Dr Stolte is a Nimi’ipuu (Nez Perce) Native American and has degrees in art history and anthropology focusing on the material culture of First Nations peoples both on Turtle Island (North America )and so-called Australia. Dr Stolte’s research areas focus on the relationship between cultural objects and identity and has published extensively about practice-based research, cultural protocols and the responsibility of western institutions in Indigenous cultural spaces. Dr Stolte is currently a lecturer at the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia, specialising in research design, the ethics of research, the history of anthropology, material culture research and First Nations Studies.

Dr Stolte is intrigued by stories  often overlooked by galleries and museums. She combines ethnographic and art historical methodologies in order to draw out new understandings of artworks and artefacts and the artists and craftspeople who make them. Dr Stolte co-curated Old Masters: Australia’s Great Bark Artists, a major exhibition on bark paintings from Arnhem Land at the National Museum of Australia. Aside from experience in curating, Old Masters gave Dr Stolte experience on researching cultural collection databases and how they can help facilitate richer ethnographic understandings between Indigenous communities and museums and galleries holding their material culture.

Most recently, Dr. Stolte was the sole curator at the University of Queensland’s Anthropology Museum exhibitionQueensland Aboriginal Creations: Agency and Legacy. Agency and Legacy explores the often overlooked art traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artisans in Queensland and the governmental policies that shaped their production and marketing. The exhibition combined in-depth archival research with carefully selected objects from the Queensland Museum and private collections.

Dr Stolte has taught across a range of area studies including Indigenous studies, museum studies, material culture studies, anthropology and research methodologies. She has taught at the University of Canberra in their Cultural Heritage and Preservation department, at the Australian National University in their Masters of Applied Anthropology Program and Indigenous Studies at the University of Canberra and the University of Western Australia. Dr Stolte is well-published on the cultural copyright and ethics of First Nation material culture research.

Dr Stolte is also a practicing bead artist, weaver and ribbon-skirt maker.