Knowledge-land-scape - User contributions [en]

Wayfaring the BearWatch Project

2024-11-01T18:00:21Z

103.69.224.64: /* Voices of thunder meetings */

=Point of Beginning=

=Abstract=

=Introductie=

=Workshops Summer 2019=

Based on the desire for recognition and acknowledgement of the impact of these polar bear quota regulations, two workshops were co-organized, in the summer of 2019, to discuss and document testimonies of Gjoa Haven hunters and other community members.

[[File:Mapping TEK Gjoa Haven 2019.jpg|thumb|Participants discussing during BearWatch TEK workshop 2019]]

The workshops were advertised over the radio in both English and Inuktitut (Inuit language), and interested individuals signed up through the HTA. One workshop was held May 15, 2019 in the evening with 10 participants and one on May 16 in the morning with 11 participants. These participants comprised mainly older male community members, many of whom had hunted, or still hunt polar bears. There were two female participants in each workshop. Three of the participants were between the ages of 20 and 40, with the remainder older. The two workshops focused specifically on the impacts of polar bear hunting quota reductions on the community. The workshop questions were co-designed by the BW academic researchers and HTA representatives and were asked in both English and Inuktitut to prompt discussion. The format however remained open-ended, meaning that "off-script" discussions were encouraged during the workshop, and occasionally specific members were asked to participate in answering particular questions because of their connection to the issue, as identified in previous interviews or by other community members. Two BW researchers and an interpreter would ask the pre-designed questions and prompt discussion, while a third BW researcher made notes. Both workshops were audio-recorded.

These recordings and workshop notes became the primary materials which were transferred to me, as a new PhD student on the BW project in 2020, with the purpose of having these experiences written out, as to a larger academic audience, through academic publishing, as part of the overarching research project.

'''[[Voices of Thunder#purveyor of voices|Click here]] to go (back) to my deliberations around non-Indigenous scholars presenting Indigenous experiences in academic research'''

'''[[Voices of Thunder#output|Click here]] to go straight to the different narrative outputs that BearWatch scientists, the Gjoa Haven HTA and several community members co-created, building off of these workshops.'''

'''Staying with the trouble: [[Politics of recognition]]'''

=Coral Harbour First trip 2020=

====Caribou hunt====

====Painting Cabin====

=====Covid-19=====

=Covid-19 Remote interviews=

=====Netherlands in isolation=====

=====Kingston in isolation=====

[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03098265.2024.2406292/Getting Punk and personal publication]

=Fieldtrip BW team Summer 2021=

==Coral Harbour==

====Driving the Island====

====Drinking Coffee====

==Gjoa Haven==

===HTA meetings presentations===

===Voices of thunder meetings===

====Stranding the car====

====ATV ride====

====Camping at the Weir====

'''[[Conference calls from the road#Butter|Invitation]]:Trail-off to understand better how my whereabouts influenced my writing, reading and broader relationship to the country after this fieldtrip'''

=Meetings Spring 2022 Gjoa Haven=

====Checking seal dens====

====Collecting ice====

=Meetings Spring 2022 Coral Harbour=

====Spending time in Yan's Cabin====

====Qamutiq building and riding====

====Walking the same road every day====

=====Seasonal changes=====

=====Illness=====

=====Gender based violence=====

In text link to [[Point of Beginning Mx. Science]]

=Fall 2022 Coral Harbour=

In text link naar [[Aesthetic Action#Design consultation pre-workshop & workshop Coral Harbour|Design consultation pre-workshop & workshop Coral Harbour]]

=====remote planning=====

=====illness=====

=====tension=====

=====absence=====

==Wayfaring Calendar pilot==

=Arctic travel=

=Fall 2022 Gjoa Haven=

In text link naar [[Aesthetic Action#Design consultation pre-workshop & workshop Gjoa Haven|Design consultation pre-workshop & workshop Gjoa Haven]]

====Preparing cabin pre-workshops====

====Cooking/ Sharing food====

====Prayer====

=====Truck Flat Tire=====

In text return to [[Workshop Gjoa Haven#Preparation Gjoa Haven workshop|Preparation Gjoa Haven workshop]] in the Workshop Gjoa Haven trace.

