Another point of beginning Wayfaring method

You have reached "Another Point of Beginning". These are not conclusive endings to my research, but rather perform at the cusp of emergence: They are a story so-far. Some of these points mark the end of funding cycles or project activities. Or they mark the limitations and scope of this particular PhD dissertation. Others are trails, and tracks that have faded out, as they remained un-revisited. They however always mark one moment along an ongoing animate line of correspondence between multiple agencies, and they usually allow for continuing with another cut.

In choosing this path you have landed on a story-so-far about the development of a knowledge conciliation approach that would be based on western philosophies of knowing through wayfaring, and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit on land-based wayfinding.

this tool has been a project between co-PI Leonard Netser, in Coral Harbour, and me. We had started talking about such an approach since my visit in the late summer of 2021 through personal correspondences, and Leonard was very supportive and interested in the idea.

Although Leonard was not much available during the subsequent visits, which was meant to be used to further develop this idea with him, we did collaborate on developing a pilot interview guide that engages IQ through a focus on process, values, and land-based ways of doing/being, rather than outcomes or measurable data. The resulting interview guide focusses on understanding the land-based practice of navigating main routes and tracks across Southampton island. He then connected me to three experienced hunters of the community (Jonathan Emiltowik - Innuapik Ell - Harry Gibbons) to conduct a participatory mapping exercise, which could feed into the development of a wayfaring method towards knowledge conciliation, with.

The information that was shared was processed by Saskia into a paper prototype of a seasonal calendar which could potentially be further developed into a future communicative/planning tool for Southampton Island residents and Southern researchers seeking community-based collaborations on polar bear monitoring.

Image calendar prototype

Up until recently however correspondence has fallen silent in the context of relational tensions that emerged between Leonard and Queen's University Bearwatch researchers. Some of these tensions are eluded upon in Cut 2.

Cut 1: Voices of Thunder