NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: food security, community-based research, Indigenous knowledge, climate change adaptation

Objective(s): To work with our Indigenous partners, the Tli?cho Government, to identify, develop and implement initiatives to enhance capacity to plan for and address food security issues in the face of climate change and other related stressors in the communities of Whatì and Wekweètì.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No. 5800. The overall objective of the project is to work with our Indigenous partners, the Tli?cho Government, to identify, develop and implement initiatives to enhance capacity to plan for and address food security issues in the face of climate change and other related stressors in the communities of Whatì and Wekweètì. The specific objectives for this part of the research is to: (1) work with elders in Whatì and Wekweètì to identify and map place names in relation to discussions around traditional foods; and (2) work with community members in Whatì to identify impacts of the new Tli?cho? highway on food security and other determinants of health and well-being. Participants will take part in: • semi-structured interviews lasting 1-2 hours to map traditional place names. We will interview Elders, both men and women; • semi-structured interviews lasting 1-2 hours on the impact of the Tli?cho? highway. We will interview Elders, harvesters, and other adult community members, both men and women; and, • focus groups and workshops. Focus groups and workshops will include Elders, harvesters, and other adult community members, both men and women. The focus groups and workshops will deal with the same topics covered in both sets of interviews, and will also be used to identify priorities for further research. With participants’ consent, interviews, focus groups, and workshops will be recorded. The recordings will be transcribed. Where necessary, translators will be present in the interviews, focus groups, and workshops to facilitate discussion in the Tli?cho language, and will also assist with transcription into English. The research will also include participant observation data collection, which will consist of participant observation by the researchers during informal involvement in community-based activities in Whatì, and recording of observations by the researchers to inform results. It is not possible at this time to provide an exact date for research feedback to participants and sharing of results to the two communities. We anticipate holding community meetings in 2023 to share the results and to engage the communities in conversations about the next steps in the research. Participants will receive transcripts of their interviews to have for their own records and to review and comment if they wish. Efforts will also be made to reach them with plain-language summaries of any research outputs. In cases where lack of literacy may prevent them reading transcripts and outputs, we will offer to go over materials with them. Meetings in the communities will be important for ensuring that those outputs also reach a wider audience. With Tli?cho Government approval, all research outputs, along with plain-language summaries, will be uploaded to the Mackenzie Datastream. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: February 08 - February 16, 2024 May 20 - May 30, 2024