Enabling Community Well-being Self-Monitoring in the Context of Mining: The Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach

The Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach is an Aboriginal community located in northern Quebec near the Labrador Border. Given the region’s rich iron deposits, the Naskapi Nation has considerable experience with major mineral development, first in the 1950s to the 1980s, and again in the past decade as...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Engaged Scholar Journal: Community-Engaged Research, Teaching, and Learning
Main Authors: Robert Klinck, Ben Bradshaw, Ruby Sandy, Silas Nabinacaboo, Mannie Mameanskum, Minnie Guanish, Phil Einish, George Guanish, Stella Pien
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: University of Saskatchewan 2016
Subjects:
community well-being
mining
Aboriginal communities
self monitoring
Communities. Classes. Races
HT51-1595
Education (General)
L7-991
naskapi
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.15402/esj.v1i2.115
https://doaj.org/article/5988059c2f45460c908741878c2538f4
Description
Summary:The Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach is an Aboriginal community located in northern Quebec near the Labrador Border. Given the region’s rich iron deposits, the Naskapi Nation has considerable experience with major mineral development, first in the 1950s to the 1980s, and again in the past decade as companies implement plans for further extraction. This has raised concerns regarding a range of environmental and socio-economic impacts that may be caused by renewed development. These concerns have led to an interest among the Naskapi to develop a means to track community well-being over time using indicators of their own design. Exemplifying community-engaged research, this paper describes the beginning development of such a tool in fall 2012—the creation of a baseline of community well-being against which mining-induced change can be identified. Its development owes much to the remarkable and sustained contribution of many key members of the Naskapi Nation. If on-going surveying is completed based on the chosen indicators, the Nation will be better positioned to recognize shifts in its well-being and to communicate these shifts to its partners. In addition, long-term monitoring will allow the Naskapi Nation to contribute to more universal understanding of the impacts of mining for Indigenous peoples.

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