Tulít’a Histories, Relationships with Land and Resource Extraction in the Mackenzie Valley
Principal Investigator: Moffitt, Morgan E (1)
Licence Number: 15664
Organization: University of Alberta
Licensed Year(s): 2015
Issued: May 01, 2015

Objective(s): To describe and document local peoples experiences and perspectives of oil and gas development in the context of past and present industry activity and traditional knowledge.

Project Description: The objective of this research project is to describe and document local people’s experiences and perspectives of oil and gas development in the context of past and present industry activity and traditional knowledge. This research seeks to understand and demonstrate the complexity of Tulít’a peoples relationships with the land and with industry. What are the experiences of local people, how does this inform their perspective and understanding of industry development and the land, and what can we learn from this? This project includes a literature review, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, oral history and life stories, and a focus group. Interviews will be a half an hour to an hour in length and will be semi-structured. Interviews will be recorded using a hand-held, digital audio recording device and will be transcribed. Copies of interview transcriptions will be given to research participants. Participants will be consenting adults over the age of 18. Research participants will be recruited in person through daily activities in the community and interest in the project. Oral history and life stories will be recorded as interviews and transcribed. Participant observation involves daily activities, on the land activities and community events. The researcher will make participants aware of the fact that she is observing for research purposes and permission will be requested so that this is known and consensual. A focus group will be organized with 4-6 interested adults to discuss Dene and Métis concepts of the land and perspectives of development. This is a qualitative research project using ethnographic methods. Local people will be involved in interviews, oral history and life story collection, and participant observation. All participation will be voluntary. There are several social, cultural, and educational benefits to participation. First, all community members who agree to be interviewed or to share oral histories and life stories will receive a hard copy of their interview. If they are interested in having a copy of the recorded interview, the Principal Investigator (PI) will make this available. The purpose of this is to involve research participants as much as possible in the work and knowledge that they are sharing and to provide a record of their participation and knowledge for their personal use. As many Elders in the community primarily speak Slavey (and many adults continue to prefer to speak Slavey or, as bilinguals, switch back and forth between Slavey and English) the PI will hire someone in the community to assist me with translation and transcription during interviews in Slavey. As a part of participant observation, the PI will potentially be travelling on the land with community members. the PI will provide a work-shop on research for high school students which will be planned with the social studies teacher at the Chief Albert Wright School. The PI is assisting in putting together an oral history book with a community member from interviews that had been previously collected. The PI has discussed the possibility of writing grant proposals for the local Renewable Resources Council and Tulita Band Council for projects that they would like to start on the land activities and language projects. The PI will return to the community to present the research and to receive community feedback prior to the defense of the dissertation. The PI will also provide a copy of the thesis to the Tulita Band Council, the Sahtu Renewable Resources Board, and the Tulít’a Renewable Resources Council. Any publications resulting from this work will also be shared with these organizations. The PI will also offer to make presentations about this research at the Chief Albert Wright School and the Aurora College. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from May 4, 2015 to December 15, 2015