Aaron Bolarinho is a student at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto. He is currently studying Medieval History and Philosophy. Aaron's academic passion for the last number of years has been the study of Historical European Medieval Martial Arts; which he intends to pursue into graduate and post-graduate studies.Aaron has been a student at the Academy of Medieval Martial Arts (AEMMA) for almost six years, under the tutelage of Free Scholar David Murphy and Provost Brian McIlmoyle. He has assisted in the instruction and formation of recruits and scholar candidates at AEMMA since March of 2010.Aaron is committed to facilitating the transition of Historical European Martial Arts into professional academia, as well as encouraging fruitful dialogue between academics and re-enactors.
Class: Re-enactment and Historical Martial Arts

Alicia McKenzie teaches at Wilfrid Laurier University in the History Department and the Medieval Studies Program. Her own research focuses on the social history of Merovingian Gaul.
Class: Lusty Kings, Drunken Bishops, and Fool's Gold: Humor and Morality in Merovingian Gaul

Amy Menary is a librarian who works at Wilfrid Laurier University in the library and at the Bronfman business library at York University. Her primary research interest is in genealogy but over the years she has done a considerable amount of research in costuming specializing in the medieval period.
Class: Costuming Research (1000 - 1800 A.D)

Andrew Szucs is currently in fourth year of an Honours History Program at Wilfrid Laurier University. My specialty is in European International Relations from 1700 onwards, but I also have a strong interest in medieval history.
Class: Queens & Peasants

Beth Patchett is a stay at home mom and full time volunteer. For fun she sews and does textile research, or plays at being a Saxon lady. In Regia, Ædwen is the current Group Leader for Wynmerestow, the Ontario group of Regia Anglorium. She enjoys sewing new clothing for her family.
Classes: Dress the Anglo Saxon and Viking women
               Dress the Anglo Saxon and Viking man

Bonnie Coursolle uses her creative energy to make unique jewelry and prayer beads, incorporating natural gemstones in many of her designs for their healing properties. You will find her at a diverse mix of eclectic events across southern Ontario throughout the year, from music festivals & pagan conferences to medieval faires & craft shows. She conducts workshops at many of them. Her work can also be seen on her website at www.jasper-moon.ca.
Class: Tree of Life - Myth & Symbolism

Brendan Smith is a commercial and residential construction worker and renovator. He has one daughter, Miriam, and lives in Kitchener. He enjoys participating heavily in almost all aspects of the SCA, he's a season ticket holder for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and cheers hard for the Ottawa Senators. In the SCA Brendan portrays Yoshikuri Nagayori, a samurai from the latter part of the Sengoku Jidai. (Age of warring states lasting 1467-1603) At this point, he would be a relatively high ranking officer, serving his Daimyo (literally "Great Name," they were roughly equivalent to Barons, or territorial princes)
Classes: SCA Combat Demonstration
               Introduction to the Society for Creative Anachronism

Brian McIlmoyle is the Vice President and co-Founder of the Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts (AEMMA) and Director of the Fighting Arts Collective of Toronto, a multi-discipline Martial arts training facility encompassing Modern, Historical and traditional Martial Arts from both the East and West.

Mr. McIlmoyle is AEMMA's Principle Instructor and Curriculum Developer and has been teaching Western martial arts semi-professionally for 10 years and has been involved in the study and practice of Medieval martial arts for 24 years. Although he prefers to remain in Toronto teaching AEMMA's students at the Toronto salle d'armes, Brian has traveled both within Canada, the United States and in Europe providing instruction in armizare according to the AEMMA interpretation of Fiore dei Liberi's Flos Duellatorum and Fior di Bataglia. He also researched and studied the sword & buckler plays as depicted in MS I.33 and introduced this fighting style as part of the AEMMA curriculum in 2004
Class: The use of the Buckler and small Shield in single combat with Swords.

Catherine Ollerhead DeSantis has been associated with various 19th century living history groups for the past 12 years as a cannoneer and side saddle equestrian. Currently she is writing a thesis and working on a companion book documenting 19th century housework and women's social networking.
Class: Run for fear, spring cleaning's here! Victorian approaches to housework.

