Knowledge-land-scape - User contributions [en]

Wayfaring the BearWatch Project

2025-02-26T21:04:17Z

92.110.215.72: /* Becoming a Wayfarer */

<small>Estimated time to follow this cut without detours: 20 minutes (excluding 20 minutes animated graphic documentary.)</small>

The land invites one to move away from anthropocentric tellings - towards narrations of becoming knowledgeable in company with the seasons, snow, ice, wind, lichens, caribou and many more. Such stories leave room for us as researchers, but aren’t about us.

[[File:DSC09826.jpg|thumb|Spring in Coral Harbour (Photograph taken by author in 2021)]]

=Acknowledgements=

An explicit note of acknowledgement for this cut goes out in particular to George Konana, in Gjoa Haven, and Leonard Netser in Coral Harbour.

Both men have taken me out on the land, the sea and the ice on multiple occasions between 2020-2023. They patiently took time to introduce me to their land and explained how they found their way in various ways and under multiple conditions.

Although they graciously responded to my many questions, I am most grateful to their valuable lessons of guiding me to tag along and just be present for the ride.

[[File:Leonard and George.png|thumb|Leonard Netser (left) and George Konana (right) photographed by author]]

=Becoming a Wayfarer=

My name is Saskia de Wildt. This cut traces the processes of my PhD research as part of a large Genome Canada funded research project called BearWatch.

Within this project I ask the question of what it means to practice knowledge conciliation under guidance of the principles of the ‘Ethical Space of Engagement’<ref>Ermine, W. (2007). The ethical space of engagement. Indigenous Law Journal, 6(1), 193–203.</ref> and the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) Protocols for Equitable and Ethical Engagement (EEE<ref>Inuit Circumpolar Council (2022). Circumpolar Inuit Protocols for Equitable and Ethical Engagement.</ref>) rather than based on data-driven needs.

<div class="next_choice">To engage with such a sensitizing research question, entails making multiple shifts- as will become clear.

A shift of positioning; from distanced observer or reader to becoming an entangled “subject” – and a shift from operating based on fixed principles, to a practice of ongoing negotiations and ethical encounter.

As you make your way through this knowledge-land-scape, depending on the choices you make, you might start feeling these shifts yourself as you may transform from being a reader of my research, towards becoming a wayfarer alongside my research.</div>

<small><references /></small>

=Knowledge Conciliation in Polar Bear Research=

The polar bear co-management regime in the Nunavut Settlement Area, is based on the 1993 Nunavut Land Claim Agreement (NLCA), that states that “Inuit must always take part in decisions on wildlife”, while “the guiding principles and concepts of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) are to be described and made an integral part of the management of wildlife and habitat.”

Despite such formalized co-management, tensions remain. Data-driven conservation, management and monitoring of polar bears in Inuit Nunangat- while necessary to address significant data gaps on population trends and a rapidly changing Arctic environment- has also proven itself a challenging environment for the conciliation of different ways of knowing and being.

<div class="next_choice">This cut explores the methodology of wayfaring as a potential transformative ethical practice of knowledge conciliation.

It centers the unfolding of a particular research project: ‘Bearwatch: Monitoring Impacts of Arctic Climate Change using Polar Bears, Genomics and Traditional Ecological Knowledge’ – hereafter referred to as ‘Bearwatch’.

Excerpts of project reports serve as a guiding cut, while you, I, and multiple others may thread our own corresponding paths alongside it. </div>

=Wayfaring as a Sensitizing Method=

My wayfaring approach, as will become clear, does not attempt to formulate a new, alternative, or innovative means of knowledge conciliation across cultural differences, nor does it lead to conclusive take-aways about ethical knowledge conciliation. It instead unsettles fixed ideas about “knowledge” towards a “coming to know”, and instead of “knowledge integration” it performs the idea of “worldly encounters”.

[[File:DSC00022.jpg|thumb|Two polar bear skulls at George Konana's cabin.]]

<div class="next_choice"> '''"Keep going"''' to learn more </div>

=The BearWatch Project=

The BearWatch project ran between 2015 and 2023, during which it sought to meaningfully engage IQ in its development of a new non-invasive genomic polar bear monitoring toolkit. The project was a collaboration between Northern communities in the Nunavut Settlement Region and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, HTAs in Gjoa Haven and Coral Harbor, the Inuvialuit Game Council, the governments of Nunavut, Northwest Territories, and Yukon, the Canadian Rangers, and researchers and students from multiple universities across Canada and beyond.

