NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Qikiqtaaluk Region

Tags: social sciences, risk assessment, traditional knowledge, economic development, environmental health, resource extraction

Objective(s): To examine how the Deline Dene's assessments of the risks of uranium mining on Great Bear Lake proliferated from the geographical and political margins to the center, prompting public and official responses.

Project Description: The project the principal researcher will be undertaking in Deline, NWT, is part of a dissertation, which examines how the Deline Dene's assessments of the risks of uranium mining on Great Bear Lake proliferated from the geographical and political margins to the center, prompting public and official responses. As the source of these environmental risk assessments is the oral histories of the Deline Dene, it is important to collect and record these oral histories. While interviews which perform some of the work of recording oral histories were conducted by documentary filmmakers and journalists in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the objective in pursuing this field research is to gain a sense of the Deline community's current views on the risks posed by ongoing uranium mining on Great Bear Lake. By asking community members for their views on cultural and environmental health and its relationship to historical and current resource extraction, the principal researcher hopes to discern what broader relationships might exist among narrative, environmental and social justice, cultural revitalization, and economic development. The major methodology employed will be personal interview and conversation, methods of inquiry which both depend upon and foster strong relationships of trust and understanding with community members. The principal researcher plans to use a recording device for accuracy, and deliver Letters of Information and obtain Consent orally. The research project will help identify various perspectives of the Deline community on historical and, more relevantly, current resource extraction in the area, and its effects on culture, social organization, and environmental and social justice for the Deline Dene. Findings will be kept on record in the community and community members will be consulted regarding the best uses of the findings. The project could, therefore, also have a significant political impact, if the findings of the research indicate that policy change needs to occur. A summary of the research will be kept on file with the community. When and if the project is published, the principal researcher will notify the band council and offer copies of the work. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from June 10, 2014 to July 7, 2014.