NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area

Tags: hunting, Human-Animal Relationships, nonverbal communication, interspecies communication, plant sentience, gathering, drum dance, sensory attunement, nonverbal literacies

Objective(s): To create an Inuvialuit-owned database of instances of nonverbal communication with animals and plants that will benefit future hunters, plant gatherers, and game managers, as much as it will enlighten current scholarship on nonverbal interspecies communication.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No. 5760. This project seeks to create an Inuvialuit-owned database of instances of nonverbal communication with animals and plants that will benefit future hunters, plant gatherers, and game managers, as much as it will enlighten current scholarship on nonverbal interspecies communication. Throughout the duration of the project, the objectives of the study will be subject to negotiation with the Inuvialuit steering committee. Deliverables, such as films and other publications, will be prepared in close consultation with the Steering Committee, and where appropriate under co-authorship. The project has four proposed guiding questions, each of which is subject to change, based on the recommendations of the Steering Committee: 1) How do animals, humans, and plants engage their senses as they share meaning across species boundaries? 2) How do differences in the perception of time and space (e.g. life rhythm) influence interspecies understanding? 3) What learnable nonverbal communicative acts have northerners observed in wild and domestic beings? 4) What makes interspecies collaboration most productive for all parties involved? Members of the project team will spend time with hunters and Elders on the land, observing and recording human-game interactions, including observations of game movement. Team members are encouraged to assist with on-the-land activities as much as they can, while creating detailed descriptions of activities. Members will also record semi-structured and open-ended interviews with select hunters and Elders on the topic of observing and understanding animal and plant actions on the land. This may include the placement of game cameras and discussion of captured footage. Following each field season (summer/winter), project members will provide a report to the communities in which the research took place (Aklavik, Inuvik). This can take the form of a gathering with presentation at a community hall (Sitichinli Complex, Ingamo Hall), with students in local schools (Moose Kerr, East Three), and at ARI in Inuvik. A written plain language report will also be issued and made available on the project website. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: March 4 - December 31, 2024