NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

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

Tags: climate change, governance, Indigenous governance, Arctic Council, SDWG

Objective(s): To understand the influence Indigenous Peoples have had as Permanent Participants at the Arctic Council.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No. 5523. The objective of this research project is to understand the influence Indigenous Peoples have had as Permanent Participants at the Arctic Council. The Arctic Council is an international forum consisting of the eight Arctic countries and six Permanent Participant organizations representing Arctic Indigenous Peoples. Building effective connections between local, national and regional priorities and governance practices is challenging. This research will therefore seek to identify successful aspects and possible gaps in how community-level and Indigenous needs, priorities, and interests are represented at the international level through the Arctic Council. This research will explore ideas that could support further contributions of Indigenous Knowledges and governance practices in decision-making about complicated issues like climate change in the Arctic (as well as other places in the world). This research will contribute to my PhD dissertation, but it will also support northern decision-makers working to share Arctic community perspectives at the Arctic Council and other international forums. This research will use a Social Network Analysis to help explore the “pathways of influence” Indigenous organizations have harnessed in Arctic governance and decision-making. Social Network Analysis can help us better understand the connections and relationships among individuals and organizations, and can therefore help us understand when, why, and how social networks function best. The Arctic Council is an important social network where individuals, groups, organizations, and countries are connected through a shared set of priorities and concerns about the Arctic. This approach will be used in a case study of the Arctic Council's Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG) and an analysis of three of its projects. Within this case study, interviews will take place at the international and local levels: (1) interviews with Knowledge Holders, Arctic Council Permanent Participant representatives, state officials, researchers, and other experts who have been involved in the work of the Arctic Council's working groups. (2) interviews with local community leaders, Elders, land users, rights holders, and other local knowledge holders in the North American Arctic about their views of the Arctic Council and its working groups. These interviews will discuss how connected individuals and communities feel to the work of the Arctic Council and circumpolar governance generally, and to connect discussions of climate change at the circumpolar level to lived experiences in the Arctic. A short two-page outline of the project will be sent to each community and stakeholder organization about the purpose of the project and my visit to their community prior to any interview taking place. This will include an invitation for anyone interested to have the opportunity to share their perspectives and ideas. A report on the key findings will be submitted to stakeholder Indigenous organizations in NWT, including Gwich'in Council International and Inuit Circumpolar Council, as well as all community organizations of the communities I visit. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: June 01 - December 31, 2023