Knowledge-land-scape - User contributions [en]

Learning About Wrecksites

2025-05-16T19:42:52Z

2.242.88.225:

[[File:The wrecksite.png|thumb]]

Like the other figures in this Knowledge-Land-Scape, wrecksites are not merely a metaphorical figure.

In the case of Gjoa Haven, two shipwrecks, respectively the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, exist in proximity to the community.

These shipwrecks speak to longstanding (knowledge) encounters between Qablunaat (non-Inuit people) and Inuit across time and space. Such encounters materialize through site-specific instances, like for example local trade <ref>Pearson, N. (2024). The multispecies shipwreck. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 30(6), 673-686.</ref>, but also through more expansive relational dynamics like Inuit Land Claim Agreements, (inter)national science-based polar bear conservation and polar bear co-management and monitoring.

Here and there, the shipwrecks of such larger generative forces reveal themselves as materially constitutive agential cuts that determine what can, and what can not exist, at particular moments in time within my research, this Knowledge-Land-Scape, and your decisions as you thread your way through it.

<div class="next_choice"> You have now learnt about all the phenomena that you may encounter in this Knowledge-Land-Scape.

'''"Return"''' to the instruction cut to end this tutorial.</div>

<small><references /></small>

<span class="return to instructions link" data-page-title="Encounters Along the Way" data-section-id="1" data-encounter-type="return">[[Encounters Along the Way#Research Creation|Return: Return to instructions]]</span>

Learning About Staying With the Trouble

2025-05-16T19:40:17Z

2.242.88.225:

[[File:Great White Beast.png|thumb]]

You have encountered a Great White Beast!

The Great White Beast is a fleeting, shapeshifting figure that performs the world as "indeterminate".

Although it holds a reference to polar bears, or more accurately- a moniker that is employed within Inuit traditional customs- to respectfully avoid talking about polar bears’<ref>Jimmy Qirqut, Gjoa Haven Elder, interview conducted in 2022</ref>, this figure gestures towards the "Great White Beasts" of indetermination.

It is in the spirit of this last frame that the figure of the "Great White Beast" performs in this Knowledge-Land-Scape. As an invitation to stay with the trouble: a 'learning to be truly present, not as a vanishing pivot between awful or edenic pasts and apocalyptic or salvific futures, but as moral critters entwined in myriad unfinished configurations of place, times, matters, and meanings.”<ref>Haraway, D. J. (2016 p.1). Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. In Staying with the Trouble. Duke University Press.</ref>

Encountering a Great White Beast, reminds us that there are no right decisions to be made, but that we are nevertheless to account for our decisions. Especially when there are no simple or right answers.<ref>Rosiek, J., & Adkins-Cartee, M. (2023 p.160). Diffracting structure/agency dichotomies, wave/particle dualities, and the citational politics of settler colonial scholars engaging Indigenous studies literature. Cultural Studies↔ Critical Methodologies, 23(2), 157-169.</ref>

Great White Beasts provide insights into the im/possibilities of such decisions, and the futurities I have aimed to contribute towards during my research, even if they can not all be addressed within this Knowledge-Land-Scape.

<div class="next_choice"> As you struggle with this Great White Beast, you suddenly remember that someone told you about a very old and well-known shipwreck close-by.

Go find the '''"Shipwreck"'''.

Perhaps it will provide refuge and provide you with some final insight before you exit this tutorial and enter the Knowledge-Land-Scape. </div>

<small><references /></small>

<span class="pop-up wrecksite link" data-page-title=" Learning About Wrecksites " data-encounter-type="Wrecksite">[[Learning About Wrecksites|Wrecksite: Learning About Wrecksites]]</span>

Instructions: Ways to Navigate this Space

2025-05-16T19:38:11Z

2.242.88.225: /* Ice-Pressure Ridges */

As you enter this knowledge-land-scape you can seek to answer the following research question: “What does it mean to practice knowledge conciliation guided by the principles of the ethical space of engagement, rather than by data-driven needs?”

You don’t have to answer this question by yourself, however. As you proceed, you will be making decisions in correspondence with me, the creator of this scape. As my experiences and action unfold through narrative form, you may trace my auto-ethnographic cuts across this Knowledge-Land-Scape. You can however also, and are explicitly invited to, divert from these cuts and take any possibility to navigate this Knowledge-Land-Scape as you please.

