NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Dehcho Region

Tags: heritage, social sciences, climate change

Objective(s): To provide the long-term preservation know-how for cultural heritage at risk from climate change by stakeholders within and between nations.

Project Description: The objective of this research is to establish sustainable methodologies that provide the long-term preservation know-how for cultural heritage at risk from climate change by stakeholders within and between nations. A multivocal approach will be used to adapt and safeguard heritage that otherwise will be lost due to the impacts of climate change for future generations. Two groups have been chosen for this study: the Dehcho First Nation, and the Aymara People living in the Andean Precordilleras of Arica, Chile. Fieldwork will include conducting ethnographic interviews to ensure that the viewpoints of indigenous peoples, governments, and industries are all included. The Principal Investigator (PI) plans to conduct between ten and fifteen interviews with locals in each community. These will include semi-structured interviews as well as at least two oral histories from elders. A typical interview will be between one to two hours long, but ultimately the participant can decide when to end the interview, therefore making it as short or long as they like. Semi-structured interviews will also be conducted with industry representatives, regional, territorial, and national government officials, national park workers, and territorial archaeologists to better understand the information they require to address local concerns. Participants will first be recruited using the snowball effect. The PI is in contact with the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre as well as the director of the Executive Committee for the Dehcho Region, and Council members in each of the communities in which research will be conducted. In the first instance, the PI will have the above-mentioned individuals help locate community members who may wish to participate, and then find further participants through the latter. Other individuals will also be welcome to volunteer themselves as participants. The research will include multiple stakeholders, and will not discriminate anyone who may wish to participate subsequent to receiving informed consent. The project will not be publicly advertised through a written notice or advertisement, but will instead be disseminated in the communities by word of mouth. All interviews will be recorded using a digital audio recorder. Historic and contemporary photographs and videos will be collected when voluntarily contributed by locals. Mapping heritage sites and landscapes that locals perceive to be threatened, as ascertained during the interviews, using a handheld GPS. These elements will be amalgamated alongside climatic and spatial data previously recorded by researchers to create an online participatory GIS that integrates both regions and is accessible for public and governmental purposes. Participatory GIS combines spatial information with sensory data to create a ‘deep map,’ which will be made in collaboration with locals. Establishing a database from the grassroots level will provide an empowering, long-term, sustainable initiative to preserve heritage since locals will be able to operate and add to the GIS subsequent to fieldwork. The database will integrate information collected from multiple stakeholders in the Dehcho Region with that collected among the Aymara People in Chile. In doing so, the research will provide the sustainable, long-term heritage preservation know-how for multiple stakeholders to collaborate within the Dehcho Region and between Canada and Chile. Locals will also be invited to continually contribute to the database subsequent to it being launched. The database will therefore be a dynamic, rather than static, educational resource for multiple parties, and especially local populations, that will be adapted to people's perceptions over time. Interviewing industry representatives will allow the PI to gauge information they require when planning industrial development. In doing so, the PI hopes to create the know-how for industries to sustainably develop their activities in the Dehcho Region in a manner that does not impose on the cultural landscapes and well-being of local community members. This will also set the precedent for other regions in the Northwest Territories. All participants and community council members will be provided with a draft of the work before submitting the dissertation to the Degree Committee of the University of Cambridge or publishing any articles or books that are an outcome of the research in the Northwest Territories. The PI will also consult the concerned parties before launching the publicly accessible online GIS. This will be done in order to ensure that all the information is to the satisfaction of the individuals and communities involved. If anyone disagrees with the information that been included, there will be further discussion between the PI and the individual to ensure that they are comfortable with the expressed opinions and data presented in writing or on the database. Community members will also have access to the database after the fieldwork is conducted, since it is accessible online. The PI will also ensure that they can upload photographs and testimonials onto the database after it is launched. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from May 31, 2017 to September 10, 2017.