NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area

Tags: anthropology, maps, spatial knowledge

Objective(s): This project engages with present and historic map making in Inuvik to answer important questions such as: What political projects are possible thanks to maps from different knowledge systems? How do the unique environmental rhythms of the Mackenzie Delta challenge common sense understandings of the world underpinned by maps? How is the lived world produced by different maps, culturally, materially, politically, and otherwise?

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No. 6012. The climate crisis is being felt deeply in the MacKenzie Delta and intense attention - scientific, political, and otherwise - can be witnessed in the communities there. The pingos and tundra see all manner of scientists and researchers, busily measuring, mapping, and documenting a landscape that is in some places quite literally washing away. How do scientists, traditional knowledge holders, and other experts (re)construct the world both descriptively and culturally, both past and future? Cartography is necessarily representative, and the process of making a map is laden with the complications that entails. Each mapmaker carries with them, intentionally or not, their biases and assumptions. These then become the representations used in a myriad of ways, shaping policy, opinions, and conceptions of a place many who consume the map will never visit. This project, in the aim of better conceptualizing the power of cartography and its relation to place, will have as its mission the investigation of each of these layers of meaning. This project engages with present and historic map making in Inuvik to answer important questions such as: >What political projects are possible thanks to maps from different knowledge systems? >How do the unique environmental rhythms of the Mackenzie Delta challenge common sense understandings of the world underpinned by maps? >How is the lived world produced by different maps, culturally, materially, politically, and otherwise? The resulting research output will advance the academic conversation in critical cartography and Science and Technology Studies, as well as provide an account for community members as to how influential different maps can be in accomplishing political and cultural projects. This project will employ ethnographic research techniques to produce accurate, locally relevant, and insightful data. Three principal research techniques will be employed throughout the project: (1) Participant Observation, (2) Semi-structured Interviews, and (3) Archival Community Workshops. (1) Participant Observation is a mainstay of ethnographic research, wherein the researcher accompanies participants in regular/mundane activities as a learner and, by both participating in and observing, gains insight into how and why they are carried out. This technique will be carried out with different community members and visiting researchers who are involved in map-making, attending to the practices they engage in their work. (2) Semi-structured Interviews, where participants are engaged in a discussion by the researcher using pre-determined sets of questions, will be carried out to gain more precise insight into the making and use of maps in Inuvik. (3) Archival Community Workshops will involve the extraction and analysis of archival maps and their presentation in workshop format to community members. These workshops will be open to the public and in a discussion model, encouraging feedback and engagement to understand the historic maps of Inuvik and their involvement with political and planning projects. Throughout the research period, the researcher will introduce themselves to community organizations and, where the organizations are interested, maintain regular contact. Preparatory conversations with the Gwich'in Department of Culture and Heritage have identified the Renewable Resources Committee as an important stakeholder, and the researcher will communicate regularly and attend meetings when appropriate. Community members who participate or are interested in the project will be provided with the researcher's contact information. After research concludes, I will remain in contact with community stakeholder and participants (except if individuals have explicitly requested not to be contacted through their Informed Consent Form). Community members involve din the project will be provided with drafts and/or virtual meetings to ensure they can have input on the final product of the research. When the project is complete, I will return to Inuvik to present the findings to the community. The final thesis, as well as a plain-language summary in written and video form, and any further research outputs will be made available directly to community members involved in the project as well as stakeholding community organizations (such as the Gwich'in Department of Culture and Heritage). The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: October 25 - December 31, 2024