Listening to Community: Towards Best Research Practices in Pond Inlet, Nunavut

Spiers, Kent Gordon

Listening to Community: Towards Best Research Practices in Pond Inlet, Nunavut

dc.contributor.advisor	Peric, Sabrina
dc.contributor.author	Spiers, Kent Gordon
dc.contributor.committeemember	Draper, Dianne
dc.contributor.committeemember	Dawson, Peter
dc.contributor.committeemember	Oetelaar, Gerald
dc.contributor.committeemember	Hird, Myra
dc.date.accessioned	2024-01-19T15:29:50Z
dc.date.available	2024-01-19T15:29:50Z
dc.date.issued	2024-01-17
dc.description.abstract	What are the specific conditions and circumstances that can either prevent or facilitate an ethical, meaningful, productive, and respectful collaboration between Settler researchers and Indigenous People engaged in community or regional monitoring programs? How can I bring Settler research and Indigenous knowledge systems together to facilitate more equitable and proactive environmental monitoring programs? My research examines the connections between community-based environmental monitoring, research ethics, and the role of social science in climate change adaptation programs. In this dissertation, I examine the context, community concerns and recommendations for research that emerged during my fieldwork, interviews, and workshops conducted in Pond Inlet and Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, and Calgary, Alberta. It is widely recognized that over the last few decades, the planet has been undergoing rapid climate change, particularly in the Arctic. Climate change has led to a discussion about the role of Settler research and Indigenous knowledge in understanding and addressing environmental changes and community and regional priorities. In the North of Canada and other Arctic regions, the role of Settler researchers facilitating ecological monitoring, environmental changes, and local and regional policy changes has been largely overlooked. As more Indigenous organizations and communities continue to advocate and demonstrate the validity of their knowledge systems, levels of government and research institutions seek to facilitate and embrace the co-integration Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and Settler research. At an individual level, the co-integration of IK with Settler research will build skills and promote community resilience brought on by climate change. At a societal level, the benefits and potential of integrating IK with Settler research are a resource that needs to be investigated. It can add new and essential aspects to climate change adaptation strategies. However, it can also be problematic and reproduce already existing colonial dynamics. In this dissertation, I provide an overview and discussion of the potential role for Settler researchers in climate change research related to adaptation measures for Indigenous communities across the North of Canada and case study results. The outcomes of my research indicate that: 1) there needs to be a significant increase in the number of climate change adaptation projects that incorporate Inuit Knowledge (IK); 2) social science could play a role in the success and sustainability of climate change program development and deployment, and 3) the measurable and tangible ways communities may evaluate the success of adaptation programs. My research also outlines the concerns related to Settler researcher behaviors and practices that a group of Inuit from Pond Inlet and Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, experienced while working on university-based research projects and reports a series of recommendations they provided. My study also presents the concerns and recommendations of Inuit community members about the need to decolonize university ethics boards and research. The objectives of the workshop were to 1) get a sense of Settler research behavior community members saw as unethical, 2) synthesize the recommendations made by various Indigenous organizations related to ethical engagement and a decolonized research approach, and 3) develop a framework for an ethics workshop aimed at decolonizing university research ethics processes, which Indigenous peoples lead, and research in general. The findings indicate the great need for: (1) the inclusion of Indigenous epistemologies into university ethics training and certification processes equal to Settler science; 2) improved understandings of how academic disciplines should consult and work with Indigenous communities; 3) protocols and procedures for Settler research to be integrated with Indigenous Knowledge to be established. Each university, Settler researcher, and Indigenous community has specific circumstances, limitations, obstacles, research priorities, and capacities that need to be understood. The conclusions of my study are: 1) there is a need for Settler researchers to be aware of and recognize different epistemological orientations; 2) universities and researchers must make a concerted effort to spend more time supporting Indigenous-led research, and co-designing and implementing research projects collegially with Indigenous communities; 3) the relevance of Settler research projects needs to be clearly articulated with community members, and the research results need to be presented to the community in a variety of ways, such as through social media, town halls, plain language reports, etc.; 4) Settler researchers can make efforts to document community-level concerns in order for the community to be able to collaboration with Settler researchers on specific concerns.
dc.identifier.citation	Spiers, K. G. (2024). Listening to community: towards best research practices in Pond Inlet, Nunavut (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1880/118002
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher.faculty	Graduate Studies
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subject	Arctic
dc.subject	Community-Based Monitoring
dc.subject	Community Based Participatory Research
dc.subject	Citizen Engaged Research
dc.subject	Citizen Science
dc.subject	Indigenous Knowledge
dc.subject	Inuit
dc.subject	Inuit Qauijimajatuqangit
dc.subject	Participatory Action Research
dc.subject	Traditional Ecological Knowledge
dc.subject	Colonization
dc.subject	Decolonial
dc.subject	Anticolonial
dc.subject.classification	Anthropology
dc.title	Listening to Community: Towards Best Research Practices in Pond Inlet, Nunavut
dc.type	doctoral thesis
thesis.degree.discipline	Anthropology
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary
thesis.degree.name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ucalgary.thesis.accesssetbystudent	I do not require a thesis withhold – my thesis will have open access and can be viewed and downloaded publicly as soon as possible.