NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area

Tags: social sciences, traditional knowledge

Objective(s): To learn about traditional land use, and to understand through the traditional knowledge of Indigenous people in the Inuvik area.

Project Description: The purpose of conducting the one-day traditional knowledge and land use workshop is to learn more about traditional land use in the project area, and to better understand through the traditional knowledge of Indigenous people in the Inuvik area about the potential effects that the project may have on the land and resources (including plants, wildlife, birds, etc.). More specifically, the objectives of the workshop are: 1) to identify what traditional land use activities are being conducted in the Project area; 2) to identify who is using the project area for traditional land use purposes; 3) to identify when the project area is being used for traditional land use purposes; and, 4) to learn from the Traditional Knowledge shared by workshop participants about potential Project related effects anticipated to the land and resources (i.e., wildlife, birds, plants, etc.). Transparency, respect and reciprocity are key attributes of conducting meaningful, community-based research. The research team will send an informative, plain language information sheet and letter of invitation to respective Gwich’in and Inuvialuit organizations in the Inuvik area as part of the workshop’s inclusive participant recruitment process. The team will organize a site visit in advance of the workshop so that interested and available workshop participants can gain an enhanced understanding of the site and project. Workshop participants will be provided a brief, plain language summary to workshop following the workshop to share key workshop findings. Participants will have the ability to indicate on their informed consent form if and how they’d like to be acknowledged for their contributions to the project. Workshop participants will be invited to attend a site visit in advance of the workshop. The site visit is not a requirement of participation in the workshop, but will be provided as an option to those individuals who are interested and able to attend. The objectives of the site visit are to help orient the participant(s) to the site location (including access road), to enhance their site-specific understanding of potential effects to traditional land use activities, and to help provide a better understanding of the overall project. The site-visit will follow an informal format. No data collection will take place during the site-visit. Following a welcome and orientation to the site, a safety overview will be provided prior to attendees being allowed to explore. The one-day workshop will consist of a morning and afternoon session, separated by a lunch break. The workshop will begin with a welcome and general introduction to the project. The informed consent will be reviewed as a group, and participants will be given time to review, ask questions and be provided assistance, however necessary. As part of the workshop introduction, the workshop will provide both the Gwich’in and Inuvialuit definitions of traditional knowledge. Based on the response received from respective participants (and/or organizations supporting the workshop participant recruitment process), appropriate translators will be arranged to help ensure that participants are able to contribute at the workshop in their preferred language. To promote a collaborative workshop environment, key information will be recorded on flip charts and/or maps during the workshop. A designated note taker will also take detailed notes throughout the workshop to document information being shared, and wherever possible the name of the contributor sharing it. An audio recording of the event will be taken as a precautionary measure, and will only be consulted in the event that workshop notes require additional context and/or verification. Please note, the workshop will only be audio recorded if all participants give permission for the recording. The workshop sessions will be organized by traditional land use activities. The morning session will be focused on hunting and trapping, and the afternoon session will be focused on medicinal and food plant harvesting. Each of the sessions will use maps and photos to visually support and center the open-ended group interview questions used to guide the sessions. A semi-structured, open-ended focus group format will be used during the workshop. The open-ended questions will be used to guide each of the traditional land use activity discussions (hunting, trapping, medicinal plant gathering, food plant harvesting). For the purposes of this application, ‘hunting’ has been used as an example. Bolded words will be changed to reflect the respective traditional land use activity being discussed. Follow-up questions and prompts will be tailored to the conversation and contributor(s). During the sessions, efforts will be made to focus on the Project area (including access road) though participants will be welcome to share their knowledge and stories regardless of the area(s) that they may relate to. Following the workshop and review of workshop findings with contributors, a traditional knowledge/traditional land use (TK/TLU) Workshop Summary Report will be prepared. In addition to being given the option of receiving the TK/TLU Workshop Summary Report, a brief, plain language summary will be provided to all workshop participants in order to share key workshop findings. A 200-word summary will also be prepared for the Aurora Research Institute. Copies of all workshop reports will be sent to the Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from February 26, 2018 to December 31, 2018.