Darrell Markewitz is a professional artisan blacksmith who has been involved in living history for over 30 years. He created the 'Norse Encampment' interpretive program for Parks Canada at L'Anse aux Meadows NHSC and the 'World of the Norse' exhibit for the Cranbrook Institute of Science. He has taught interpretive techniques and worked as a program consultant on a number of major travelling exhibits, including 'Vikings - North Atlantic Saga'and 'Full Circle, First Contact'. As both a staff and volunteer interpreter, he has re-created not only the Viking Age, but a wide range of historic periods from Canada's Settlement eras. A special focus since 2001 has been bloomery iron smelting, an area in which he has more direct experience than anyone else in Canada.
Classes: Viking Age 101 - A fast overview of the material culture of the Norse
               So - You Want to be a Blacksmith - A beginners historical guide'
               DARC goes to L.A.M.; Integrating Historic Re-enactors into an Existing Parks Canada Presentation or How We Spent Our Summer Vacation.

Dave Cox is the Programme Co-ordinator at the Clarington Museums and Archives and teaches Education and Interpretive Programming in Fleming College’s Museum Management course. He has been involved in living history and craft demonstration at museums with the DARC. His experience includes reproducing pieces for museums ranging from a "Wigwasgamig" (wigwam) for Scugog shores museum to bone skates for the Canadian museum of Civilization.
Class: DARC goes to L.A.M.; Integrating Historic Re-enactors into an Existing Parks Canada Presentation or How We Spent Our Summer Vacation.

David Learmonth is a chemical engineer who somehow found his way into dancing in the SCA. Thus, Darius the Dancer was born. I have continued to study and to teach dance in the SCA for approximately 13 years, and consider myself at an intermediate level in my research. My main goal has always been to bring dance knowledge to the masses, and to introduce it in such a way as to be fun and easy to follow for all who are willing to give it a try.
Class: Beginner's Ball

David Stamper is a stay at home dad with interests in medieval and Renaissance warfare, arms and armour. He is actively involved in historical recreation through the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) and is the Chief Researcher for Blackthorn Productions, a company that puts on demos of Crusade era combat and culture for Grade 4 classes across Ontario. He is also an avid player of tabletop miniatures wargames as well as a practitioner of Medieval and Renaissance Western Martial Arts (WMA). Someday he will figure out he has too many hobbies.
Classes: The Development of the Knight in the Early Middle Ages
               Early Medieval Warfare, Arms and Armour 1000-1200 CE

Erhard Kruger studied Medieval and Middle East Studies at the University of Waterloo, and graduated with an Honours B.A. in 1995. He currently works as a Facility Operator/Ice Technician for Kitchener's arenas. His numerous activities over the years have included participating in the Society for Creative Anachronism, coaching for Kitchener Waterloo Olympic Field Hockey, and creating wire and chain jewellery. Current works can be found at the AyrSpace gallery in Ayr, or on his casually updated 'blog www.erhardkruger.wordpress.com In the near future he hopes to have a full website www.erhardkruger.com constructed to show off his wares!
Class: Make a Bracelet

Heather Dale is a full-time recording artist and touring musician, whose music is inspired by ancient legends. For sound clips from Heather's recordings, along with her original re-tellings of the King Arthur legends, drop by www.HeatherDale.com. In the SCA, Marian of Heatherdale is a Scottish alliance bride, sent to marry a disinterested French nobleman during the Scottish war against the usurper Edward Longshanks. She has adapted well to a new life filled with love-struck troubadours, fine wine and pleasant continental weather.
Classes: Vocal Projection
               Arthurian Legends

Ian Walsh is the founding Artistic Director and Earl of Blackthorn Productions. Blackthorn specializes in medieval education and entertainment which has taken it's members to many grade 4 classes and festivals across Ontario. As well as a long history with the Society for Creative Anachronism, Ian holds a theatre degree from the University of Windsor and works professionally as an actor, stage manager and fight director. www.blackthornproductions.ca
Class: Early Medieval Warfare, Arms and Armour 1000-1200 CE

Ilya Shkarupin is an executive assistant to one of Canada's leading facial plastic surgeons. He has been one of Toronto Vikings, a local reenactment group, for 5 years. As part of Torvik he found an intense attraction to Viking combat and has been Torvik's training officer for over 3 years. He is also part of AEMMA and has been studying Italian and German combat for over a year. As a Viking, he enjoys wood- and leatherworking as well as studies of Scandinavian culture and history.
Class: Viking Combat Demonstration