=====Broken Thermostat=====

====Bingo====

====Making posters====

=Winter 2022 Final Workshops=

====Ethics====

Point of Beginning Animated Graphic Documentary

2024-11-01T17:59:52Z

103.69.224.64: /* Editing and Motion Graphics */

This is a split-off from both the "aesthetic action" thread and the "voices of thunder" thread

==Film narrative and archival work==

==Storyboarding and artwork==

Once the script was adapted, finalized and approved through a collective reading with the HTO board, we started to visualize scenes through a combination of sketching and conversation. This latter exercise was done with a smaller group; HTO chairman James Qitsualik, vice-chairman William Aglukkaq, Jacob Keanik, me and BearWatch co-PI Peter van Coeverden-de Groot, a total of five people. We first decided which parts of the script felt like they would together comprise a scene. I would then ask the HTO-board members how we could best visualize that scene; for example where it would take place, and who would be present? As they would start conversing together and lay out a particular setting -often drawn from situations in their own life, or from other hunters-, I would start sketching multiple rough compositions based on their descriptions without interrupting their conversation. At moments where it felt appropriate, I would present multiple quick sketches, and ask them to select and comment on which composition felt like it best reflected the setting of their description, and or what changes it needed to better reflect their desription.

Pictures

After the selection and adaptation of each sketch I would ask follow-up questions to gain a better understanding of that particular scene. For example, in the opening scene of the film we see two hunters and their dogs hunt a polar bear. More detailed descriptions for this scene clarified that that the hunters should wear traditional garbs, and weapons like a bow and arrow and a spear, because it described a pre-quota moment in time. James and William would clarify how these weapons were used; the spear for example would be used in up close encounters with polar bears and held in place by balancing the spear on one foot. Explanations like these would often result in bringing up memories of their own hunting stories and polar bear encounters, which were also shared with lots of excitement and referrals to specific locations on the map hanging on the wall of the HTO office. Aesthetic experience triggering memories
After co-creating a preliminary storyboard in this way, I would take the descriptions, notes and rough sketches to Danny Aaluk; a Gjoa Haven based graphic artist who had been preferred by the HTO board to work on this film with. Danny makes detailed black and white ink-drawings that he sells to tourists that arrive by cruise ship in the summer, teachers and researchers that come into town. He also makes artwork for local events, the school and the hamlet office, and is occasionally invited to art-fairs ‘in the South’. Danny and I would end up spending a lot of time together. We would talk the scene through, and he would ask detailed questions on the content of each scene. More quick sketches from both me and Danny could often clarify the compositions of each setting and what kind of details were discussed with the HTO board members. Sometimes Danny would ask questions that I could not answer, spurring follow-up conversations with James and William. These conversations sometimes brought up new details for certain scenes. For example, it became clear that the traditional hunting scene should also have dogs in it, because dogs were very important companion animals in the hunting of polar bears. They would go ahead and sometimes even kill the bear before the hunter could catch up. Whenever Danny had finished a drawing I would bring them to James and William, to see if anything was missing or should be changed. Sometimes minor changes were made, like in the scene where the MoU between the NWMB, Gjoa Haven and Cambridge bay is signed. Mostly the drawings invoked affective responses where the initial stories and experiences that had led to the drawing were repeated, or more related stories shared. As such a heuristic device that allows for catharsis?

The process of collaborating with Danny also allowed for an opportunity to get to know each other. Both as creative collaborators, but also on the level of building an informal, personal relationship. We would usually spend considerable amounts of time chatting or drinking tea before and after the more transactional activities of payment, and dropping off drawings or sketches. As is the case with many of the other people in the community that I ended up [[community co-creation|collaborating with]], such moments were also often combined with small favours like rides to the store, or elsewhere in town, technical assistance with phone plans or small monetary advances for upcoming work. Very often these moments would also include Danny sharing stories about his grandfather who would take him out on the land and teach him about the animals and the ice. Although these are informal moments, outside of the research agenda and data collection, I argue they cannot be seen as separate from the research. These informal moments of sharing knowledge and mutual care, allow for micro-environment of relational accountability that emerges when one fully engages in Inuit communities.

Keavy Martin

==Audio recording and translations==

==Editing and Motion Graphics==

'''[[Conference calls from the road#Butter|Invitation]]:Trail-off to understand better how my whereabouts influenced my writing, reading and broader relationship to the country during Covid-19'''

==Film screenings==

This will be an-text link: [[Voices of Thunder#Voices of Thunder Inuktitut Syllabics version|Voices of Thunder animated graphic documentary]]

==[[Aesthetic Action#Point of Beginning (Pre-)Workshop|Continue to Point of Beginning (Pre-)Workshop]]==

Point of Beginning Animated Graphic Documentary

2024-11-01T17:59:14Z

103.69.224.64: /* Editing and Motion Graphics */

This is a split-off from both the "aesthetic action" thread and the "voices of thunder" thread