Most researchers and policymakers in the field of polar bear science more generally – and on the BearWatch project particularly – are trained in a variety of natural science disciplines of the western academic institute, or they are Inuit knowledge and rights holders. I, myself, am a white, queer, settler-guest researcher from the Netherlands with a background in the applied arts and social sciences, which has required me to negotiate and navigate my own way of meaning making alongside many of the project’s activities.

<div class="next_choice">This particular cut, in turn, allows you thread your own way of becoming knowledgeable about how the BearWatch project may, or may not, have come to matter in terms of ethical engagement and meaningful knowledge conciliation.

But before you keep going, notice that you have stumbled upon a "Vista".

This '''"Vista"''' is a viewpoint, it will help you orient. It is called "The Ethical Space of Engagement". </div>

<span class="pop-up vista link" data-page-title="The_ESE_(process)" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="Vista">[[The_ESE_(process)|Vista: The ESE]]</span>

=Decision-making=

You now have a choice to make. Will you trace the most straightforward path across the BearWatch project, engaging mostly with the project reports of BearWatch? Or will you start threading your own intra-dependent way alongside the project and me?

[[File:Invitation background a.png|thumb]]

<div class="next_choice">If you have not yet checked out the terms of engagement of this knowledge-land-scape, you should seek them out - find them on the bottom right corner of your screen.

Otherwise,

Take a '''"Detour"''' to look up the meaning of “intra” dependency, as opposed to “interdependency” before you keep going.

Or,

'''"Keep going"''' to keep following this cut instead.

You will jump straight into the BearWatch project- beginning with the TEK workshops that were held in the community of Gjoa Haven in 2019 as to inform a feasibility study on future community-driven polar bear fecal sample collection.</div>

<span class="detour to-cut-3 link" data-page-title="Intra-dependency" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="detour">[[intra-dependency|Detour: look up the meaning of "intra-dependency"]]</span>

=TEK Workshops=

The BearWatch project was designed to include a “Genomics and its Environmental, Economic, Ethical, Legal and Social aspects (GE3LS)” component (BearWatch research proposal, 2016 p.30-31).

Three TEK mapping workshops were co-designed with the HTA of Gjoa Haven, as part of this GE3Ls strategy to ‘identify TEK gaps’ and ‘fill them’.

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

There is also another kind of workshop lined up:

The Gjoa Haven Gjoa Haven Hunters and Trappers Association has urgently been trying to get the BearWatch researchers to turn their focus towards the available polar bear harvest quota. After two generations of hardly being able to hunt polar bears, the Gjoa Haven HTA have asked the researchers of the BearWatch project to help them seek recognition for the loss of income, loss of culture, and loss of intergenerational knowledge transfer.

<div class="next_choice">You have taken a moment to sit down and read what Genome Canada has written on their website about GE3LS, as someone brings up the existence of a nearby shipwreck: "Knowledge Co-production”.

They suggest you go check it out to get a deeper understanding of the im/possibilities around bringing IQ together with western sciences.

You weigh your options,

'''"Detour"''', to read about GE3LS.

Or,

'''"Keep going"''' to attend these impacts workshop.

Or,

First, go check out the '''"Wrecksite"''' of "Knowledge Co-production"</div>

<span class="detour to-cut-3 link" data-page-title="GE3Ls" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="detour">[[GE3Ls|Detour: Read more about GE3Ls]]</span>

<span class="pop-up wrecksite link" data-page-title="Knowledge Co-production" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="wrecksite">[[Knowledge Co-production|Wrecksite: Knowledge Co-production]]</span>

=Workshops Summer 2019=

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

Two workshops were organized in response to community requests, to record the impacts of polar bear hunting quota reductions on the community.

One workshop was held May 15, 2019 in the evening with 10 participants and one on May 16 in the morning with 11 participants.

Both workshops were audio-recorded.

The BearWatch PI's and Gjoa Haven HTA-board want to use these recordings as primary materials for an academic paper.

They ask me to write it.