Jackie Wyatt is a Prospect Researcher at the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario. Her interests range widely, although she tends to concentrate on such topics as embroidery, sugarpaste/subtleties, Irish clothing, beading, and the compulsive researching of any topic that's mentioned to her. In the SCA, Medb ingen Dungaile was originally an 11th century merchant's daughter living in Dublin, however she discovered the 16th century a few years ago and hasn't looked back since.
Classes: Elizabethan Embroidered Slips
               Beaded Flowers

Jarek Sobczyk has no bio yet.
Class: Viking Combat Demonstration

Jean Ross is a RN currently away from her work. She was a graphic artist in a previous career. She is interested in many things Medieval especially those of the Norse. She does so many things within the SCA that it is hard to pin down, but lately she is most interested in Beads and Spinning. But mostly beads. She is known in the SCA as THL Aislinne of Alainmor and has played since 1977. She lives with her very tolerant husband, Martin and their very beautiful Lab-mixed dog named Bella.
Classes: Large Menu Planning
               Introduction to Glass Bead Making
               Glass Bead Making - Beyond the basics

Jerry Penner is The Chain Mail Guy; he has been selling finished chain mail, knitting rings, and offering chain mail workshops since 1996. He published Chain Mail Basics in 1996 when he realized there was no formal lanuguage to describe knitting patterns to other people, similar to crochet or yarn knitting. His work can be found at various fairs in Southwestern Ontario including the Fergus Highland Games and the Royal Medieval Faire in Waterloo, and on his website at www.chainmailguy.com.
Classes: Chainmail - Beyond the Basics
               Chainmail for Beginners

Jim Byrnes does not yet have a bio.
Class: Viking Combat Demonstration

Jo Duke started medieval recreation about 20 years ago, and unleashed a passion for creating historical garments, dyeing using natural and traditional dyes and all kinds of weaving. Known variously as Jorunn, Jhone of Wodecott, or Joan Woodcote, a weaver or tailleur, tradeswoman, goodwife and mother, she loves to relax with a beer and a game of chance and strategy.
Classes: Simple Medieval Dice and Table Games
               Warps for Weighting

John Enzinas is a Software Developer by day and a student of Western Martial Arts night (and some weekends). He has been studing swordplay in one form or another for almost 20 years and currently teaches Renaissance Duelling with Ottawa Classical Swordplay. Lately he has turned his attention to the German masters and their martial philosophy.
Class: An introduction to Meyer's German Rappier.

Karen Peterson works in Resource Sharing at the University of Waterloo library where she enjoys the opportunities the job provides to further her own research efforts and those of others. Over the last decade Karen has demonstrated or lectured on various parts of the Viking Era textile process at multiple museums in North America. Karen's primary interests lie in spinning, weaving, dyeing, and naalbinding. Karen is a member of the Dark Ages Recreation Company, and travelled this past year to L'Anse aux Meadows to demonstrate many parts of the Viking Era textile process.
Class: DARC goes to L.A.M.; Integrating Historic Re-enactors into an Existing Parks Canada Presentation or How We Spent Our Summer Vacation.

Karina Bates is an independent researcher, a member of The Gypsy Lore Society, The Medieval Pottery Research Group, The Peterborough Potters Guild, The Society for Creative Anachronism and the Dark Ages Re-enactment Company. Karina has spent the better part of twenty years researching and lecturing about the early and medieval history of the Romany people. In the past five years, she has developed a renewed interest in pottery and has begun an equally long journey researching and attempting to replicate historical finds. Karina is also interested in the textile field and is currently looking into historical knitting practices. She has lectured at the University of Michigan at Kalamazoo, the Peterborough Potters Guild and at numerous events for the Society for Creative Anachronism.
Classes: The History of the Rom (Gypsies)
               Brief History of Pottery
               DARC goes to L.A.M.; Integrating Historic Re-enactors into an Existing Parks Canada Presentation or How We Spent Our Summer Vacation.

