Visualizing changing oceans: Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and participatory arts-based methods in Pangnirtung, Nunavut
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Date
2019
Authors
Baird, Natalie
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Abstract
Canada’s climate has changed in ways that are effectively irreversible, with disproportionate impacts for coastal Arctic communities. Many Inuit hunters and Elders are concerned by the impacts of climate change to land-use and access, community activities, and animal populations and plant species. Researchers have increasingly been collaborating with local experts to document, visualize, and mobilize knowledge of socio-ecological change; key voices, however, remain absent in much of the published literature. This Master’s thesis documents and shares Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and local knowledge of changing oceans in Pangnirtung, Nunavut through participatory arts-based methodologies, with a special emphasis on youth voices. Over a three-year period (2016-2018), the research team collaborated with community members through a participatory arts-based process, including qualitative interviews, short films, video and photography workshops, and associated visual media. Participatory video was used as a tool to engage community members in co-creating dynamic portraits of local experience and foster intergenerational knowledge exchange. The first iteration of the project (2016-17) focused on the local commercial and subsistence fishery and how fishers are experiencing and responding to change, and challenging the traditional-commercial dualism through a sustainable and adaptive fishery. The second iteration (2017) was focused on youth perspectives and experiences of climate change, through innovative hands-on digital and analogue workshops that centered youth voices and built relationships through process and product. Overall, the camera, embedded in a participatory arts-based approach, was a tool for strengthening relationships and creating a necessary space for local voices, values, and knowledge. This thesis contributes to larger discussions about social-ecological change in Nunavut, and how participatory arts-based methodologies can support resilience and cultural continuity as the next generation take action on a climate changed.
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Keywords
Participatory arts-based methods, Participatory video, Youth, Indigenous Knowledge, Climate change