Arctic Peoples, Culture, Resilience and Caribou

• Main Authors: Dickson, Cindy, Parlee, Brenda, Larocque, Bridget, Furgal, Chris, Loring, Eric, Ellsworth, Leanna, Mandeville, Lee, Meakin, Stephanie
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Cryospheric Information Network 2016
• Subjects: Adaptation; Caribou; Climate change; Indigenous peoples; Northerners; Resilience; Social change; Traditional Knowledge; International Polar Year-Arctic Peoples, Culture, Resilience and Caribou; Arctic; Nunavut; Yukon; Northwest Territories; Nunavik; Aklavik; Deline; International Polar Year; inuit; Subarctic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5443/11447; https://www.polardata.ca/pdcsearch/?doi_id=11447

The three-year program is comprised of twelve projects in Nunavut, Northwest Territories, the Yukon, Nunavik and Nunatsiavut. Most projects are community-based case studies (Aklavik, Tutoyaktuk, and Deline) which allow for indepth collaboration and inquiry. Another group of projects allows researchers to learn about cross cutting themes of resilience relevant to all communities in ACRC regions of Nunavut, Yukon and Northwest Territories. A third group of projects is aimed at synthesizing and compiling data gathered from the project in ways that will enable partners to meaningfully interpret and communicate the knowledge and experience of northern communities dealing with caribou population variability and decline. The perspectives of northern communities on environmental change vary significantly by region; while some communities have significant knowledge and capacity to deal with variability and change in resources such as caribou, others have had limited experience, knowledge and skills for coping, mitigating or adapting to change. Even within communities, the perspectives can be diverse depending on such variables as: income and education, age, gender, knowledge/experience in land-based activities, social networks (for knowledge and resource sharing), and role in governance (e.g., representation on co-management boards). ACRC has engaged with Inuit, Dene and Gwich'in communities from Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Yukon. Multiple methods from archival to oral history research, individual interviews to large format workshops, desktop to on-the-land activities have provided researchers with opportunities to learn about resilience from caribou hunters (men and women), community leaders, resource managers, elders, adults and youth from more than nineteen arctic and subarctic communities. : Purpose: How will Arctic Aboriginal communities continue to be resilient and healthy in relation to the social and ecological changes which threaten important human-environment relationships now and in the future? The theoretical thread or theme linking all the projects and case studies is resilience and adaptive capacity. Although resilience has multiple meanings in different disciplines we are interested in individual, household and community resilience to environment change - specifically barren ground caribou population variability and change. Theoretically, we know that resilience is informed by many socio-economic, cultural and ecological factors. Among the most well understood are: human social networks, traditional knowledge and skills, and governance and institutional arrangements. By exploring these variables, as well as other emergent elements of resilience through this series of projects we hope to gain a better understanding of social-ecological health in Arctic communities. : Summary: Social and ecological change in the North is having an impact on human-environment relationships, leading to questions about how Arctic Aboriginal communities will adapt and cope with these changes. This project is focusing on the important relationship between Arctic people and caribou in communities where caribou is an important food source and cultural feature. The human-caribou relationship and the importance of social networks, traditional knowledge, skills, language, governance and institutional capacity to community resiliency are being investigated in three case study communities to determine community resiliency in the face of change.