Kate Burnham has been an active member of the Dark Ages Recreation Company and Society for Creative Anachronism for almost nine years since she did her first demonstration at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. In that time she has enjoyed learning divers textile arts and medieval games. Kate lives in Sudbury with her cat Callie and long-suffering parents.
Classes: Hnefatafl - A Viking Good Time!
               Simple Medieval Dice and Table Games

Ken Cook is a Nuclear operator at Pickering with a penchant for smelting iron, forging iron, working iron and ...well, you get the idea. Cynred Broccan is an 11th century Anglo-Saxon thegn who likes to get his hands dirty at the forge, working wood and timber and smelting iron. His contemporaries thinks he's a little nuts, but Cynred doesn't care.
Classes: Energy sources in the Victorian Age
               A Working Day on a Victorian Farm and Estate

Marc Collins Marc Collins, BA. Specialized in Mediaeval Philosophy and studied Renaissance Dance as part of a Drama minor at the University of Toronto. He works in IT for an international insurance company. http://guillaume.ealdormere.tel. Marc is a long time member of the SCA where he is knwon as Fra. Guillaume di San Marino a Franciscan of the 3rd Order who holds a Bachelors degree from the University of Florance and earns a living doing diplomatic work for various city states.
Class: 16th Century Italian Dance

Marcus Burnham is an analytical chemist for the Ontario provincial government, specializing in the analysis of trace elements in geological samples. Prior to moving to Canada 15 years ago, he participated in 14th, 15th, and 16th century recreations in the UK, but over the last 10 years has developed a second interest in the culture and artefacts of the Viking Era. He has been tinkering with leather for a few years after discovering its versatility and ability to survive the rigours of life.
Class: Feet firmly in the past - Shoes from the Viking Age 800 - 1050

Margaret Trainor Cook is currently an Executive chef, providing meals for Senior's in the London area. A retired Nurse, with a specialization in Gerontology and a Bsc from U of Guelph. With 3 Children and 4 Grandchildren her life is busy. She and her Husband Ken live just outside of London Ontario . Margaret is a member of the SCA, but also enjoys the study of the Victorian era.
Classes: A Working Day on a Victorian Farm and Estate
               The Benevolence of manners

Mark Edward Patchett is a software developer and father. He has been involved in medieval recreation with the Society for Creative Anachronism for the past 20 years, and the living history group Regia Anglorum for about 8 years. Mark is currently responsible for all Martial activities in the SCA for most of the province of Ontario. Count Edward the Red is a Norman Knight who fought at the battle of Hastings, and later settled down in northern England where he married a Saxon lady. (How their son ended up as a Viking is still a mystery.) Edward enjoys fighting, with rattan polearms and swords and rapiers in the SCA and with rebated steel swords and spears with Regia Anglorum. He also enjoys building things - armouring, woodworking, woodturning, leatherworking, and even setting things on fire, and whatever else he can fit into his dwindling spare time.
Classes: SCA Combat Demonstration
               Flint and Steel Fire Striking
               Introduction to Naalbinding

Dr. Mark Tovey is currently producing a re-enactment of a 19th Century musical melodrama which will be directed by Joe Lella, and performed July 12-14, & 19-22 at the Fanshawe Pioneer Village in London ON. In partnership with the London Heritage Council, and based on extensive primary-source research from Mark's paper "The First Stage: The Officers of the London Garrison and the Theatre Royal" (London and Middlesex Historian, vol. 29), this production features an adaptation of Isaac Pocock's 1812 play The Miller and His Men, in a theatrical space similar to the one where it was performed in 1842: in a frame barn, surrounded by frame buildings. The play itself was adapted to be set in London, Canada West following the 1837 rebellion, and to include songs from Gilbert & Sullivan, who might be described as the team that took the musical melodrama to its apex. Paintings from the 1840s, painted by Officers stationed in London at the time, are projected as scene backdrops, and the broadsides advertising the show are based on careful research, and printed on a period press.

An award-winning playwright, Mark is the author of Play on Words, and the creator of a one-man theatre history show, How to Become Ridiculously Cultured in One Evening: A short revue of theatre from Pindar to Pinter. Directing credits include Janus, The Perfect Essay, The Illumination of Dr. Bucke, and The Importance of Being Earnest.

