NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area, Sahtu Settlement Area, Dehcho Region, Qikiqtaaluk Region

Tags: social sciences, climate change, traditional knowledge, youth, climate monitoring

Objective(s): To build greater capacity for community-driven research and monitoring as part of local and regional Guardian programs and to ensure that research is conducted, and results delivered, in a culturally and socially respectful manner.

Project Description: Research will be conducted through shared on-the-land experiences with researchers and community members as well as focus groups within the communities and/or on-the-land. This includes interactive experiences in traditional knowledge as it arises from “way of life” practices on-the-land, consideration of knowledge and its communication at different scales and from different sources, and science-based research and monitoring questions and methods. Focus groups will be held with participants and encourage the use of a storytelling format based on preferences of community partners. Focus groups will be planned during each camp; focused on 1) terminology 2) how to promote knowledge sharing and 3) effective communication of knowledge and research. The first type of focus group will take on the form of a “terminology workshop” to establish better terminology or phrases for words that do not translate well or with the same meaning into Dene languages. The second type of focus group will discuss how knowledge sharing can be promoted and the challenges and solutions to co-creating knowledge for this program and future implementation of research and monitoring programs. This will provide community feedback into the research and monitoring framework. These focus groups will enable community partners and researchers to discuss how knowledge can, and should, be shared between partners, researchers, communities, community members, and community leaders. All focus groups will be audio recorded and later transcribed before being distributed back to participants for validation. Some camp participants may not want to participate in the focus groups and will be able to contribute their perspectives through one-on-one semi-structured interviews with questions that coincide with the three types of focus groups. The interviews may end up being ‘walk along’ interviews during the camp as that type of impromptu conversation is likely to occur and provide valuable information about communication. As camps can vary in size, the team will be looking to involve 6-10 participants per camp. Questions and themes may change based on camp participants (youth, land user / harvester, elder).