Anthropology and earned her MA in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. She currently sits as the Research Seat on the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa Advisory Council.
Victoria Wichman, M.A.
Victoria graduated from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa with a BA in Anthropology and earned her MA in Anthropology from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She currently serves on the board of several Native Hawaiian non-profit stewardship groups on the island of Kauai, Hawaiʻi. She has collaborated on pre-contact cultural site restoration projects in Hawai’i since the late 1990s. Victoria has participated in several OAL-related projects including excavations in ʻOpunohu Valley during 2008 and on-going archaeological projects in Miloliʻi, Kauaʻi from 2009to the present. A former Archaeological Collections Manager for the Bishop Museum, she currently serves as a member of the Bishop Museum Association Council and as a volunteer advisor and archaeologist with Nā Pali Coast ʻOhana, a Kauai-based non-profit Native Hawaiian cultural organization.