NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: South Slave Region

Tags: health, social sciences, well-being, anthropology, caribou, traditional knowledge, environmental change, ethnography

Objective(s): To develop and administer an instrument to gather both quantitative and qualitative data linking health and environmental change (caribou population decline) in northern Aboriginal communities; to provide outputs of relevance to the communities and partner organizations including policy relevant outputs on the effects of caribou population change on the health and well-being of northern communities.

Project Description: The aim of the project is to develop and administer an instrument to gather both quantitative and qualitative data linking health and environmental change (caribou population decline) in northern Aboriginal communities. The research aims to provide outputs of relevance to the communities and partner organizations including policy relevant outputs on the effects of caribou population change on the health and well-being of northern communities. In addition to identifying current and potential stressors, the work will provide direction on the synergies and the need for integration of environmental management and health and social service planning and policy. Research tool is a semi-structured interview guide. The guide covers several thematic areas including well-being, changes in community and on the land, history, family, culture, and the future. Participants will be selected according to their willingness to participate, and availability. Further participants will be identified through 'snowball' sample, and contacted by phone or by approaching them at their residence with help and guidance from the local community contacts. Given the small size of the communities and the importance of familiar and face-to-face communication in local culture, written advertisement and recruitment will have limited success. Participants will be asked to sign a consent form to confirm their willingness to participate in the interview, their consent to the use of the interview data in public documents and consent to the storage and ownership of their transcript by the partners. Interviews will be carried out in a location of the participant's choice such as the home or local community centre. The transcripts from the interview will be sent to each participant for review and verification. The research will benefit the community through the creation of a plain language report. It will contribute to the body of community-lead research in the Canadian Arctic, as well as providing opportunities for capacity building in each community. It will also provide important information that will be used for community planning, decision and policy-making, and resilience building. It will provide better understanding of factors that influence resilience in Arctic communities, and offer a representation of the diversity of perspectives on the future and change in each community. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from November 29, 2010 to December 31, 2010.