<div class="next_choice">
I have just learnt about this project and have not yet set foot into the community. Although I understand that writing “about” other people’s experiences doesn’t exactly sound ethical, the Gjoa Haven HTA wants a publication, so maybe there is no need to complicate things further?

What would you do?

'''"Stay with the Trouble"''' and explore what is possible, while also keeping in mind how the “Politics of recognition” can complicate such writing practices.

Or,

Choose to not engage further with the community of Gjoa Haven for now.

'''"Keep going"''' to trace Cut 3: the unfolding of the BearWatch project, and prepare for your first fieldtrip to Coral Harbour.
</div>

<span class="pop-up stay-with-the-trouble link" data-page-title=" Politics_of_Recognition " data-encounter-type="Stay with the trouble">[[Politics of Recognition|Stay with the trouble: The Politics of Recognition]]</span>

=Coral Harbour First Trip 2020=

Alongside funding from Genome Canada, the project PI’s also successfully applied to the Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada/ World Wildlife Fund to fund ‘traditional knowledge research and a denning survey in Coral Harbour, Nunavut’ (Schedule H, 2020, March 31. This intended study included documenting polar bear TEK in Coral Harbour, surveys of vacated dens by locals to collect a variety of samples and data, and the initiation of a collaborative effort with the high school to train students in land-based surveys.

[[File:DSC01008.jpg|thumb]]

<div class="next_choice">However, before you start, you hit an '''"Ice-Pressure Ridge"'''. The Covid virus has so rapidly spread, the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic on March 20, 2020.</div>

<span class="redirective ice-pressure_ridge link" data-page-title="Covid-19" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="ice-pressure_ridge">[[Covid-19|Ice-pressure ridge: Immediately book a flight back]]</span>

Knowledge Co-production

2025-02-22T14:20:53Z

92.110.215.72:

[[File:The wrecksite.png|thumb]]
You have found a "Wrecksite".

This one allows you to think with the im/possibilities of knowledge (co-)production in polar bear monitoring and co-management.

In scientific wildlife co-management and research the properties of ‘science’ are mostly determined by the agential cuts of post-positivist western natural sciences and its understanding of the world through representative data <ref>Brook, R. (2005). On using expert-based science to “test” local ecological knowledge. Ecology and Society : a Journal of Integrative Science for Resilience and Sustainability., 10(2). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-01478-1002r03</ref><ref>Smylie, J., Olding, M., & Ziegler, C. (2014). Sharing what we know about living a good life: Indigenous approaches to knowledge translation. The Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association, 35, 16.</ref>.

''"A lot of the time they [scientist] already know what they want to know. A lot of the time they just need to know the locations. 'Can you tell me where the den-sites are?'(James Qitsualik, interview, 2022)"''

Wrecksites, just as well, however, emerge as sites of multiplicity and opportunity. They are both sites of "becoming reef", as they are sites of "becoming heritage<ref>Pearson, N. (2024). The multispecies shipwreck. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 30(6), 673-686.</ref>".

"These interviews with the elders are very important, because now, some of them have passed.
I have also learnt a lot through these [TEK] workshops. I have learnt that Inuit used to hunt polar bears from within their den. It's where they - inexperienced hunters - felt safer. Experienced hunters would hunt them anywhere. (James Qitsualik, interview, 2022)"

<div class="next_choice"> Over the last couple of years the Gjoa Haven HTA has been trying to get BearWatch researchers to turn their focus towards the impacts of reduced polar bear harvest quota on their community.

Tomorrow, 20 people will come to talk about how a harvesting moratorium from 2001 has had ongoing impacts on them up until today.

'''"Return"''' to the BearWatch project to join this workshops.

You should get going, because you also still need to buy coffee, "pop", and snacks for that
meeting.

<small><references /></small>

<span class="return to-cut-3 link" data-page-title="Wayfaring the BearWatch Project" data-section-id="7" data-encounter-type="return">[[Wayfaring the BearWatch Project#Workshops Summer 2019|Return to Cut 3: Workshops Summer 2019]]

Moves Towards Innocence

2025-02-21T21:01:11Z

92.110.215.72:

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

You have encountered a Great White Beast!