==Film narrative and archival work==

==Storyboarding and artwork==

Once the script was adapted, finalized and approved through a collective reading with the HTO board, we started to visualize scenes through a combination of sketching and conversation. This latter exercise was done with a smaller group; HTO chairman James Qitsualik, vice-chairman William Aglukkaq, Jacob Keanik, me and BearWatch co-PI Peter van Coeverden-de Groot, a total of five people. We first decided which parts of the script felt like they would together comprise a scene. I would then ask the HTO-board members how we could best visualize that scene; for example where it would take place, and who would be present? As they would start conversing together and lay out a particular setting -often drawn from situations in their own life, or from other hunters-, I would start sketching multiple rough compositions based on their descriptions without interrupting their conversation. At moments where it felt appropriate, I would present multiple quick sketches, and ask them to select and comment on which composition felt like it best reflected the setting of their description, and or what changes it needed to better reflect their desription.

Pictures

After the selection and adaptation of each sketch I would ask follow-up questions to gain a better understanding of that particular scene. For example, in the opening scene of the film we see two hunters and their dogs hunt a polar bear. More detailed descriptions for this scene clarified that that the hunters should wear traditional garbs, and weapons like a bow and arrow and a spear, because it described a pre-quota moment in time. James and William would clarify how these weapons were used; the spear for example would be used in up close encounters with polar bears and held in place by balancing the spear on one foot. Explanations like these would often result in bringing up memories of their own hunting stories and polar bear encounters, which were also shared with lots of excitement and referrals to specific locations on the map hanging on the wall of the HTO office. Aesthetic experience triggering memories
After co-creating a preliminary storyboard in this way, I would take the descriptions, notes and rough sketches to Danny Aaluk; a Gjoa Haven based graphic artist who had been preferred by the HTO board to work on this film with. Danny makes detailed black and white ink-drawings that he sells to tourists that arrive by cruise ship in the summer, teachers and researchers that come into town. He also makes artwork for local events, the school and the hamlet office, and is occasionally invited to art-fairs ‘in the South’. Danny and I would end up spending a lot of time together. We would talk the scene through, and he would ask detailed questions on the content of each scene. More quick sketches from both me and Danny could often clarify the compositions of each setting and what kind of details were discussed with the HTO board members. Sometimes Danny would ask questions that I could not answer, spurring follow-up conversations with James and William. These conversations sometimes brought up new details for certain scenes. For example, it became clear that the traditional hunting scene should also have dogs in it, because dogs were very important companion animals in the hunting of polar bears. They would go ahead and sometimes even kill the bear before the hunter could catch up. Whenever Danny had finished a drawing I would bring them to James and William, to see if anything was missing or should be changed. Sometimes minor changes were made, like in the scene where the MoU between the NWMB, Gjoa Haven and Cambridge bay is signed. Mostly the drawings invoked affective responses where the initial stories and experiences that had led to the drawing were repeated, or more related stories shared. As such a heuristic device that allows for catharsis?

The process of collaborating with Danny also allowed for an opportunity to get to know each other. Both as creative collaborators, but also on the level of building an informal, personal relationship. We would usually spend considerable amounts of time chatting or drinking tea before and after the more transactional activities of payment, and dropping off drawings or sketches. As is the case with many of the other people in the community that I ended up [[community co-creation|collaborating with]], such moments were also often combined with small favours like rides to the store, or elsewhere in town, technical assistance with phone plans or small monetary advances for upcoming work. Very often these moments would also include Danny sharing stories about his grandfather who would take him out on the land and teach him about the animals and the ice. Although these are informal moments, outside of the research agenda and data collection, I argue they cannot be seen as separate from the research. These informal moments of sharing knowledge and mutual care, allow for micro-environment of relational accountability that emerges when one fully engages in Inuit communities.

Keavy Martin

==Audio recording and translations==

==Editing and Motion Graphics==

'''[[Conference calls from the road#Butter|Invitation]]:Trail-off to understand better how my whereabouts influenced my writing, reading and broader relationship to the country, after this fieldtrip'''

==Film screenings==

This will be an-text link: [[Voices of Thunder#Voices of Thunder Inuktitut Syllabics version|Voices of Thunder animated graphic documentary]]

==[[Aesthetic Action#Point of Beginning (Pre-)Workshop|Continue to Point of Beginning (Pre-)Workshop]]==

Conference calls from the road

2024-11-01T17:49:51Z

103.69.224.64: /* Writing and reading in flux */

On September 11th of 2020, the second of what would in total become three- two-hour long conference- calls between three principle investigators, me and several respresenttaives of the Gjoa Haven HTO, took place. I was, in the week of those conference calls, self-isolating in my campervan “Butter”, and taking these calls “on the road”.

