NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: wildfire, land use, Gwich'in, emergency response, Inuvialuit, adaptation, pregnancy, midwifery, birthing experience, health risk assessment, family support, birth outcomes, family planning, abortion, loss and grief, child rearing

Objective(s): This study seeks to discover the ways in which emergency of wildfires in the Northwest Territories (NWT) reveal incidents of constant emergency, such as pregnancy health. The research will ask: In what ways does wildfire evacuation, response, and emergency preparedness redefine birth evacuation in the Northwest Territories (NWT)?

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No. 6024. This study seeks to discover the ways in which emergency of wildfires in the Northwest Territories (NWT) reveal incidents of constant emergency, such as pregnancy health. My research will ask: In what ways does wildfire evacuation, response, and emergency preparedness redefine birth evacuation in the Northwest Territories (NWT)? My research will seek to unravel how emergency evacuation is understood and how it relates to existing public health assumptions about pregnancy health care in the NWT. The goal of my research is to display the ways in which colonial ideologies and institutions develop a hierarchy of emergency and attribute varying levels of care based on the value of bodies, place, and risk. This will hopefully lead to further decolonizing pregnancy health care and care responses when analyzed in tandem with ecological emergency response, and underscore the unique fractures between climate, colonialism, and health. This research is important as it adds to limited literature on the politics of emergency and how ecological crises and health crises are valued differently when it comes to who is recognized within them, how these issues are framed, and of utmost importance, with the increase in record breaking wildfires within the NWT and beyond, it is critical to engage in research that looks at how these ecological crises are impacting Indigenous populations. By looking at the intersecting health issues that are complicated by climate change, this data is intended to be utilized for further project assessment and development of pregnancy care programming in the NWT. The purpose of the study is to also highlight and include knowledge holders in the research itself and prioritize lived experiences within the research. As this study works to underscore the implications of wildfires on reproductive health access and pregnancy health among Indigenous individuals in the NWT, I will look at this phenomenon by drawing from organization experience and a critical historical present analysis of colonialism. To conduct this research, Interviews will be conducted with the possibility of sharing circles through permission of Hotiì Ts'eeda NWT SPOR Support Unit. To recruit participants, social media posts, flyers, and emails will be utilized. Methodology used for collection of data will be by oral-verbal questions and responses. Participants will be interviewed one at a time, unless they require an interpreter, where in that case a second individual will be present during those interviews. Interviews will begin with an overview of the process, consent discussion and consent forms, and once consent is given and obtained in writing the interview may commence. Interviews should take no longer than 30 minutes, and there will be time at the end of the interview for participants to give feedback as well as make any additional comments to the questions asked. Interview data will be stored and protected on a password secure hard drive, and pseudonyms will be used in place of names of participants. Participants will be made aware during the informed consent that the data from the interviews will be used in a Masters thesis and could be published elsewhere, for example in academic journals. Participants will include those who work within pregnancy care services, as well as those who access pregnancy care services, in order to better understand the experience of access in the face of wildfires, and how emergency is perceived and felt. Pregnancy care workers may include midwives, doulas, program administrators, board of directors’ members, organization founders, and nurses. I am interested in interviewing them because of their involvement in providing care, how they interact with the birth evacuation policy, how this shapes their perspective of the care they seek to provide, and how their care-scapes shifted with the wildfires. Those accessing pregnancy care services will include previous clients, given that they were pregnant during the wildfires regardless if they are postpartum at the time of the interview, and current clients who may be pregnant or planning for pregnancy. Clients of care services are significant interviewees as they are faced with evacuation and may be accessing the organization’s services to help with their birth process before, during, and immediately following the wildfires. The time frame of the wildfires will determine the window of time in which I will interview clients and care providers who were providing/accessing care 1-9 months prior to the wildfires, during the wildfires, and 1-3 months “after” the wildfires. I use “after” leniently, as the wildfires and their impacts never really “stopped”. At the end of interviews/sharing circles, participants will be given a debriefing form with resources as well as be asked if they would like to include contact information for consultation during the research analysis process. This will include sharing a report on findings from the interviews (de-identified) that they will be able to review and give feedback on. This will be done prior to publication, and prior to submission of the final thesis. Individuals who wish to participate in this portion of the research will be contacted through email 1-3 months after the interviews take place and will be given 1 month to review the report on research findings. Consent for reviewing and contact information will be included in the debriefing form. To mitigate risk, participants will be asked once again for written consent and can withdraw from this portion of the research once contacted if they no longer wish to review. Participants may choose to be identified for credit in the final thesis given the researcher has their consent. This ensures that the research is both community informed and steered, aligning with OCAP principles. Currently, I have been in contact with the Northern Birthwork Collective (NBC) and Hotiì T’seeda (HT) as partner organizations to carry out this work. Below are the stages I have been working through in my research and am working towards. At this point in the research, I am collaborating on materials for research and reviewing preliminary research work. Stage 1: Finding the appropriate partners (July/August 2024) Stage 2: Assessing organization goals and outcomes for research (August/September 2024) Stage 3: Collaborating on materials for research (this is being done with Hotiì Ts’eeda specifically) (October 2024) Stage 4: Overview of research so far prior to conducting fieldwork (October 2024) Stage 5: Fieldwork and Outreach done with partners (HT and NBC) (November/December 2024) Stage 6: Discussion of outreach outcomes (January 2025) Stage 7: Update on research analysis (February 2025) Stage 8: Sharing of analysis and inclusion of any comments/participation from partners and study participants (February/March 2025) Stage 9: Draft of thesis sent to partners (April/May 2025) Stage 10: Final thesis and research analysis shared with partners (June/July 2025) Throughout all these stages, meetings will take place with HT and NBC via zoom and in person when able to, as well as continuous communication via email and telephone to ensure partner involvement and community participation with the research. This research is set to start mid November in discussion with both organizations. Attached is a letter of support. The primary investigator will send a follow up email after this application is submitted outlining the earlier than 90 days start date. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: January 16 - October 31, 2025