Photo: Erica Oberndorfer
The shared stories of people and plants: Cultural and ecological relationships between people and plants in Makkovik, Nunatsiavut (Labrador)
2012 – 2016
Funded by: SSHRC (Doctoral Scholarship & Insight Development Grant); Nasivvik Centre for Inuit Health and Changing Environments; Northern Scientific Training Program; Canadian Northern Studies Trust; Department of Geography and Environmental Studies (Carleton University); Torngat Wildlife, Plants, and Fisheries Secretariat
Photos: Erica Oberndorfer
Preliminary research, research priorities and objectives
People and plants live in complex networks of cultural and ecological relationships. In circumpolar regions, plants are important to cultural practices, just as cultural practices shape plant communities. This research responded to research priorities identified by Makkovimiut, residents of the Inuit Community of Makkovik Community of Makkovik, Nunatsiavut (Labrador, Canada), on people-plant relationships.
Through three preliminary visits to Makkovik in 2012-2013, Erica met with Makkovimiut to better understand research priorities on the topic of people-plant relationships. These discussions generated the two central community research priorities that directed the research:
- Priority i. Documenting cultural plant knowledge in Makkovik
- Priority ii. Learning more about the plants of family places
The main research objectives for this work come from these two community research priorities.
Objective 1. To learn about Makkovimiut relationships with plants
This objective responds to the Makkovimiut research priority of documenting cultural plant knowledge in Makkovik. This objective aims to understand the ways that plants and plant communities are important to Makkovimiut on personal, family and community levels. It seeks to learn how cultural plant knowledge is actively practiced, and how cultural values shape views on harvesting and respectful behaviour towards plants.
Objective 2. To learn about the effects of cultural practices on plant communities
This objective responds to the Makkovimiut research priority of learning more about the plants of traditional family places. The details emerged during work on Objective 1, as Makkovimiut plant mentors identified the cultural practices and family places that tell ecological stories. This second objective looks at whether there are detectable differences in species richness and abundance at Inuit built environments, commercial fishing places, and visually undisturbed habitats.
What we learned
Plants support life and livelihood for Makkovimiut, and sustain cultural practices such as fishing, which reciprocally support plant communities. Plants are more than objects: plants are present in memory, well-being, and sharing, and have voices of their own. In actively managing — caring for — plants, Makkovimiut nurture the ecological and cultural values that create healthy communities for both people and plants.
Built environments with Inuit cultural legacies have unique species assemblages, including a high proportion of native, disturbance-tolerant calciphiles. Soil nutrient inputs from Inuit harvesting practices have positive impacts on biodiversity at small scales, and have increased beta diversity in Circumpolar landscapes.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You can freely download and share all documents posted for non-commercial uses, as long as the authors are credited. Photos cannot be used for any other purposes, without permission from the photographer.
Reports
Publications
Oberndorfer, E., Broomfield, T., Lundholm, J., and Ljubicic, G. 2020. Inuit cultural practices increase local-scale biodiversity and create novel vegetation communities in Nunatsiavut (Labrador, Canada). Biodiversity and Conservation, 29: 1205-1240. (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-020-01931-9).
Oberndorfer, E. 2020. What the Blazes!? A People’s History of Fire in Labrador. Journal of the North Atlantic, 40: 1-16. (https://doi.org/10.3721/037.006.4001).
Oberndorfer, E., Winters, N., Gear, C., Ljubicic, G., and Lundholm, J. 2017. Plants in a Sea of Relationships: Networks of Plants and Fishing in Makkovik, Nunatsiavut (Labrador, Canada). Journal of Ethnobiology, 37, 3: 458-477. (https://doi.org/10.2993/0278-0771-37.3.458).
Theses
Oberndorfer, E. [PhD thesis, 2016] The shared stories of people and plants: Cultural and ecological relationships between people and plants in Makkovik, Nunatsiavut (Labrador, Canada). (Carleton University). (https://doi.org/10.22215/etd/2016-11681)
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