NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area, North Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, gender-based violence, indigenous women

Objective(s): To conduct research working directly with Indigenous women and gender-diverse people in Latin America and northern Canada/Turtle Island to research, develop and implement digital solutions.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.5309. The goal of this project is to conduct research working directly with Indigenous women and gender-diverse people in Latin America and northern Canada/Turtle Island to research, develop and implement digital solutions that will give them more power both within and outside of their communities. The objectives of this project are to: 1) Create a North-South community of resilient and empowered Indigenous women and gender-diverse people, along with academics and students, research institutes, organizations, Elders and specialists, to identify solutions that draw on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for the purpose of meeting the women and gender-diverse people’s identified needs; and 2) Support research, led by Indigenous women and gender-diverse people and drawing on their ways of knowing and being, to co-develop and recommend digital strategies and solutions to needs and challenges that prevent marginalized Indigenous women and gender-diverse people from being heard and exercising agency. Based on an initial consultation with women's groups, the team are likely to focus on digital strategies and tools that support women and gender-diverse people’s efforts in two areas. These are: 1) Development of leadership skills and political/social engagement to allow women and gender-diverse people more power, agency and autonomy within and outside of their communities; and 2) Visibilization and documentation of violence (internal and external) against Indigenous women and gender-diverse people. The documentation of gender violence, and specifically feminicide, is a central concern of the activist work of Indigenous human rights defenders. Several collectives of Indigenous women and gender-diverse people in the Americas have identified the need to generate information - quantitative and qualitative - that accounts for the state of alarm and seriousness of gender violence from the perspective of the Indigenous women's organizations themselves. In this vein, the team propose exploring the ways that digital media may be able to support women and gender-diverse people’s efforts to document gender violence and make it visible. The documentation of violence against Indigenous women and gender-diverse people is a task that requires the application of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The implementation of quantitative methods in the measurement of gender violence must be sensitive to the construction of indicators and statistical data that reflect the ethnicity and race of the victims. Qualitative methodologies are required to ensure an understanding of the contexts (including ethnographic) surrounding everyday and micro-violence: 1) Connect Indigenous women’s organizations seeking to enhance their ability to use ICTs effectively with each other and with allied experts who can support them in these endeavours; 2) Hire, train, and provide experience to Indigenous women and gender-diverse at the collaborating institutions and in communities to work on these solutions; and 3) Integrate and support sharing of experiences and stories between Indigenous women and gender-diverse people. Facilitate the flow of knowledge, experiences and know-how from South to North, North to South and South to South. Women and gender-diverse people sharing and working with each other across boundaries will support their efforts to empower their communities and assert agency. The research team have been working with an advisory council of women and gender-diverse people based in the Yukon since the team began this phase of the project in 2021. The team are eager to add voices from the NWT as several of our participants have encouraged engaging Western Arctic Youth Collective in this work. The team have been in conversation with Western Arctic Youth Collective and they have agreed to partner with us and host a community conversation in Inuvik once the team receive a research license. To provide further context about this research so far, the advisory council identified the priority areas that digital technologies could support for women and gender-diverse people in the north as being: health & wellness, community safety, and economic independence. These are important areas of political engagement and decision-making. These are also areas that Western Arctic Youth Collective engage in their work. As a side note, this work aligns with the strategies identified in Changing the Story to Upholding Dignity and Justice: Yukon’s MMIWG2S+ Strategy. Specific objectives will be determined through the community conversations. For instance, based on feedback from the focus groups (the team have been describing these as “community conversations”) in communities within the Yukon, the women and gender-diverse people the team have engaged are interested in creating a workshop series specifically focused on skill-building for digital technologies. These could include workshops on skills such as: developing a personal podcast or website, support for developing an online business (such as an Etsy page to sell jewelry), graphic design skills for online marketing etc). These skills would support Indigenous women and gender diverse people in further creating health, wellness, safety and economic independence for themselves and their communities. The team plan to host a community conversation in Inuvik in partnership with the local Indigenous women led organization Western Arctic Youth Collective. Based on the feedback received by participants in this community conversation (ie. focus group) the team will offer a series of workshops to foster digital skill building in a way that further supports Indigenous women and gender-diverse people’s financial independence in Inuvik. The project adopts a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to ensure that the perspectives of the communities are incorporated into the research design. To this end the team have created an advisory council with women and gender-diverse people in communities across Yukon that meets quarterly. The advisory council plays a key role in determining the methods and approaches for engaging the community in this project to ensure the project goals and approaches come from the community, and that the benefits of the project remain in the community. The team use a collective decision-making model with the advisory council at every major step of the project (such as determining research priorities and appropriate methods). The methods for engaging participants are one-on-one interviews and focus groups. The team have been referring to the focus groups as “community conversations”. When it is not possible to gather individuals together the team have been using one-on-one interviews in person or virtually instead. Since this research began the team have held a series of community conversations with communities in the Yukon (as well as in our other two sites in Latin America: Bolivia and Ecuador). The team wish to engage women and gender-diverse people in Inuvik in a community conversation and the subsequent workshop series that will follow based on feedback gathered from the community conversation. The team have been in conversation with the organization Western Arctic Youth Collective, based in Inuvik, who have agreed to partner and host a community conversation in Inuvik once the team receive a research license. Following the community conversation the Principal Investigator (PI) will transcribe the feedback from participants. The research team will develop an offering on a specific ICTs skill-training opportunity or other development (such as a specialized platform) that people identify as wanting to engage. This could look like a workshop series on specific digital skills. A representative from the Western Arctic Youth Collective will join the advisory council. The team will work with leadership in Western Arctic Youth Collective to determine the best way of carrying the community conversation (ie. the structure of the event, activities for engaging creative brainstorming and appropriate honorariums for participants' time, etc). The team will engage the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and the Gwich'in Tribal Council through a virtual presentation on the project and followed by a conversation about specific protocols that should be observed during the community conversation. The team will continue to communicate with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and the Gwich'in Tribal Council at every major step of the project including the training and skill-building phase in the fall, and the management of data throughout the project and following its completion. The team will also continue to engage the advisory council in collective decision making at each major step of the project. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from August 8, 2022 to December 31, 2022