Gita Laidler awarded SSHRC Research Grant

Professor Gita Laidler is the recipient of a SSHRC Standard Research Grant for 2011 – 2014.  She is collaborating with Julia Ogina, Kitikmeot Inuit Association, Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.

This project emerged from a SSHRC-funded Research Development Initiative involving a research planning workshop in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut in February, 2010, with additional meetings and an elder-youth land camp in August, 2010. During these discussions, local community research priorities were identified around the relationships between caribou, community, and well-being. Inuit elders in Gjoa Haven, on King William Island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, want to share their knowledge and oral history with younger generations of Inuit, and are also concerned about the health of caribou and the kinds of wildlife research (or lack thereof) undertaken in the region.

Therefore, this project was developed in collaboration with community members and the Kitikmeot Inuit Association to explore the value of elder-youth land camps as a means of fostering inter-generational knowledge transfer and conceptualizing Inuit research methodologies.

Focusing on Inuit-caribou relationships in the context of changing northern lifestyles, this research will address concerns around: i) northern educational policy implementation; ii) the lack of caribou research on King William Island; iii) community health and cultural implications of shifting Inuit-caribou relations; and, iv) culturally appropriate and respectful research and education relationships.

The objectives of this project are to:

- investigate cross-cultural applications of Indigenous research methodologies

- explore the role of place in northern education, Inuit identity, and human-animal relations, and

- understand how community-driven research and education can foster community health and prosperity.

This case study will thus address community goals while informing broader debates around Indigenous and cultural geography theoretical approaches, Aboriginal identities, sustainable livelihoods, place- based education, wildlife management, and cultural knowledge transmission.

This project will support community research initiatives in partnership with local representatives from the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, the Elder’s Group, the Hunters and Trappers Organization, the Government of Nunavut Department of Environment, and Qiqirtaq High School. This project is also designed to hire a part-time local research coordinator in Gjoa Haven, as well as to support the graduate research of one MA and one PhD student over the three-year project lifespan. Furthermore, local elders will be involved as coordinators and educators for the land camps, and students and other local youth will be involved in all aspects of the research, while also learning from their elders at the same time.

For more info on Professor Laidler’s research,  visit her website.