''“It is precisely by denying culpability or assuming that one is not implicated in violent relations toward others, that one is outside them, that violence can be perpetuated. Violence, especially of the liberal varieties, is often most easily perpetrated in the spaces and places where its possibility is unequivocally denounced”''<ref>Berlant in Rothberg, M. (2019 p.49) The implicated subject. Stanford University Press.</ref>.

The purpose of reconciliation is not to reinscribe settler virtues, nor to cater to comfortable narratives of innocence. Rather than merely "passing on" the message of recognition under the obscured positionality of "solidarity", it should be contemplated alongside the concept of implication<ref>Grundy, M., Jiang, J., & Niiya, M. (2019). Solidarity as a settler move to innocence. Race in the Americas</ref>. and by re-inserting our bodies back into the political landscape.

The fallacy of imagining there is an easy road to reconciliation leading to superficial actions that alleviate settler guilt, but do nothing to repatriate land, or undo settler power, coloniality or privilege<ref>Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, education & society, 1(1), 1-40</ref>.

The challenge of conducting a testimonial reading, is that it requires us to face the "Great White Beasts" of our own actions and identities. A necessary discomfort before we can contemplate the full implications of acting as allies.<ref>Rothberg, M. (2019 p.87) The implicated subject. Stanford University Press.</ref>.

<div class="next_choice">You have stumbled upon another '''Vista''': "Becoming Other". Maybe this vista will be able to provide some prospective when it comes to moving beyond positioning ourselves as innocent.</div>

<small><references /></small>
<span class="pop-up vista link" data-page-title="The_Becoming_Other_Vista" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="Vista">[[The Becoming Other Vista|Vista:"Becoming Other"]]</span>

Moves Towards Innocence

2025-02-21T20:53:26Z

92.110.215.72:

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

You have encountered a Great White Beast!

''“It is precisely by denying culpability or assuming that one is not implicated in violent relations toward others, that one is outside them, that violence can be perpetuated. Violence, especially of the liberal varieties, is often most easily perpetrated in the spaces and places where its possibility is unequivocally denounced”''<ref>Berlant in Rothberg, M. (2019 p.49) The implicated subject. Stanford University Press.</ref>.

The purpose of reconciliation is not to reinscribe settler virtues, nor cater to comfortable narratives of innocence.

It should rather be contemplated alongside the concepts of implication, responsibilities to unsettle settler innocence, and to inspire action <ref>Grundy, M., Jiang, J., & Niiya, M. (2019). Solidarity as a settler move to innocence. Race in the Americas</ref>.

Part of doing so around Gjoa Haven's Voices of Thunder, is by re-inserting our bodies back into political landscape, rather than merely deflecting them elsewhere, by merely "passing on" the message under the obscured positionality of "solidarity".

The fallacy of imagining there is an easy road to reconciliation leading to superficial actions that alleviate settler guilt, but do nothing to repatriate land, or undo settler power, coloniality or privilege - and is also referred to as a "move towards innocence" <ref>Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, education & society, 1(1), 1-40</ref>.

The challenge of conducting a testimonial reading, is that it requires us to face the "Great White Beasts" of our own distorted reflections. A necessary discomfort before we can contemplate the full implications of acting as allies (especially from within institutions rooted in western-based thinking).<ref>Rothberg, M. (2019 p.87) The implicated subject. Stanford University Press.</ref>.

<div class="next_choice">You have stumbled upon another '''Vista''': "Becoming Other". Maybe this vista will be able to provide some prospective when it comes to moving beyond positioning ourselves as innocent.</div>

<small><references /></small>
<span class="pop-up vista link" data-page-title="The_Becoming_Other_Vista" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="Vista">[[The Becoming Other Vista|Vista:"Becoming Other"]]</span>

Point of Beginning Animated Graphic Documentary

2025-02-20T16:36:28Z

92.110.215.72: /* Film Narrative and Archival Work */

This is one of three case studies conducted as part of my research that seeks to explore how ethical knowledge conciliation may come to matter within community-based polar bear research. This particular case study cuts across the step-by-step practices of community-based film-making. Initially these practices evolved only around the co-creation of an animated motion graphic documentary "Voices of Thunder", however several smaller video projects branched off from this initial film-making.

