TEK workshops

Participants discussing during BearWatch TEK workshop 2019

In response to the ‘legal authority of land claim agreements, asking that IQ/TEK be used to make management decisions’, and ‘to increase community ownership of polar bear monitoring through community-based collection and knowledge sharing’ 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).

GE3LS is described on the Ontario Genomics website as investigating ‘questions at the intersection of genomics and society’, and as ‘providing stakeholders with the insights needed to anticipate the impacts of scientific advances in genomics, avoid pitfalls, cultivate success, and ultimately, contribute to Canada’s leadership in the 21st-century global bioeconomy’ (Ontario Genomics, accessed 04-11-2024).

Within the BearWatch project proposal GE3LS was included as ‘Evaluation, Mapping and Integration of Polar Bear Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit/Traditional Ecological Knowledge (IQ/TEK), Historical Records and Science’, with the goal of guiding faecal sampling and to develop a long-term and viable monitoring program using community based field collection and leading-edge genomics science (BearWatch research proposal, 2016 p.30).

Along the way, the proposed activities under the GE3LS component were adjusted and in some cases downscales for feasibility purposes based on feedback from Research Committees and community feedback. Activities to ‘identify TEK gaps’ and ‘fill them’ (Schedule H report, March 2019) were narrowed to focus more on partner communities, through ‘case studies’ that would help inform broader suggestions on monitoring.

As part of this GE3Ls activity three TEK mapping workshops were co-designed with the HTA of Gjoa Haven to ‘identify TEK gaps’ and ‘fill them’. The temporal and spatial polar bear TEK that was collected, was processed and published in the MES thesis of Scott Arlidge, another student that participated in the project. It ‘provides a georeferenced knowledge base that displays information on polar bears including harvest sites, bear movement, denning sites, and hunter knowledge areas’ (Arlidge, 2022 p.13). The data as shared in this publication is presented in his thesis as i) ‘a historical record of polar bear knowledge for the community of Gjoa Haven’; and ii) ‘as a guide to areas of high polar bear activity for future targeted polar bear monitoring effort’s’ (Arlidge, 2022 p.ii).

You have taken a moment to sit down and read Arlidge's thesis. As you are about to check out what Genome Canada has written on their website about GE3LS, someone brings up the existence of a nearby shipwreck: Knowledge “integration”. They suggest you go check it out to get another perspective on bringing IQ together with western sciences.

Detour: Read more about GE3Ls

Go to the Wrecksite:Knowledge "inclusion"

Return to Workshops Summer 2019