The following 4 projects have been supported under the Indigenous & Northern Collaborative Research & Education Fund and will take during the period of 2023-2025:

Ihdzi' Ihle Ts' e & SAKK Knowledge Transfer
Project Partners: Yukon University, Sámi Institute (SAKK), Sámi allaskuva - Sámi University of Applied Science
In May of 2019 Yukon University - Mayo Campus put on a community hide tanning program that was well received by the community and led the way for the next 3 years of arts and culture related programming. A group of devoted students have emerged over the course of these programs, all of whom have personally felt the effects of hard drugs in our community, losing sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, family and friends. This project is proposing to take these students to visit the Sámi people of northern Finland and Norway and engage in workshops on the Sámi ways. This knowledge exchange is planned for November 2023, as requested by the Sámi Institute in order to align with the reindeer harvesting season. The opportunity to visit the Sámi (and in the future host them in Mayo, Yukon) would expand the students cultural knowledge of other Indigenous peoples in the Circumpolar north.

Circumpolar Education Program on Environmental Change and Resilience
Project Partners: University of Alberta, University of Alaska Anchorage, Thematic Network on Arctic Plastic Pollution, GRID-Arendal, Læra Institute for Circumpolar Education, Live It Earth
The goal of this workshop and panel is to establish new relationships and strengthen existing ones to collaboratively develop a locally-centred and student-focused education program on environmental change and resilience across the Arctic. This program will build on past educational experiences to develop a flexible education opportunity that takes place online and in-person with opportunities for cross-cultural exchange and knowledge mobilization for students K-12 and post-secondary levels. A panel will highlight case studies and experiences from recent education and engagement projects from UArctic partners. Following that, a workshop will take place among the partners to view an example of a past education program, discuss and share ideas to co-create an education program on environmental change and resilience in the Arctic.

Land as Relationship: Indigenous Land Practices in the Circumpolar North
Project Partners: Dechinta Research & Learning Centre, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Sámi allaskuvla - Sámi University of Applied Sciences, Mearrasiida Foundation Norway
This research collaboration will culminate in the development and delivery of the "Alternative Economies" Conference located in both Yellowknife, NT and a location to be determined in Norway. This will take place in winter, January to March of 2025.

Facilitating Children’s Voices in Storying the Landscape of Climate Change in Northern Communities
Project Partners: Memorial University, University of Lapland, Leeds Beckett University
Storying the landscape is a crucial means to preserve wellbeing, even in the most difficult circumstances; climate change has become very apparent in the everyday lives of Northern communities, but there is insufficient documentation of the resultant experiences and challenges to everyday living. Thus, participants will be offered a range of arts-based opportunities to surface personal, localized, and community reflections on climate change and its mitigation. Engaging children and youth as active co-participants is key to this research, which will record children and youth’s narrative experiences about climate change in a variety of forms, both analogue and digital, including artwork, photography, poetry, language, natural artifact collection, textiles, video recordings, podcasts, and theatre performances.

 

The following 4 projects have been supported under the Indigenous & Northern Relationship Development Fund and will take place over the next year:

School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies Participation in the GENI Growth Network Initiative
Project Partners: Memorial University, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, University of Saskatchewan
This project will develop relationships between faculty in the School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies (SASS) at the Labrador Campus of Memorial University, community partners in Labrador, scholars and their partners responsible for the related Governance and Entrepreneurship in Northern and Indigenous (GENI) Areas program, the Circumpolar Comparative Case Studies (C3) Project, and the GENI Growth Network Initiative (GNI). Through these relationships SASS faculty will collaborate with diverse scholars and community partners to build an innovative pedagogical model that will deliver land- and place-based schools that integrate the creation of comparative case studies that will serve as relevant teaching materials for us and other Northern- and Indigenous-focused study programs around the world.

Indigenous Land Practices in the Circumpolar North
Project Partners: Dechinta Research & Learning Centre, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway
The Indigenous Land-based Practices Network Development collaboration will bring together researchers and community members from Denendeh and Sapmi to meet in person, and share research priorities and practices. From an initial series of virtual and in-person visits in 2022 and 2023, this project will centre on building relationships between Elders and knowledge holders in Denendeh, and community members and researchers from Mearrasiida Sea Sámi Centre, Sámi University of Applied Sciences and UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Building on the methodology of "Land as relationship," this project will centre relationships on and with the land in order to determine opportunities for research collaboration, and reciprocal learning from difference.

Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre
Project Partners: Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre, Innuttaasut Peqqissusiannik Ilisimatusarfik/Center for Public Health in Greenland
The objective of this project is to bring graduate students and early career researchers together from both Kallaalit Nunaat and Nunavut in a learning exchange and participation in the Qaujigiartiit Qaujisarnirmut Pilimmaksaijut (Research Skills development week). This project will support the initiative to strengthen relationships across Inuit Nunangat (between Kalaallit Nunaat and Nunavut). Although, Kalaallit Nunaat and Nunavut are geographically close, there are no direct routes connecting the two places. These funds will provide the opportunity to cover travel costs to attend the Qaujigiartiit Qaujisarnirmut Pilimmaksaijut, a 5-day course delivered by Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre and the Nunavut NEIHRs (Network Environment for Indigenous Health Research). This course is tailored to support training opportunities for Nunavut-based researchers to enhance their skills and knowledge in research. This course brings western and Inuit epistemologies, where deep thought, and meaningful discussions can take place, knowledge can be shared, and new ideas cultivated.

Harmonizing Climate Change with Schools through Community Partnerships
Project Partners: Memorial University, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Alta ungdomsskole, Skoleveien, McDonald Drive Junior High