Atautchikkun Ilitchisukluta (Coming together to learn): Co-producing knowledge across the Northwest Passage

Project Abstract

Arctic ecosystems are transforming at rates that far exceed generations of living memory of Arctic Indigenous residents, resulting in local-to-global impacts. This innovative planning grant centers on collaborative science that incorporates Indigenous values, cultural practices, and frameworks to innovate new forms of scholarship to inform society's most pressing challenges. This project team and partners will develop collaborative learning processes that will center on Indigenous approaches in the sciences, advancing a key goal of the Navigating the New Arctic initiative - the "co-production of knowledge." This concept is reflected in the project's title, Atautchikkun Ilitchisukluta, from the Inupiaq language meaning "coming together to learn." This approach sets the stage for building responsible, ethical, and intentional relationships merging both Indigenous and western knowledge and science, co-conceiving how to most appropriately address the Arctic's most pressing questions and needs, and thus providing a roadmap towards the implementation of future convergence research. This framework is intended to serve as a blueprint for developing other Arctic research activities.

This project draws upon and strengthens existing relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous university scientists, Indigenous Tribes and organizations, international collaborators, and communities in the Beaufort Sea regions of the U.S. and Canadian Arctic. The project team and partners will undertake an intentional and collaborative year-long planning process to design a multi-day learning event, likely to be hosted in Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska. Goals of this planning process and learning event are to: (1) Strengthen the relationships necessary for crossing boundaries to co-produce research questions and a project design, which address key changes facing Arctic communities and their coastal ecosystems; (2) Develop a shared mutually respectful process of knowledge co-production and co-create a central conceptual model that will form the centerpiece of a Navigating the New Arctic Track 1 proposal; (3) Provide space for mutual learning through the inclusion and mentorship of Indigenous youth as the next generation of scientists and community leaders. Participants in this project will link deep levels of expertise that span many boundaries, including: Indigenous and western knowledge systems; social, natural, and engineering sciences; U.S., Canadian, Inupiaq, Inuvialuit nations; elders and youth.

Logistics Summary

This NNA grant looks at the relationship between Arctic residents (rural and Indigenous) and their experiences with the coast focusing on ocean and fresh water ecosystems. During fall/winter of 2020 this project will host a collaborative learning event of Indigenous and western scientists to work toward meaningful and ethical co-production of knowledge is responsive to several Indigenous-led efforts underway in the Arctic. Researchers will undertake an intentional and collaborative year-long planning process to design a 3-4 day learning event, likely to be hosted in Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska in 2020. The workshop invitees will bring expertise that spans many boundaries – Indigenous and western knowledge systems; social, natural, and engineering sciences; U.S., Canadian, Iñupiaq, Inuvialut nations; Elders and youth. This innovative approach has the potential to generate a truly transformative approach to defining the key questions of interest to study Arctic change and collaboratively developing research approaches that draw upon expertise across these typically siloed realms and disciplines. No fieldwork is conducted.

Keywords

Indigenous science, self-determination, decolonization, Beaufort Sea, Arctic coastal riverine domain