<div class="next_choice">Keep going to trace the filmmaking process, or detour to Cut 1 to learn more about why it is important to the community of Gjoa Haven that the "Voices of Thunder" documentary is made.</div>

<span class="detour to-cut-1 link" data-page-title="Voices of Thunder" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="detour">[[Voices of Thunder|Detour to Cut 1: Voices of Thunder]]</span>

=Film Narrative and Archival Work=

The script for "Voices of Thunder" draws directly from the recordings of the workshops in 2019. All the quotes in the film are directly taken from the transcribed interpretations without editing.

To connect these experiences with scientific and political decisions made in the past, we alternated these quotes with archival documentation on polar bear quota setting in the MC management unit.

By doing so, we draw explicit attention to the impacts of the severe quota reductions as experienced by Gjoa Haven hunters and community members, while also directing the gaze towards the institutional structures underlying these experiences – actively invoking questions of responsibility and relational accountability.

=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. We then discussed 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 description.

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 pointed out 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.

[[File:DSC00570.jpg|thumb]]
[[File:DSC00586.jpg|thumb]]

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.

The drawings often invoked affective responses during which the initial stories and experiences that had led to the drawing were repeated, or more related stories shared.

[[File:DSC00591.jpg|thumb]]

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 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, account for the relations that become a crucial part of community-based research.

<span class="detour to-cut-2 link" data-page-title="Community co-creation" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="detour">[[Community co-creation|Detour to Cut 2: Community co-creation]]</span>

=Audio Recording and Translation=

During the summer of 2021, my accommodation was the, what is referred to in the community of Gjoa Haven, ‘old arcade’ or the ‘blue house’. This blue house functioned as a launch pad for on-the-land sampling activities for multiple research projects due to its size and affordances for storage.

[[File:Blue house logistics.jpg|thumb]]

To record the audio tracks for the voices of thunder film we needed a sound-controlled environment. Due to a lack of housing in Nunavut most homes are overcrowded, with very little opportunity for uninterrupted audio-recording. Houses and offices are furthermore often heated by noisy oiltanks, which posed an additional challenge to record clean audio. The blue house, mentioned above, eventually turned out to afford a quiet space for recording through the possibility of turning of the heating and other electrical equipment. Although this was effective, it was not very comfortable. We would be able to record 20 minutes and then turn the heat back up, as to not get too cold.

[[File:DSC00524.jpg|thumb]]

=Editing and Motion Graphics=

After spending five weeks in the community of Gjoa Haven, I had collected a lot of audio-visual material to create multiple formats of creative media around Gjoa Haven's "Voices of Thunder". Moreover, the process of filmmaking, storyboarding, recording voice-overs, co-facilitating storytelling workshops and undertaking many other activities- both central, and tangentially related to film-making- in the community, had given me an possibility to enter into relationship with multiple community members that I would have otherwise likely not have met. Many of the people I worked with, fell outside of the usual network that was engaged around polar bear research in the past, and many of the people I connected with were women.

For the subsequent 6 months, I worked with this material to edit three versions of the Voices of Thunder documentary, and create a throatsinging and Pihhiq video. I also create an interactive timeline and website that allowed for people to engage with Gjoa Haven's testimonies in other formats than film.

In particular the process of turning Danny Aaluk's drawings into motion graphics, and the adding of subtitles to each video, required an intimate engagement with both the voice-over recordings and Danny's drawings. In fact, I can still hear Tuppittia's voice echoeing in my head, almost two years after finalizing the films. Spending time with the material over and over again gives a sensitivity to language. In this case, it invoked questions on how language works in relation to the land. From the perspective of someone who does not speak Inuktitut, there seemed relatively little variation in intonation and tone, either in the voice-overs and the singing of the pihhiq. Nevertheless, I was told multiple times that the words used "paint a picture of the land".

<div class="next_choice">'''"Keep Going"''' to return to the community to organize a screening of the videos and gather feedback.</div>

=Collective Film Screenings GH=

In the spring of 2022 I returned to Gjoa Haven by myself. I was welcomed "home" immediately, as many people had remembered seeing me around town the previous year. This visit allowed me to screen an intermediate version of the Voices of Thunder documentary for the Gjoa Haven HTA and co-create some missing material for the final edit with Danny Aaluk, who I had collaborated closely with during my previous visit.

