NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area

Tags: social sciences, traditional knowledge, educational tool, Inuvialuit history

Objective(s): To document stories, memories and knowledge of Inuvialuit Elders centered on the concept of “gender”, or what it means to be an Inuvialuit man, woman or other gendered individual.

Project Description: The main objective of this project is to document stories, memories and knowledge of Inuvialuit Elders centered on the concept of “gender”, or what it means to be an Inuvialuit man, woman or other gendered individual and to share them through the Inuvialuit Living History (ILH) website (www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca). The goals for this project are: 1. to document the many ways to be an Inuvialuit man or women both now and in the past; and, 2. to produce educational materials for Inuvialuit youth as a means to help Elders fulfil their desire to pass on their knowledge of Inuvialuit culture. Through a series of video recorded interview sessions, the research team will produce “video shorts” in which Elders share cherished objects from loved ones and associated memories and stories related to men and women’s roles in Inuvialuit life. In addition, the team will work with the Elders to produce supporting educational materials for classroom use. Both the videos and the supporting materials will be posted on the ILH website. There are two components to the study methodology: focus groups with Inuvialuit residents of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR) and video-recorded semi- structured interviews with Inuvialuit Elders. The Principal Investigator (PI) will invite Inuvialuit community members (focusing on Elders and Knowledge Holders) to participate in hour-long focus groups to reflect on Inuvialuit gender roles and educational materials. The purpose of these focus groups is to present Goodwin’s previous progress on the research and to solicit opinions and suggestions for how best to present that information to the wider public via the project webpage (www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca). These focus groups will help the PI and the project collaborators plan for and execute the second phase of the project, the video shorts and supporting educational materials. The focus groups may be audio-recorded with the permission of those involved, and hand-written notes will be taken for all sessions. The majority of these focus groups will take place in Inuvik, however additional sessions may occur in easily accessible Inuvialuit communities such as Aklavik and Tuktoyaktuk. The second phase of this project is a series of semi-structured interviews with Inuvialuit Elders to document stories and memories of the past. The research team will meet with Elders before filming to discuss the purpose of the videos and to prepare the Elders for the filming process. Elders will be asked to use objects from a loved one who has passed on as a starting place for discussions about gender. The research team will film the interviews and create short videos based on each interview session. The team hopes to interview Elders who originate from all six Inuvialuit communities, however the total number of interviews will depend on the number of Elders who are available and willing to participate in this project. The research team will also develop a series of complementary educational materials designed to be used with the videos. They will be primarily geared towards Inuvialuit youth, but could also be used by teachers and students throughout Canada and beyond. The completed video shorts and supporting materials will eventually be uploaded to the project website The results of this research and requests for feedback will be disseminated to the communities in a variety of ways. The results of previous research will be presented during community meetings in Inuvik, which will be open to the public. A summary of the results of all her research will be made available to interested parties on the ILH website, through blog updates and via the ILH facebook page. The video shorts produced during this research will also be made available on the project website with the accompanying educational material. The Inuvialuit Living History Project publishes a biannual newsletter, which is distributed to all the ISR communities and shared electronically through the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation social media outlets. The results of this research will be shared in the newsletter. Finally, past experience suggests that the research will be of interest to northern media outlets. The research team will take every opportunity to solicit feedback and disseminate the results through TV, radio and print media. All participants will have access to the finished PhD dissertation through a link provided to them upon completion. With participants’ permission, copies of the interviews may be kept on file at the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation's (IRC) Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre (ICRC). The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from July 28, 2019 to August 31, 2019.