2002 ARCSS All-Hands Workshop

Hiukitak River Camps: Integrating Western Science and Traditional Inuit Knowledge in Arctic Field Ecology

William A. Gould¹, Grizelle González², Sandra Eyegetok³, Lena Kamoayok^4
1International Institute of Tropical Forestry, USDA Forest Service, PO Box 25000, Rio Piedras, PR, 00928-5000, USA, Phone 787-766-5335, Fax 787-766-6302, wgould@fs.fed.us
²International Institute of Tropical Forestry, USDA Forest Service, PO Box 25000, Rio Piedras, PR, 00928-5000, USA, Phone 787-766-5335, Fax 787-766-6302, ggonzalez@fs.fed.us
³General Delivery, Cambridge Bay, X0B 0C0, Canada
⁴General Delivery, Cambridge Bay, X0B 0C0, Canada

I had a dream last night that Lena was saying to put away the little notebook and not write - to put away the cameras and not take pictures. Instead we were supposed to listen, listen. She was very agitated. We put away our cameras and notebooks but it was difficult. [from Victoria Moses' journal, Hiukitak River 2000]

The University of Minnesota summer class Arctic Field Ecology met with Inuit elders at remote camps during the summers of 1999 and 2000. The activities took place near the mouth of the Hiukitak River, on the eastern shore of Bathurst Inlet, between Umingmaktuuq and Qingaok, Nunavut. Students from the United States and Canada met with Inuit elders and family members for the final week of a four-week ecology course. Students listened, asked questions, hiked, and heard stories about Inuit life on the land, Nuna, as they added to their science-based learning with knowledge from the Inuit inhabitants of Nunavut.

The combined Inuit and western educational program serves to: 1) open students to the wealth of traditional knowledge, 2) ease research access to native owned lands, 3) inform native people as to the potential role of modern science in land and resource management, 4) provide employment and new skills to native people, and 5) educate a new generation of natives and scientists who can work together to solve land management problems of the future.

Ultimately, the learning experience is profoundly influenced by the personalities of the teachers and students. We present the people involved, the knowledge that was shared by the elders as an attempt to preserve Inuit ecological knowledge of the Bathurst Inlet area, and we summarize the points that best integrated the content from the Arctic Field Ecology course with the knowledge provided by the elder Inuit. Much of the material we present comes from staff and student photos, journal entries, and recollections of the experience. It documents some of the things we learned from our Inuit instructors, Lena Kamoayok and Sandra Eyegetok.

We are developing a framework to integrate similar material into the current study: Biocomplexity of Arctic frost-boil ecosystems, an investigation of climatic and biotic controls and feedbacks associated with ecosystem patterns and processes in frost-boil ecosystems.

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