I was also able to screen the two other videos with all the people that had participated in making them. After the screening we shared bannock, pop and soup, prepared by Danny Aaluk's mother, and had a collective discussion on the cultural meaning of the songs and dances that the people had performed in the videos.

[[File:DSC00985.jpg|thumb]]
[[File:DSC00993.jpg|thumb]]

<div class="next_choice">Explore how the connection between land, language and knowledge, as it was once more discussed during this screening influenced my research processes moving forward, through the landmark insight.

Or, take a small detour to Cut 1, if you would like to see the final creative research outputs of Gjoa Haven's "Voices of Thunder" - you will be able to return to this cut fairly soon.

Take a detour to cut 2: Point of Beginning (Pre-)workshops, to move on to the next case study of aesthetic action: The final BearWatch workshops conducted in Gjoa haven and Coral Harbour.</div>

<span class="pop-up landmark link" data-page-title="Song, Dance And Oral Storytelling" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="landmark">[[Song, Dance And Oral Storytelling|Landmark: Song, Dance and Oral Storytelling]]</span>

<span class="detour to-cut-1 link" data-page-title="Multiple Voices" data-section-id="3" data-encounter-type="detour">[[Multiple Voices#Voices of Thunder Animated Graphic Documentary|Detour to Cut 1: Voices of Thunder Animated Graphic Documentary]]</span>

<span class="detour to-cut-2 link" data-page-title="Point of Beginning (Pre-)workshops" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="detour">[[Point of Beginning (Pre-)workshops|Detour to Cut 2: Continue to Point of Beginning (Pre-)Workshop]]</span>

Point of Beginning Animated Graphic Documentary

2025-02-20T16:30:51Z

92.110.215.72: /* Film Narrative and Archival Work */

This is one of three case studies conducted as part of my research that seeks to explore how ethical knowledge conciliation may come to matter within community-based polar bear research. This particular case study cuts across the step-by-step practices of community-based film-making. Initially these practices evolved only around the co-creation of an animated motion graphic documentary "Voices of Thunder", however several smaller video projects branched off from this initial film-making.

<div class="next_choice">Keep going to trace the filmmaking process, or detour to Cut 1 to learn more about why it is important to the community of Gjoa Haven that the "Voices of Thunder" documentary is made.</div>

<span class="detour to-cut-1 link" data-page-title="Voices of Thunder" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="detour">[[Voices of Thunder|Detour to Cut 1: Voices of Thunder]]</span>

=Film Narrative and Archival Work=

The script for "Voices of Thunder" draws directly from the recordings of the workshops in 2019. All the quotes in the film are directly taken from the transcribed interpretations without editing.

To place the quoted experiences within a contextual narrative, we added documentation of the processes around polar bear quota setting in the MC management unit. This also led to the choice of arranging the interpreted quotes along a linear timeline, despite the absence of such a temporal presentation of quota impacts by the hunters and elders in the workshops.

We nevertheless collectively agreed during the process of co-production to strategically present our narratives in this way for two reasons; First, presenting the testimonies as such makes it clearer how Gjoa Haven’s experiences are linked to scientific and political developments and structures over time. This is especially relevant for audiences that might not be familiar with-, but are nevertheless interested in, the detailed historical context of quota setting in the MC management unit and associated impacts on Gjoa Haven hunters.

Second, the archival documentation draws attention to regulatory, and potentially oppressive structures, rather than decontextualizing the experiences from the relationships of power in which they are entangled. By doing so, we don’t only draw explicit attention to the impacts of the severe quota reductions as experienced by Gjoa Haven hunters and community members. We present these experiences, not with a focus on the suffering and pain of the community, but rather by redirecting the gaze towards questing the institutional structures underlying these experiences – actively invoking questions of responsibility and relational accountability.

=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. We then discussed 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 description.

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 pointed out 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.

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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.

The drawings often invoked affective responses during which the initial stories and experiences that had led to the drawing were repeated, or more related stories shared.

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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 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, account for the relations that become a crucial part of community-based research.

