Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region
Tags: social sciences, caribou, traditional knowledge, wildlife, hunting, food security
| Principal Investigator: | Parlee, Brenda L (25) |
| Licence Number: | 14692 |
| Organization: | University of Alberta |
| Licensed Year(s): |
2010
|
| Issued: | Mar 26, 2010 |
| Project Team: | Raila Salokangas (Researcher, University of Alberta), Community Researchers (Researcher, Tuktoyaktuk) |
Objective(s): The goal is to learn more about the socio-economic dimensions of changing caribou populations (Cape Bathurst, Bluenose West and Porcupine) in the Inuvialuit region including i) local perceptions of caribou population change; ii) impacts on livelihood and food security; iii) responses of individuals/households and communities.
Project Description: The goal is to learn more about the socio-economic dimensions of changing caribou populations (Cape Bathurst, Bluenose West and Porcupine) in the Inuvialuit region including i) local perceptions of caribou population change; ii) impacts on livelihood and food security; iii) responses of individuals/households and communities. The work will aim to answer the following questions: 1) What role does local and traditional knowledge play in hunter knowledge about caribou population change? 2) What are the effects of caribou population change on livelihood and food security? To what extent are communities substituting for other food from the land and/or food from the store? 3) How has the socio-cultural practice of “sharing” changed as a result of caribou population change? The Researcher hopes to strengthen the capacity of Inuvialuit in the Northwest Territories to buffer, cope and adapt to changing barren ground caribou populations by mobilizing local and traditional knowledge and generating new knowledge about contemporary community-caribou relationships that are reflective of contemporary socio-economic, cultural and ecological conditions in the north. The investigator aims to work collaboratively with the HTC. Graduate students and local community members would carry out the following: 1) Focus Groups will be carried out with a cross-section of elders/hunters in each of the three communities. The purpose will be to learn more about local perceptions, effects and responses to caribou population change. The meetings would be audio recorded and any spatial data from the meetings documented through participatory mapping methods. 2) Interviews with elders and harvesters will be semi-directed to capture both quantitative and qualitative information (i.e. stories and numbers). Questions will focus on the three themes of knowledge of caribou population change, harvesting changes (i.e. substitutions) and sharing. 3) Development of communication materials / research outputs (reports, posters, co-authored publications). The project aims to work collaboratively with the HTC and the Inuvialuit Game Council; scoping meetings have/will be held to gain local and regional input into three aspects of the research: data gathering (including themes, interview questions) interpretation of results and reporting (including co-authoring). We also aim to hire a local community member(s) to collect data in the communities. Results will be communicated in three ways: 1) Oral Presentations at HTC and Community Meetings 2) Plain Language Reports 3) Plain Language Posters The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from March 29, 2010 to December 31, 2010.