As you make your way, it might come to your attention that you are also moving alongside and across multiple others. As I did, you will have to make your own decisions on how you want to respond and proceed across this Knowledge-Land-Scape. Will you allow yourself to take the risks that come with diverting from your course? Or will you continue tracing my cuts in the hope of finding conclusive answers?

Scroll down.

<div class="next_choice">
You have scrolled down to see if you can find further guidance. However, in this case it seems that you have to trust that you will gain more insights as you go, and that you will make your choices carefully. For now, you can only "keep going".

'''"Keep Going"''' to enter a short "wayfaring tutorial".
</div>

=Cuts=

This space provides three entrance points to the Knowledge-Land-Scape: i) “Voices of Thunder”, ii) ‘Aesthetic Action”, and iii) “Wayfaring the BW project”.

Each "Point of Beginning" corresponds to a track that "cuts" across the scape along the lines of what conventionally would be referred to as a PhD dissertation manuscript.

Once you have chosen a cut, you can keep following its tracks to trace my research across the scape in its most-straight-forward manner.

You will eventually arrive at “Another Point of Beginning”, where I account for its “story-so-far”<ref>Massey, D. B. (2005). For space. SAGE. London ; Thousand Oaks, California.</ref> A story-so-far may include classic research outputs, like published articles, but more importantly, it explains how the material nature of this scape allows for ongoing impacts or future possibilities, beyond the cut of my research.

<small><references /></small>

=Threads and Trails=

It is also possible to thread your own way through the Knowledge-Land-Scape, through a practice that anthropologist Tim Ingold calls “wayfaring”.<ref>Ingold, T. (2010). Footprints through the weather‐world: walking, breathing, knowing. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 16, S121-S139.</ref>

Such wayfaring is a practice of "feeling your way forward" in response to the many options to pivot or detour from your initial track.

Although all wayfaring possibilities in this Knowledge-Land-Scape are bounded my own recorded experiences, observations and research processes, it is the careful maintenance of the open-ended and entangled nature of such processes that allow for you to feel your own way alongside them within this space. In fact, it is by this very refusal to enclose my observations and practices in conclusive take-aways, that you can start following another cut halfway your journey, or trail-off in response to an invitation you encounter on the way - which is where the most meaningful insights can be found.

You might even be involuntarily redirected off course, by unanticipated events or astonishing new insights.

Within this Knowledge-Land-Scape such re-directives are performed as either “Invitations” or “Ice-Pressure Ridges”.

<div class="next_choice"> '''"Keep going"''' to learn about Invitations. </div>

<small><references /></small>

=Invitations=

As you make your way along the knowledge-land-scape, you will encounter different possibilities to trail-off. These possibilities show up as navigation buttons.

"Invitations" show up on your bottom left corner, as a yellow button.

<div class="next_choice"> Hover over the “invitation” button that has appeared in the left bottom corner to unveil more about this invitation.

Note that you don’t have to accept this, or any other invitation in the knowledge-land-scape for that matter. You can also “keep going” to stay on your current course.

Within this tutorial, however, it is important to check out the invitation.

When you are ready to accept, click the '''"invitation"''' button. </div>

<span class="redirective invitation link" data-page-title="Learning About Invitations" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="invitation">[[Learning About Invitations|Invitation: Learning About Invitations]]</span>

=Ice-Pressure Ridges=

"Ice-Pressure Ridges" are the second re-directive in this Knowledge-Land-Scape. The ice-pressure ridge is a figure that gestures towards the agencies of the land itself.

They remind us that agency is not a property that is possessed by individual readers, researchers and authors. Our ways of becoming knowledgeable always correspond intra-dependently with many other agential forces, both human and non-human.

<div class="next_choice"> '''“Keep Going”''' to cross the boundary of this scape. Then come back here, to find another way.

↓

There are different reason for tracks to end- and trails to fade out.

The most apparent reason within this Knowledge-Land-Scape is not so much that there is no "outside"- it is just that you have reached the boundaries of what has come to matter within the agential cut of my research.