<span class="detour to-cut-2 link" data-page-title="Community co-creation" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="detour">[[Community co-creation|Detour to Cut 2: Community co-creation]]</span>

=Audio Recording and Translation=

During the summer of 2021, my accommodation was the, what is referred to in the community of Gjoa Haven, ‘old arcade’ or the ‘blue house’. This blue house functioned as a launch pad for on-the-land sampling activities for multiple research projects due to its size and affordances for storage.

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To record the audio tracks for the voices of thunder film we needed a sound-controlled environment. Due to a lack of housing in Nunavut most homes are overcrowded, with very little opportunity for uninterrupted audio-recording. Houses and offices are furthermore often heated by noisy oiltanks, which posed an additional challenge to record clean audio. The blue house, mentioned above, eventually turned out to afford a quiet space for recording through the possibility of turning of the heating and other electrical equipment. Although this was effective, it was not very comfortable. We would be able to record 20 minutes and then turn the heat back up, as to not get too cold.

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=Editing and Motion Graphics=

After spending five weeks in the community of Gjoa Haven, I had collected a lot of audio-visual material to create multiple formats of creative media around Gjoa Haven's "Voices of Thunder". Moreover, the process of filmmaking, storyboarding, recording voice-overs, co-facilitating storytelling workshops and undertaking many other activities- both central, and tangentially related to film-making- in the community, had given me an possibility to enter into relationship with multiple community members that I would have otherwise likely not have met. Many of the people I worked with, fell outside of the usual network that was engaged around polar bear research in the past, and many of the people I connected with were women.

For the subsequent 6 months, I worked with this material to edit three versions of the Voices of Thunder documentary, and create a throatsinging and Pihhiq video. I also create an interactive timeline and website that allowed for people to engage with Gjoa Haven's testimonies in other formats than film.

In particular the process of turning Danny Aaluk's drawings into motion graphics, and the adding of subtitles to each video, required an intimate engagement with both the voice-over recordings and Danny's drawings. In fact, I can still hear Tuppittia's voice echoeing in my head, almost two years after finalizing the films. Spending time with the material over and over again gives a sensitivity to language. In this case, it invoked questions on how language works in relation to the land. From the perspective of someone who does not speak Inuktitut, there seemed relatively little variation in intonation and tone, either in the voice-overs and the singing of the pihhiq. Nevertheless, I was told multiple times that the words used "paint a picture of the land".

<div class="next_choice">'''"Keep Going"''' to return to the community to organize a screening of the videos and gather feedback.</div>

=Collective Film Screenings GH=

In the spring of 2022 I returned to Gjoa Haven by myself. I was welcomed "home" immediately, as many people had remembered seeing me around town the previous year. This visit allowed me to screen an intermediate version of the Voices of Thunder documentary for the Gjoa Haven HTA and co-create some missing material for the final edit with Danny Aaluk, who I had collaborated closely with during my previous visit.

I was also able to screen the two other videos with all the people that had participated in making them. After the screening we shared bannock, pop and soup, prepared by Danny Aaluk's mother, and had a collective discussion on the cultural meaning of the songs and dances that the people had performed in the videos.

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<div class="next_choice">Explore how the connection between land, language and knowledge, as it was once more discussed during this screening influenced my research processes moving forward, through the landmark insight.

Or, take a small detour to Cut 1, if you would like to see the final creative research outputs of Gjoa Haven's "Voices of Thunder" - you will be able to return to this cut fairly soon.

Take a detour to cut 2: Point of Beginning (Pre-)workshops, to move on to the next case study of aesthetic action: The final BearWatch workshops conducted in Gjoa haven and Coral Harbour.</div>

<span class="pop-up landmark link" data-page-title="Song, Dance And Oral Storytelling" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="landmark">[[Song, Dance And Oral Storytelling|Landmark: Song, Dance and Oral Storytelling]]</span>

<span class="detour to-cut-1 link" data-page-title="Multiple Voices" data-section-id="3" data-encounter-type="detour">[[Multiple Voices#Voices of Thunder Animated Graphic Documentary|Detour to Cut 1: Voices of Thunder Animated Graphic Documentary]]</span>

<span class="detour to-cut-2 link" data-page-title="Point of Beginning (Pre-)workshops" data-section-id="0" data-encounter-type="detour">[[Point of Beginning (Pre-)workshops|Detour to Cut 2: Continue to Point of Beginning (Pre-)Workshop]]</span>