Mark's passions lie in understanding and documenting the mechanisms of social and cultural change. Mark did his Ph.D. in Cognitive Science in the Advanced Cognitive Engineering Lab at Carleton University, and will publish his second book this fall (The Reputation Society, co-edited with Hassan Masum, MIT Press, 2011).

Mark has recently spoken at Quantum2Cosmos, SubtleTechnologies, and Canada's Top 100 Green Employers. This spring Mark will give plenaries on the Garrison Theatricals project at the Canadian Museums Association Conference, and the Canadian Creative Cities Summit.
Class: The First Stage: The Officers of the London Garrison and the Theatre Royal

Martin Ross is studying in the IT field. He has participated in the SCA as Lord William MacDonald of Balnagown for over 20 years were he enjoys woodworking. He is the tolerant husband of Jean Ross and has a beautiful lab mix dog named Bella.
Class: Large Menu Planning

Melanie Burrett has a B.A. in Classics from WLU, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that her degree was useful in the study of Irish history. She currently works in a school library, and very much enjoys the time off in the summer to be with her daughter and husband. Melanie had been involved with the SCA off and on for the last nine years.
Classes: A brief history of everything harp: a workshop in two parts
               The History of Ogham

Nadim Michaty has no bio yet.
Class: Viking Combat Demonstration

Nathan Laanstra is completing his fourth year at Wilfrid Laurier in North American Historical/Industrial archaeology. He has a personal passion for pipes and tobacciana and often spends long hours searching for and restoring briar smoking pipes.
Class: Drinking the Pipe; Tobacco and its Consumption though the Ages.

Neil Peterson is a technical director at BlueCoat Systems and a student of Archaeology at Wilfrid Laurier University. In his spare time he works with museums, libraries, schools, and various groups to promote an appreciation of Viking Era Scandinavia, and the application of project management to museums and historical projects such as this conference. His primary research interest over the last 20 years has been applications of experimental archaeology to the anthropological and technological processes of the Viking Era, specifically including iron smelting and bead making. He is a charter member of the local PMI chapter, a member of the Ontario Museum Association, and a member of multiple re-enactment groups including the Dark Ages Recreation Company.
Classes: Viking Era Beads
               Hnefatafl - A Viking Good Time!

Nina Bates can usually be found spinning, weaving, dyeing, playing in the garden, sewing and cooking amongst other things. In the SCA, Odette de Saint Remy is a wool merchant in the early 16th century in France. Inexplicably drawn to the darker side, as a member of Regia Gyða is a Norse woman who settled in England someplace and found a comfortable living as a weaver and dyer.
Classes: Spinning - Handcarding and Blending Fibres for Colour and Composition
               Introduction to the stitches on Bayeux Tapestry

Paddy Gillard-Bentley is the Artistic Director of Flush Ink Productions, a theatre that celebrates Site-Specific Theatre. Their signature event is Asphalt Jungle Shorts. She is a playwright, with over fifty productions of thirty some odd - some very odd - plays in Canada, USA and UK. She is the past President of The International Centre for Women Playwrights. Known in the SCA as Mistress Thaninieyaieres Ynyf Ys Draig Gwyrdd was born in Ireland and raised in Wales. Sometime in the 11th century, she met Baroness Mistress Tamarra Amalthea de Romany, who she apprenticed under to study Herbology.
Class: Herbal Workshop

Penni Stoddart is a potter and owner/operator of Penelope's Pots located in London Ontario. Penni has been a member of the London Potters Guild for the past 15+ years and a guild teacher for 5+ years. Her other passion is history and Penni has been active in the 1812 living history community for more then 20 years. Penni is a member of Incorporated Militia of Upper Canada and goes to events as a merchant/sutler where she sells her reproduction pottery ware. As a reproduction potter Penni has done extensive research into early Ontario pottery, its history as well as the forms and decoration techniques and researching local (London, Ontario) potteries.
Class: Hand Building Pottery

Peter Monahan is a recently retired history teacher and librarian. He is currently involved with both Alliston's Museum on the Boyne and Historic Fort Willow, a nineteenth century British military depot near Barrie, Ontario. Peter is particularly interested in military history and the material culture of the early nineteenth century, especially shoemaking and cobbling. He serves as Sergeant Major of the Crown Forces North America, the War of 1812 reenactment organization.
Class: Soles and Heels: The Development of the Modern Lasted Shoe

