Editing Workshop Coral Harbour (section)

=Day 1: Building Qamutiik (Morning)=

The pre-gathering activities with the school principal and teacher led to inclusion of sessions within the final workshop design for school participants only. included Qamutiik building and science-based bingo and presentations.

The final workshops were always supposed to include several sessions related to ethical knowledge conciliation in community-based polar bear research. The qamutiik building sessions approaches this topic in a way that moves away from considering knowledge conciliation as a “problem” of integration or co-production of knowledge that can be solved by applying the right interface between two differentiated knowledge systems. 

Through the proposed workshop activities, the potentials of knowledge conciliation through day-to-day practices like navigating the land, or collecting ice for example were to be explored. To this end the workshop contained a session in which we would engage further to define ‘Aesthetic Action”. 

The physical exercise of researchers building the qamutik together with pupils from the school, and a workshop teacher allowed for a completely different approach to knowledge conciliation. First of all, the decision to build a qamutiq was based on an expressed need by the school work-shop. This need emerged as part of negotiating terms for this particular session with the School Principal, Cirnac Project Lead Leonard Netser, and several teachers of the school. After that, the materials needed to be prepared, as for there to be enough time to finish the qamutik together. These processes require immersion in the community. Most importantly however, there is a degree of intra-dependency that is required to collaborate on this project. The afternoon of building together was not just meant as a pedagogical event on IQ, it provided a moment for Southern researchers to be present, receptive, attentive and engaged- all qualities that seem straight-forward, but are not a given in the realities of Arctic fieldwork, while being a crucial element to ethical engagement in research. Reserving space to devote an afternoon on such dynamics and taking the time to reflect on them, provides practical entrance points for understanding Inuit Knowledge (or IQ) to not only be considered as deeply entangled with on-the-land practices and skills, but also are part of practices and traditions that emerge from intra-relational dependencies. Similar activities in Gjoa Haven have provided for deeper relationship building and new opportunities to consider IQ in ways that are less extractive, and more engaged within the process of doing research.

Highschool students and researchers from the south participated together in building a qamutik under guidance of Ross Eetuk, the school workshop teacher. The purpose of the event was to give students the experience of building a qamutik, to encourage knowledge transfer across cultures, and provide an opportunity to connect and create together. 

[[File:Co-PI van Coeverden de Groot cutting wood to size (photograph by de Wildt, 2022).jpg|thumb|Co-PI van Coeverden de Groot cutting wood to size (photograph by de Wildt, 2022)]]
[[File:Marsha Branigan working on the Qamuttik (photograph by de Wildt, 2022).jpg|thumb|Marsha Branigan working on the Qamuttik (photograph by de Wildt, 2022)]]