Kitkut ukua Siļaliñiġmiut? Grassroots land, air, and water coalition-building on Alaska's Arctic Slope

• Main Author: Thomas, Sara K. Siqiñiq
• Other Authors: Brooks, Catherine, Stern, Charlene, Brower, Pearl
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Arctic; Fairbanks; Climate change; Inupiaq; Inupiat; Alaska
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11122/11887

Master's Project (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2020 Arctic communities are experiencing dramatic effects of climate change and bioaccumulation of contamination and are also on the front line of expansion via the fossil fuel extraction industry. The Inupiaq culture provides a strong and clear example of harmonious living with one’s surroundings on Alaska’s Arctic Slope (hereafter referred to as Arctic Slope), yet recent community efforts to reduce waste or pollution or come together to address our role in this time of climate change have been short-lived. This applied community development project addresses the need for grassroots organizing within the Arctic Slope to address and react to issues of land, air, and water on a community level. The title of this research is: Kitkut ukua Siļaliñiġmiut? Who are the people of the land, air, and sea (of the Arctic Slope)? This is a self-reflective inquiry from within the community that aims to uplift Inupiat history and cultural perspectives and develop more effective strategies to collaborate to be better stewards of the environment. This project was guided by the Indigenous consciousness-raising theory and an Iñupiaqatigiigñiq framework, inspired by Topkok’s Inupiat Ilitqusiat (2015). The literature/narrative review comprises an overview of Iñupiaqatigiigñiq, or the Iñupiaq value system, as it relates to Indigenous knowledge. It also includes current and historical perceptions of ecological stewardship and environmentalism on the Arctic Slope, and barriers to social change in contemporary institutional representation. Community-based participatory research and strength-based methodology were utilized to inform data collection, which included a survey as well as a series of community dialogues with a variety of Arctic Slope stakeholders. Community perspectives regarding ecological sustainability were elicited using talking circles and group visioning around these questions: Sumik iļisimavisa Iñupiaqatigiigñiq suli nunalu, siļalu, taġiuglu? What do we know ...