NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region

Tags: social sciences, food security, youth, environment

Objective(s): To document resilience and analyse perceptions related to food security and waste working with a group of youth in Tuktoyaktuk.

Project Description: The goal is to document resilience and analyse perceptions related to food security and waste working with a group of youth in Tuktoyaktuk. The researcher will ask: 1) What are the perceptions from the community about the presence of plastics and microplastics in their environment and how do they see this affecting their subsistence activities and food security? 2) What contributions can be made, specifically by using participatory video, to bring about policy change in northern communities? 3) What grassroots social innovation tools (ie. community monitoring, participatory mapping, interactive media) for environmental monitoring are useful to engage the community and policy-makers? Using interviews and workshops, the Principal Investigator (PI) will invite participants to share their perceptions about plastics/microplastics in their environment and food, and their vision of actions needed. Through the approach of participatory video, youth participants will conduct interviews among themselves and with elders, creating stories and producing their films on food security and waste issues. A community-based monitoring program is a great way to explore potential sources and the extent of microplastics in the environment. The PI would like to explore the interest for that kind of intervention with the community. The first community visit will be light in data collection, mainly focused on building relationships, meeting local groups, getting feedback, and discussing with youth about their perceptions of plastics and use of participatory video or other tools to tell their stories. This is a community-based research project based on priorities identified by the community and youth. The initial phase includes meetings and discussions to identify the potential of using participatory video to engage the community around the issue of plastics and microplastics in their environment and impacts on subsistence livelihoods and foods. Benefits of this research could include: Participants will have the opportunity to improve communication and collaboration between different groups and stakeholders that could be otherwise difficult to achieve. Providing participants with a voice to improve some aspects of their environment enables individual agency and can be an empowering process. The creation of knowledge around the environmental issue is another benefit. Youth will be involved directly in research, learn the process of filmmaking, create their own films, and keep building on the project at school. By identifying perceptions and solutions around plastic in the environment and potential risk to animals, some actions can be taken to help preserve subsistence livelihoods. Communications of results via in-person presentations and videos presented by youth using a film screening and use of social media platforms. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from July 30, 2018 to August 8, 2018.