Two months prior, I had returned to my apartment in Kingston, Ontario- from my stay in the Netherlands, where I had sheltered during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The reality of returning to Canada as an international student, during the Covid-19 pandemic, was rough for me. Not so much physically- I recognize my immense privilege to have had the possibility to return to my home country and be in proximity of my family and loved-ones during the first months of the pandemic while remaining healthy and safe. Instead, my struggle was social. Having a high-risk parent, I did not take shelter in my family home in the Netherlands, and as a result had to pay rent for apartments both in Kingston and the Netherlands. My commitment to be present, and make a new home in Canada, combined with the financial stresses of double rent- eventually drew me back to Ontario at the first seemingly reasonable opportunity. Once back in Ontario, I was stuck in my tiny apartment by myself, without a university campus to go to.

To be somewhat more independent and self-reliant I had bought a campervan, and had taken it out in September to gain a better understanding of the country I was living in. Making sure to still take covid-precautions into account, I had done stocked up on groceries in my local Kingston-based food basic and continued isolating myself. I however did so, while exploring more of the province.

[[File:Butter on driveway.jpg|thumb|Butter on driveway]] [[File:Butter interior.jpg|thumb|View from inside Butter, taking evening conference calls ]]

='''[[Covid 19 personal whereabouts|Pressure ridge: How Covid-19 redirected and unfixed my personal whereabouts]]'''=

=Butter=

"Butter", my campervan, became an important companion to my research. As times remained ongoingly uncertain, and several waves of Covid-19 variants kept reappearing, It took a long time before I could return to the North for fieldwork- after cutting my initial trip to Coral Harbour short in 2020. With the campus, and most of Kingston’s public life shut down, I had decided to give up my apartment in Kingston in 2021, and chose to base myself closer to "home", in the Netherlands- awaiting my moment of return to the North.

Having bought Butter, it remained possible for me, however after Covid restrictions were loosened and lifted, to spend extended months of time in Canada without an apartment. She provided transport, and a comfortable place to sleep. Butter also provided me a way of staying connected to my friends in Kingston, and allowed for my journey as a guest to the country to continue. In fact, arguably, Butter provided a completely different perspective to the country, that remaining in my apartment in Kingston would likely not have had to offer. Butter mobilized me, and its limited interior space would push me outside. I went on walks, wrote in my diary and read books I had borrowed from the Queen’s libraries across the region.

[[File:Googlemaps history .png|thumb|Screenshot of googlemaps showing my location history in Ontario 2019-2024]]

=Writing and reading in flux=

Practices of reading and writing are impacted by the material conditions and affordances around them.

The physical reality of my PhD has slowly materialized as one of being in constant flux. Not all seasons are suitable for living in a campervan in Ontario. Funding and project cycles do not adapt to personal circumstances, and neither do Northern communities when it comes to their seasonal window of opportunity to act on their own responsibilities, desires and routines. Responding to these fluctuating conditions and possibilities, I was launched into a process of ongoing moving-in-between. For three years my physical whereabouts were intra-dependent on the unfolding of the global covid pandemic, the seasons, the schedule of the BearWatch research project, family-affairs, friendships and romances. I was constantly travelling between Ontario, Nunavut and the Netherlands, across timezones and climates- while partially living in Butter, with friends, or my apartment in the Netherlands. The result of this constant movement was a stronger attunement to the particulars of being present in different places and the importance of ‘dwelling’ in all its plural manifestations of shelter and sedimentation. Keeping an auto-ethnographic research journal has assisted in making the process of such attunements insightful.

The fourth year of my research anchored me more firmly in the Netherland- as the BearWatch funding cycle came to an end and the push and pulls of the project demanded fewer physical relocations. I found time and space to dwell with my (auto-)ethnographic writings. This writing shaped not a final stage of my work - reporting on, or describing the insights produced by a linearly executed research design for the purpose of disseminating - but rather formed a continuation of the research itself. Re-turning to the material, while blurring hard divisions of practice and theory to perform through my writing how space, time and practice relate and feed into each other in emergent, reiterative, and ongoing processes of encounter and coming to know.

='''[[The Wayfarer Vista|Great! You have unlocked the "Wayfarer Vista"]]'''=