Trip summary by: Regena Sinclair, Rowan Harris, Natalie Carter
Arviat, Nunavut (November 1 – November 15, 2023)

All photos by: Léna Bureau, Natalie Carter, and Regena Sinclair

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Purpose of Workshop

Natalie Carter (SUN Team Community Engagement Lead), Regena Sinclair (current SUN Team MA student and incoming PhD student) and Rowan Harris (incoming SUN Team MA student) travelled to Arviat, Nunavut, for an Aajiiqatigiingniq Workshop (held November 7-10, 2023) supporting our CIHR Goose Project.

Natalie and Regena arrived in Arviat a few days before the workshop so that they could spend some time in the community and informally meet Aqqiumavvik Society team members. Natalie showed Regena around a very windy Arviat on daily walks, and they spent time at the Aqqiumavvik Society offices preparing for the upcoming workshop. Rowan stayed a few days after the workshop, joined in celebrating the graduation of members of the Young Hunters Program and saw her first polar bear during a trip out on the land with Jimmy Muckpah (Aqqiumavvik Society). With Rowan and Natalie both joining the community volleyball evenings, the SUN Team is one step closer to fielding their own volleyball team in Arviat!

Our CIHR Team workshop brought together representatives from the Nivvialik Area Co-Management Committee, Arviat Hunters and Trappers, Aqqiumavvik Society, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), McMaster University, McGill University, and Carleton University. This workshop was the first time our team gathered for a workshop, with some team members joining virtually.

The goals of the workshop included:

1. Building trust and good working relationships among team members;
2. Learning about the Aajiiqatigiingniq Research Methodology (ARM) and collectively working to develop a project methodology based on the ARM principals;
3. Continuing to refine an evaluation framework for the project;
4. Sharing information about goose abundance, distribution, health, harvesting, and consumption in Arviat;
5. Reviewing results of the 2023 goose monitoring work completed by the Aqqiumavvik Society and members of the Young Hunters Program;
6. Developing research objectives for team members from each partner organization;
7. Sharing project updates and goals with the Arviat community through an open house; and,
8. Identifying next steps for the project.

Building shared understanding

On the first day of the workshop, Joe Karetak (Aqqiumavvik Society Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Research Coordinator) led our group through a presentation about Aajiiqatigiingniq and the ways in which Inuit and scientific knowledge systems can compliment each other to build meaningful research results. Elder Mike Gibbons (Tunaala), who worked as a mechanic for many years, provided an analogy for this process: we must find a way to make a big, slower gear that is continuously moving connect with a smaller, faster gear without breaking any teeth off from the gears. The project team committed to working together within this project to identify the missing component to connect these two gears by following the 4 main components of Aajiiqatigiingniq:

• Building relationships / meaningful community engagement;
• Building understanding;
• Lived experiences / personal data collection; and,
• Validation / consensus building.

Building on this discussion we worked together in small groups each day to reflect on, and develop our understanding of, 6 evaluation principles identified by Elders in Arviat, and discuss how we might apply them in our project:

1. Observation / attention / listening;
2. Repetition / memory / applying;
3. Patience / practice / perseverance;
4. Expect accuracy / completion / determination;
5. Open communication / listening / building knowledge; and,
6. Demonstration of learning / experience / becoming masters.

Through these daily activities, we positioned Aajiiqatigiingniq at the forefront of our project, and we identified ways in which we could work together in a capacity of shared understanding to evaluate project progress throughout the life of our project.  

“Learning is assessment and assessment is learning”

Shirley Tagalik

Knowledge transfer and co-production

Throughout the week, we heard presentations by team members to help establish a common knowledge base around goose abundance, distribution, health, and use. As Elder Tunaala shared, both sides (Inuit knowledge holders and non-Inuit scientists) are experts in their own way and before we can build something together, we must first know how to relate to each other. Presentations included:

• Joe Karetak (Aqqiumavvik Society): ARM and the task of combining two knowledge systems.
• Frank Baldwin (Canadian Wildlife Service): A summary of the banding, nesting, and body composition data. Overall, geese abundance has been decreasing, but not due to hunting pressures. Protein and fat reserves of geese have also been declining.
• Dominique Henri (ECCC): A review of the Kangut project to date with maps showing the shift in the local distribution of geese north.
• Murray Humphries (McGill University): Exploring consumption preferences and nutritional composition of light geese.
• Jennifer Provencher (ECCC): A summary of pathogens (avian flu) and contaminants that can be considered for Arctic nesting geese.
• Regena Sinclair & Rowan Harris (McMaster University): Introduction to the group and the presentation of research interests to begin project conversations.
• Natalie Carter (McMaster University): Results from an Aqqiumavvik survey about Arviarmiut perceptions, use, and harvesting of geese. A summary of perspectives shared by team members during the small group discussions about applying evaluation principles in our project.

Information sharing

To continue fostering meaningful engagement and collaboration with the community, the Aqqiumavvik Society hosted an open house. The event, held at the Qitiqliq Middle School, saw an outstanding turnout, with over 100 community members joining us for the evening. Attendees had the chance to meet the team, ask questions, look through a slideshow of the goose banding work done with the Young Hunters, and gain deeper insights into the ongoing research project. A goose call competition brought together participants in a friendly (and funny) contest, and the best goose sausage recipe was voted upon. It was wonderful to get to continue building connections within the community.

Co-developing a plan going forward

At the end of a thought-provoking week of knowledge co-production, Natalie wrapped up the workshop with a summary of the points identified during our evaluation principles discussions, and a discussion about the next steps for the project. Team members highlighted several action items for the team as a whole, and for individual members, including:

• Continuing to build a shared understanding of the ARM and working together to shape the project around ARM principles;
• Working to develop a research process linking Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and science that can be used across multiple projects;
• Foster discussion and interest within the community about goose harvesting;
• Begin developing a survey on goose nutrition, consumption, and goose health metrics;
• Explore Arviarmiut perspectives on a commercial goose harvest;
• 2024
  • In spring and fall, harvest geese and collect eggs and soil samples for contaminates testing, and identify key contaminates for long-term monitoring;
  • Train Young Hunters and interested community members to use steel shot when harvesting geese;
  • Continue goose banding with Young Hunters, using an improved methodology developed by Jimmy, Zack and Frank; and,
• Continue to meet virtually as a team, on a regular basis, to continue to move the project forward.

Matna

Thank you to all the Aqqiumavvik Society staff, Elders, and community members who generously welcomed and hosted the visiting team members while in Arviat. Thank you to Joe Karetak for help with communications as he interpreted between English and Inuktitut.  Thank you to Shirley Tagalik for opening your home to Natalie and Regena for a lovely dinner, to Jimmy Muckpah for taking Rowan out on the land, and to all those in Arviat who so warmly welcomed us and shared their time with us.

Thanks to all in the project team for dedicating your time and effort, to make this project so meaningful, and the outcomes so valuable.