Post-Extractive Futures in Northern Indigenous Communities
Principal Investigator: Hall, Rebecca J (4)
Licence Number: 16554
Organization: Queen's University
Licensed Year(s): 2019
Issued: Jun 05, 2019
Project Team: Rebecca Hall, Rachel MacNeill

Objective(s): To reveal community development goals and strategies in communities navigating the closure of an extractive project, and to facilitate vision and knowledge sharing between and within extraction-affected communities.

Project Description: Objectives for this project are to: 1) reveal community development goals and strategies in communities navigating the closure of an extractive project through talking circles and interviews; and, 2) facilitate vision and knowledge sharing between and within extraction-affected communities through talking circles, and community presentations. The primary mode of data collection will be activity-based talking circles (approximately 1.5 hours with no more than 20 participants). Talking circles are a traditional form of community-based knowledge creation and mobilization, with a strong history in the Yellowknife and Tlicho region. At the suggestion of Tlicho Elder and researcher, the research team will be piloting an activity-based innovation to talking circles, wherein talking circles will be rooted in traditional activities (for example, beadwork, sewing, or fishing) and will take place on the land, whenever possible. Traditional activities will be led by community knowledge holders and/or elders. The research team will be partnering with community groups to organize both targeted and open talking circles, for a total of 4-6 events, including: 1) Three open talking circles (one in Behchoko, one in Yellowknife, one in N'dilo. Ecology North to partner in coordinating the Yellowknife talking circle); 2) One talking circle for community workers in Behchoko (partner: Tlicho Economic Development Committee); 3) One talking circle for Indigenous women (potential partner: Native Women’s Association of the NWT); 4) One talking circle for Indigenous youth, age 16+ (potential partner: Dene Nahjo); and, 5) One talking circle for diamond mine workers. Conversation in the talking circles will be facilitated by the participating elder or traditional knowledge holder, and organized around a series of key questions, which will be presented at the beginning of the event and posted around the room. The Principal Investigator (PI) will participate, but will not lead the event. This is in keeping with local talking circle traditions, wherein talking circles are facilitated by Indigenous leaders, and conversation is not interrupted with further questions; rather, participants are given the freedom to reflect upon topics or questions posed and to build upon the insights of others. Before the talking circle begins, the PI will explain the project and distribute consent forms, to be signed. Both verbally and in writing, the option and the timeline for withdrawing data will be communicated to participants. The PI will also provide contact information for local supports (community groups and counselling) should the talking circle raise issues for which participants would like further support. An audio recording will be taken of each talking circle, which will later be transcribed by a student transcriber. Participants will be made aware of the recording, both in writing (in the letter of information/consent form) and verbally. Participants will be given the opportunity to review the transcript of their contributions, should they wish. At this time, they will have the option of amending or withdrawing their contributions. The PI will also conduct interviews with community workers, activists and leaders. Interview participants will be recruited through partnering organizations, and talking circles. Interviews will be approached as targeted interviews with local experts. Talking Circles will be conducted in partnership with local organizations (including the Tlicho Economic Development Working Group, the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and Ecology North). Some talking circles will be open to invited local participants, and some will be open to the whole community. Community partners have been consulted in the design of the project, and will be involved in implementation, analysis and knowledge dissemination. The community talking circles, themselves, will be a form of knowledge dissemination. Following this, the research partners will identify key themes emerging from talking circles and interviews, which will be disseminated in both writing (publicly-available reports) and through community meetings (to be held in winter 2019/2020). All participating individuals and organizations will be informed of the analysis and knowledge dissemination process. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from June 6, 2019 to November 15, 2019.