NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area

Tags: social sciences, traditional knowledge, food security

Objective(s): To collect baseline data about key country food issues as identified by the people and communities that harvest country foods.

Project Description: The Aurora Research Institute (ARI) and Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) have joined with research partners in communities, Canadian universities, and throughout the NWT, including the Gwich’in Tribal Council (GTC), to conduct research on the state of country food systems in the Northwest Territories (NWT). Jessica Dutton (ARI) and Jennifer Fresque-Baxter (ENR) will manage and administer the project as co-principal investigators. Andrew Cienski of the GTC will provide an invaluable perspective from Gwich’in communities, identifying priorities and bringing local knowledge to research activities. The purpose of the study is to collect baseline data about key country food issues as identified by the people and communities that harvest country foods. The project is guided by the following objectives: 1) to identify country food priorities in NWT communities that need more research; 2) to assess the factors that influence country food systems using both scientific and indigenous knowledge; and, 3) to develop recommendations to support long-term sustainability of country food systems. In addition to meeting these objectives, the purpose of this regional project is to assist the GTC in carrying out two on-the-land camps. At the camps, Gwich’in community members will have the opportunity to develop their Gwich’in language skills while learning country food-related skills during the two-week camp. The GTC will also do a survey with participants to learn more about their experiences with and perspectives on the country food in the Gwich’in Settlement Region (GSR). This might include local food sources, harvesting and sharing practices, historical knowledge, barriers to and opportunities for accessing country foods, food security, and their experiences learning traditional skills. GTC will develop and carry out the camps. At the end of the project, they will submit a report to ARI summarizing the main takeaways of what they learned about country food in the GSR. Names of participants will not be used in the research reporting and will not be passed along to the researchers. GTC will review all data and determine which information is released for use in the research using report templates that allow for flexibility in what content is included. The ENR/ARI research team will compile these regional findings with findings from regional projects throughout the NWT to report on priorities and findings. The camps aim to train the next generation of Elders, by bringing together older community members, who are not currently considered Elders, and Elders with traditional land and language skills at the two camps. A total of 18 participants from the Gwich'in Settlement Region (Aklavik, Fort McPherson, Inuvik, and Tsiigetchic) will attend camps focusing on either the Gwichya or Teetl’it dialects. This project is developed and carried out in partnership with the Gwich’in Tribal Council, and the research piggybacks on existing programs and priorities the GTC is exploring. The data collection will be conducted by the GTC, who will then decide how much of their data and analysis to report to the research team at ARI and GNWT-ENR. The results provided to ARI/ENR will indicate the community's priorities for the future of the country foods and highlight key baseline information about the state of country foods. In relation to the broader ARI/GNWT-ENR research project, the inclusion of GTC perspectives on the country food system in the broader project will make the findings stronger and paint a better picture of the overall networks and how they differ across the NWT. Hopefully, this broader research project can help identify priority areas that governments and communities can invest in, to bring cultural and economic benefits to each community. A summary of the regional project findings will be released publicly (after vetting by GTC, who will decide which information can be shared) as part of the Country Foods project, and made available via Polar Knowledge Canada's data repository and may be made available on ARI and ENR's websites. GTC will decide the types of reporting and deliverables that they will develop and determine whether or how these will be shared and with whom. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from February 8, 2019 to December 31, 2019.