Our Story

The definition of InSitu is ‘the original, natural or existing place’. Founded in 2006, InSitu was the dream of Lynda Walter and Karen Greig, established in response to the impacts of development projects that often led to the large-scale destruction or modification of archaeological sites.

Lynda began her career with the New Zealand Forest Service before becoming the Department of Conservation's first Bay of Plenty Archaeologist. Throughout most of the 1990s, she was upset by the rate of damage and loss of archaeological sites, and as a result her well-being suffered.

After speaking to Ūpokorehe kaumātua, Charlie Aramoana, who believed that her tūpuna were struggling to protect her from the risks she was being exposed to in her work, Lynda decided to change her role and became the national project manager for the New Zealand Archaeological Association's Site Recording Scheme Upgrade Project.

The role involved updating information about archaeological sites and working with landowners, local government and undertaking iwi consultation, public advocacy, and information sharing.

 As the project drew to a close, InSitu was established. The purpose, to provide specialist advice for projects where conservation of the archaeological landscape was the default position. Delivering on heritage and client outcomes, run with manākitanga, kotahitanga and whānaungatanga at the heart of our business.

Our Team

Lynda

Lynda is of Ngāti Te Whiti-Te Āti Awa and Pakeha heritage and holds a Master of Arts in Anthropology (Archaeology) from the University of Auckland. Lynda lives with her husband Dave on a small farm at Awakeri, near Whakatāne and has two daughters and a dog called Ponga.

With over 37 years in archaeology, there is a hefty back story to Lynda’s career, so we’ll skip to the highlights!

  • Lynda has extensive and varied archaeological field experience throughout New Zealand, with a particular focus on the Bay of Plenty and East Coast regions.

  • Lynda is committed to empowerment and capacity building within iwi/hapū, to ensure engagement and leadership by iwi Māori in the management of archaeological sites.

  • Lynda was a member of Te Tapatoru a Toi (Joint Management Committee between Ngāti Awa and the Crown for key sites in the Ngāti Awa rōhe) from 2013 to 2021.

  • Several volunteer roles on the NZ Archaeological Association Council over the last 30 years.

Andy

Andy was born and bred in South Taranaki, his journey in archaeology began when he moved to Dunedin to attend the University of Otago where he completed a BA (Hons) and Masters in Archaeology. During this time, he developed his passion for fieldwork, working on excavations across Aotearoa including Cooks Cove (where he met Lynda!), Omaio, Lawrence Chinese Camp, Kawatiri (Buller) River Mouth, Wairua Bar, Kahukura (Catlins), Tokonui River Mouth and many more.

After completing his MA, Andy worked as a consultant archaeologist in the South Island and Western Australia before undertaking his PhD at the Institute of Archaeology University College London. Upon completion of his studies Andy received a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship to conduct research into early Māori settlement of Aotearoa. During his time in the United Kingdom, he worked on a number of globally significant archaeological excavations, including the Stones of Stonehenge (Wales), Smerquoy (Orkney), and Wytch Farm salt working site (Dorset, U.K.).

Andy and his family returned to New Zealand in 2019 and settled in Whangārei where he splits his time between his own consultancy and working for InSitu. In the InSitu whānau, Andy is our research director, who leads on excavations and research methodologies as well as carrying out survey and assessments.

Josie

Josie initially joined the InSitu whānau in 2019 during a working holiday from the U.K. where Andy (who she’d met at a pub during the Stones of Stonehenge project) had set her up with Lynda to do a LiDAR field survey of Mauao Historic Reserve in Tauranga. Lucky for us, she fell in love with Aotearoa and now lives in Whakatāne with her partner Tom and their rescue pup Pipi.

Josie started in archaeology with a first-class honours degree in Archaeology from Bournemouth University (U.K). During her four years of study, Josie was involved on multiple overseas field projects, including the stones of Stonehenge project (Wales), Madinat Al Zahara (Spain) The Alhambra Place (Spain) and Vlochos Archaeological Project (Greece).

Josie recently completed a Master of Arts in Archaeology at Otago University, during this time, her research focused on a collaboration of cultural and archaeological mapping at the Whareongaonga 5 Land Block near Gisborne.

Eliza

Eliza grew up in Christchurch before moving to Dunedin in 2017 to study at the University of Otago, where she double majored in archaeology and classics through her undergraduate and honours degrees.

In 2021 she decided to focus her Master of Arts degree on NZ archaeology, conducting an analysis of the fauna at the Kaikōura Fyffe site. While completing her masters, Eliza worked on a number of excavations around the country and learnt to analyse a variety of artefacts (that aren’t just bones).

After completing her masters Eliza worked on the Lawrence Chinese Camp assemblage, before returning to her original love of fauna and began the analysis of the Wairau Bar faunal assemblage as part of Professor Richard Walter’s Moa Hunting and Mahinga Kai Project.

In 2024 Eliza made the move to Whakatāne to begin working for InSitu and is enjoying the increased sunshine and exciting new site types.