Another reason could be that you have encountered an "Ice-Pressure Ridge" that forces you to go off course, and find another path. Ice-pressure are always performed by agents other than me.

click the '''“Ice-Pressure Ridge”''' button when you are ready to learn more.</div>

<span class="redirective ice-pressure_ridge link" data-page-title="Learning About Ice Pressure Ridges" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="ice pressure ridge">[[Learning About Ice Pressure Ridges|Ice-pressure ridge: Learning About Ice-Pressure Ridges]]</span>

Terms of Engagement

2025-05-16T19:34:49Z

2.242.88.225:

In this Knowledge-Land-Scape you get to be a wayfarer.

To be a wayfarer, is not about moving from point A to point B. Wayfaring is about moving alongside others, and responsively being able to make decisions in-between and along the way. When such a process is applied to the challenge of cross-cultural knowledge conciliation, this also – as will become clear - entails a degree of shared meaning making with others. Such others, in the case of this Knowledge-Land-Scape, are numerous and will include also me, the author of this scape. As such, and in line with the principles of the Ethical Space of Engagement (Ermine, 2007), I want to propose some terms of engagement.

'''Invitation Based'''

Firstly, while it is not quite possible to forgo becoming a wayfarer once you enter this Knowledge-Land-Scape, you do have the agency to make your own choices as you make your way across this knowledge-land-scape. You will have the possibility to keep following a “cut”, and read “about” my research as part of the BearWatch project. Should you choose to accept (some of) the invitations along the way, however, this should come with the understanding that such a decision to diverge from the cut, entails your willingness to become an active and immersed agent of shared meaning-making within my research.

'''Respecting Difference'''

Secondly, the knowledge-land-scape, that you are about to enter is comprised of (digitized) materials. They are ethnographic traces like voice notes, photos, drawings, edited videos, written notes, posters and presentations, as well as academic texts and workshops, resulting from the more-than-human aesthetic encounters that were part of my fieldwork. This Knowledge-Land-Scape is explicitly not about providing “direct” access to the land or Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (nor is such a thing possible, or desirable). It adheres to Inuit-driven EEE protocol 3 , in that it respects cultural “differences” (ICC, 2020). My work does not somehow make sometimes referred to as “remote” regions legible, accessible or available for consumption. Nor does it take the liberty to “represent” IQ, or “map out” Inuit Nunangat as if it were a blank slate, or “empty” space available for inscription or re-interpretation by non-Inuit researchers like me. As such this work doesn’t work towards descriptive representations of Inuit land or Knowledge. It acts instead as a possibility for an emergent topology of insights to materialize in-between subject-object, reader-author, and land-scape as I have grateful to experience it.

'''Boundaries'''

As such not everything is possible within this knowledge-land-scape. The land-scape as it emerges within this web-based platform is not meant to sketch a comprehensive and complete overview of the institutional or socio-political apparatus of community-based polar bear management. It is rather bound by the particular more-than-human encounters I experienced during my research and my fieldwork, the apparatus of western science and polar bear co-management, the available financial resources and the technical affordances of the software with which this scape is built- as well as the intra-dynamics of all these matters, mentioned above. The knowledge-land-scape of my research thus indeed materializes for the reader based on their own choices, the possibilities and conditions for these choices are nevertheless still bounded by my decisive cuts as a researcher, and the material im/possibilities that I was myself submitted to, while making them.

<div class="next_choice">Click '''"Home"''', on the top-left corner of your screen and embark on your journey,

or,

Visit the '''"Colofon"'''</div>

<span class="detour link" data-page-title="Colofon" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="detour">[[Colofon|Detour: Colofon]]</span>

Colofon

2025-05-16T19:30:06Z

2.242.88.225:

This website was created by Saskia de Wildt, School of Environmental Studies, Queen’s University, as part of their PhD dissertation:

''Exploring Polar Bear Research as Ethical Space, Practice and Process of Engagement.''

'''Editorial Team'''

Research, research-creations and texts: Saskia de Wildt.

Website development: Camilo Garcia.