Peter Westergaard is an IT systems developer in Toronto, and is grateful to work in an industry that forgives long hair and strange hobbies. In the SCA, Piero di Paxiti da Vincenza is a man well-known to the authorities in Venice, who travels with caution, drinks in moderation, and very rarely speaks of his work.
Classes: Italian White-Vine Capitals
               Designing for your Recipient

Rachel Backa recently received her MA in Medieval Studies from the University of York. A social historian interested in anything between the fall of Rome and the end of the Second World War, her true academic passion is cultural contact and cultural change within the Norse diaspora.
Class: 'So, where are we going?' Motivations and patterns of travel in Viking-Age Iceland

Richard Schweitzer is a private school teacher from Orangeville, ON. A graduate from the University of Waterloo in history, art and music, he has been involved in living history and museum work since working in the 1980s at the 1914 living museum Doon Heritage Crossroads in Kitchener. Through DARC, Richard has presented Norse culture at several museums including Woodstock Museum, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Cranbrook Museum (MI), Haffenreffer Museum (RI), Peterborough Centennial Museum and most recently L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. Currently, Richard is busy reconstructing dances and music from the Gresley manuscript, and recreating tools and other artifacts from the norse period.
Classes: Dances from Tudor England (Gresley Dances)
               Making Musical Instruments

Robert Schweitzer is a high school chemistry teacher with fifteen years of weaving experience. He was a guest instructor at WASOON 2008, a weavers and spinners conference, and has taught numerous classes across the province including many previous FITP sessions. In the fall of 2008, several of his pieces were part of the "Grave Goods" exhibition at the Woodstock museum. He is currently working on recreating a 16th century Ethiopian tablet-woven curtain that was discovered by Prof. Michael Gervers of the University of Toronto in a cave church in Abba Yohanni.
Classes: Introduction to Tablet Weaving
               Analysis and drafting of patterns in Tablet Weaving

Sam Falzone is an elementary teacher and practices various crafts including blacksmithing, silver smithing, woodwork, wood carving, marquetry and stained glass.
Class: Norse Jewellery ... NO - not the bead guy ...

Samantha James is in her fourth year but coming back for a fifth. Majoring in Classics and Medieval Studies, hopefully with an archaeology minor. She plans to go to grad school for medieval studies.
Class: Queens & Peasants

Sarah Backa is an upper year North American Archaeology student at Wilfrid Laurier University. Within the SCA, her main interest is Finland in the 10th-13th centuries, amber carving, glass bead making, and assorted other hobbies.
Class: Amber in the Viking World: technique and significance

Simon Newcombe is a second year student completing a degree in Honours Archaeology and Medieval Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. He has been doing archery for a number of years and created the Wilfrid Laurier University Archery Club. Simon hopes to continue his schooling and obtain a degree in Medieval Combat Archaeology.
Class: The Evolution Of Archery Into The Modern Age

Steven Strang has an MA in Cultural Anthropology. He has been researching Old Norse culture for over 30 years. His carvings in bone and antler have been acquired by private collections in Canada and the USA, and also by Parks Canada and The Smithsonian.
Classes: Making Antler Rings
               Meaningful Scratches
               DARC goes to L.A.M.; Integrating Historic Re-enactors into an Existing Parks Canada Presentation or How We Spent Our Summer Vacation.

Born in Kitchener in 1946, rych mills has resided in the city for all but 15 of the intervening years, those 15 were when his family tricked him northwards to live in Waterloo. Most of the Kitchener time has been spent in proximity to the downtown, an area whose past continues to intrigue him. Sporadic forays into nearby countryside wilds as a youngster, teenager and adult have proven equally inspiring. A member of the production staff at KFUN/KOOL he has also served as a member of the Victoria Park Historical Committee, Victoria Park working Group, and member and past president of the Waterloo Historical Society. The has authored two books Victoria Park: 100 Years of a Park and Its People, and Kitchener(Berlin) 1880-1960 and numerous articles on local history.
Class: Settling Down in Waterloo

Contact us if you have any questions or suggestions