'''Research Supervision'''

Prof. Graham Whitelaw

Prof. Stephen Lougheed

'''Research Committee'''

Prof. Chris Furgal

Prof. Heather Castleden

Prof. Tamara Witschge

'''Acknowledgements'''

I want to acknowledge that this website, and the research it was based on, are inseparably entangled with the lands and territories on which I have been able to work, play and love over the course of six years. These are the far-from-empty spaces that have allowed me to build new relationships and tell new stories. Stories of movement and dwelling.
In particular I want to acknowledge the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabek and Huron-Wendat nations, on which Queen’s University is located. I want to extend that acknowledgement with gratitude to the Indigenous communities of Katarokwi (the area known as Kingston), who in the face of ongoing colonialism, have generously continued to share their knowledge on the lands with uninvited guests like me.
I am especially grateful to the people of Uqsuqtuuq (Gjoa Haven) and Salliq (Coral Harbour), of the respective Kitikmeot- and Kivalliq region in the Nunavut Settlement Area. I have been fortunate to build meaningful relationships with several people in these communities and others across Inuit Nunangat (Inuit homelands). This in itself is a source of great gratitude. Living with the land and ice in these regions demands skill and experience. It also demands time. So I am truly grateful for all the moments people were willing to share theirs with me; taking me out on the land, sharing country food and stories, while also sitting down with me for interviews, or translations. Many thanks to the Uqsuqtuuk and Salliq HTA’s, with particular mention to Salliq Co-PI Leonard Netser, Uqsuqtuuq HTO vice-chairman James Qitsualik, William Aglukkaq, Diane Netser, Troy Netser, Anthony Anguttitauruq, George Konana, Jimmy Qirrqut, David Siksik, Mary Aqiriaq, Barbara Okpik, Kathy Okpik, Janet Aglukkaq, Gibson Porter, Percy Akuak, Christina Porter, Angeline Porter, Yan Guilbault, Lisa Maria Thomas, Peter McKitrick, Shelly Elverum, and of course Danny Aaluk who created the artistic works of cut 1 in this knowledge-land-scape.

'''Special Thanks to:'''

Peter van Coeverden de Groot

Gjoa Haven Hunter's and Trapper's Organization

James Qitsualik

Tuppittia Qitsualik

William Agglukkaq

Leonard Netser

Diane Netser

Risa Horn

'''Funding and support'''

Faculty of Arts and Science, Queen’s University

Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships

Prins Bernard Cultuurfonds

'''Questions, comments or suggestions'''

Do you have any questions, comments and/or suggestions regarding this website? Is part of the website not working optimally? We would be pleased to hear from you. In addition, do contact us if you have additional or interesting texts and/or photographs for us. Please send an e-mail to saskia.dewildt@queensu.ca

'''Copyright'''

Saskia de Wildt owns the rights to this website.
In the case of re-use, you must always cite the original source (i.e. this website);
In the case of re-use, you must always give the date of extraction (i.e. copying and re-use).
No part of this website may be stored or reproduced, wholly or partly, by whatever means, without first gaining the express permission of the editor.

'''Visual material'''

The visual material that has been used on this website belongs to Saskia de Wildt, or has been obtained directly from the parties concerned. Saskia de Wildt has done their utmost to trace the lawful owner of any images and to coordinate the use of this visual material. Should the lawful owner(s) have objections to the use of the visual material on this website, they are requested to contact the editor.

''First date of publication: January 2025''

''Last edited: January 2025''

<div class="next_choice">Click '''"Home"''', on the top-left corner of your screen and embark on your journey,

or,

Visit the '''"Design Considerations"'''</div>

<span class="detour link" data-page-title="Design Considerations" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="detour">[[Design Considerations|Detour: Design Considerations]]</span>

Exploring Polar Bear Research as Ethical Space, Practice and Process of Engagement: Knowledge-land-scape

2025-05-16T19:26:09Z

2.242.88.225:

Welcome to the knowledge-land-scape.

My name is Saskia de Wildt and this space is an extended site of my PhD dissertation: “Community-based polar bear monitoring research as an ethical practice, process and space of engagement”

Unlike more typical dissertations, this space allows you as a reader to move alongside me as I answer the following research question: What does it mean within community-based polar bear research to ethically conciliate Inuit Knowledge and western sciences?

You can choose between 3 narrated cuts across this Knowledge-Land-Scape to explore this question. However, like all community-based research, these journeys will not be straightforward. You may run into ice-pressure ridges, shipwrecks and shapeshifting beasts, as well as -depending on how you respond- plenty of landmarks and vistas that help you orient and gain emergent insights as you make your own way.

<span class="next_choice"> Enter here </span>