Wayfaring the BW project

Covid-19 Remote Interviews

One year later after I had left Coral Harbour, by March 2021, the project PI’s reported to have adapted their strategy to the Covid-19 restrictions on travel from the South and to the national public health social distancing practices in force. The polar bear denning surveys that had been planned for the region, had been executed under local leadership, and methods to compile TEK had been adapted together with Co-PI Leonard Netser to allow Southern BearWatch team members to “participate remotely.”

Despite the fact that much effort, technology and resources were put into the adaptation of these TEK interviews to take place with involvement from the South, the interviews were dis-continued after one pilot interview and the first interview with a Coral Harbour elder. The material circumstances required to record and livestream these interviews proved to be too disruptive for the task at hand.

You have bumped into an ice-pressure ridge. It's a small one through, and you can easily cross it. Follow it nevertheless to learn more about how the material aspects of our Covid-19 adaptations interfered with the dynamics between interviewer and interviewee. Understand why it was considered unworkable, and why a cup of tea was suggested as a replacement technology. Alternatively, you can consider the pilot recording in which Leonard shares his detailed knowledge on Southampton Island a succesfull outcome, and keep going.

Ice-pressure ridge: Tech, TEK and Tea

Fieldtrip BW Team Coral Harbour Summer 2021

Although collaborations had already taken place remotely between local PI Leonard Netser and the PI’s from the South, it was only in the Summer of 2021 that the respective team members from the North and the South got to meet each other for the first time within the community. A short 5-day introductory fieldtrip was organized to visit Coral Harbour. During this trip several BearWatch researchers presented the proposed research activities that were upcoming to the Coral Harbour HTA and other interested community members. The time was also used to set up material equipment for a simple local lab to support further community lead sampling efforts, to be conducted over late 2021 and early 2022. The trip was finally used to visit some of the sampling areas that were pointed out by Leonard and elder [name] during the TEK mapping interviews of 2020.

Tag along, and get a sense of Southampton Island in the Summer. Otherwise, move straight ahead to the second leg of this fieldtrip, towards Gjoa Haven.

Invitation: Drive across  the Island

Fieldtrip BW Team Gjoa Haven Summer 2021

This fieldtrip to Gjoa Haven was the first opportunity after Covid-19 restrictions to revisit the community since the polar bear quota restriction impact workshops and TEK collection workshops that were organized in 2019.

This visit was used to organize two TEK sessions, as to receive the required feedback for finishing the envisioned peer-reviewed publication on Gjoa Haven polar bear TEK (Arlidge, 2022). It was also used to present results of several other graduate students that had been working on the analysis of samples towards developing various elements of the BearWatch bio-monitoring toolkit. This visit also provided opportunities for me to collaborate in person on how to proceed with the publication and dissemination of Gjoa Haven's Voices of Thunder regarding the polar bear quota restriction impacts.

Voices of Thunder Meetings

Being physically present in the community, presented opportunities to co-create an audio-visual productions with multiple community members, in addition to discussing and revising the latest iteration of the academic paper, that I had started to write.

You find yourself at a cross-road with many tracks.

If you turn left, for example, you can follow several tracks along the processes of co-creating an animated graphic documentary and other video projects that I ended up making with several community-members of Gjoa Haven in the Summer of 2021.

Take the long detour along Cut 2: Aesthetic Action to move along the co-creation process. Or short-cut directly to Cut 1 for the final animated documentary.

Alternatively, you could stick around in the community, where you are invited to help with logistical chores around town. This is a helpful way to get to know people, and it will be much easier than in Coral Harbour, because of the existing network.

Otherwise, you could move onward with tracing the monitoring activities of the BearWatch project. There are, for example, community-lead sampling efforts underway in Southampton Island, that you can visit, before returning to Gjoa Haven in the spring of 2022 to present the some final cuts of the videos that were made.

Detour to Cut 2: Co-creating a Graphic Documentary

Detour to Cut 1: Voices of Thunder Animated Graphic Documentary

Invitation: Help Out With Chores Around Town

Detour to Cut 3: Community-Lead Sampling CH 2022

Community-Lead Sampling Coral Harbour Spring 2022

In March 2022 fieldwork was carried out on Southampton Island which included bear den surveys and sampling of snow from polar bear tracks and filtering of snow melt from polar bear footprints ‘in the field’.

As part of this work we also collected some footage of our collaborators collecting samples of snow from polar bear footprints and the collection of two micron filters from the snowmelt of polar bear tracks in ‘the field’. These were meant to be compiled into instructional videos, and currently collected on a youtube channel that is can be accessed through this link only.

Vista:The Land

Meetings Spring 2022 Gjoa Haven

In the spring of 2022 I returned to Gjoa Haven by myself. I was welcomed "home" immediately, and 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, a Gjoa Haven based artist who I had collaborated closely with during my previous visit.

I was also able to screen two other videos that I had shot with several community-members, after which we shared bannock 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. Finally, I took the opportunity to collaborate on the translations of the website, timeline and Voices of Thunder documentary, and interview some of the project's main collaborators to gain some insights on how they would prefer the BearWatch final workshops, that are scheduled for the end of the year, to be designed and organized.

You have started noticing how multiple people connect the use of certain words and song to mental pictures of the land during your conversations with them.

Check out the landmark to your left to learn more about this connection.

You can also keep going, this will take you to Coral Harbour where you are hoping to talk more about a model of knowledge conciliation that is based on wayfinding and wayfaring with Leonard Netser. You also want to further discuss his priorities for the project and its final workshop.

Before you go, you have an opportunity to go check on seal dens with George. Take the invitation, to learn more about his methods of moving through the land and ice.

Landmark: Song, Dance and Oral Storytelling"

Invitation: Checking Seal Dens

Meetings Spring 2022 Coral Harbour

I returned to Coral Harbour with high hopes of working with co-PI Leonard Netser on 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. We had started talking about such an approach after my last visit in the late summer of 2021 in our personal correspondences, and Leonard was very supportive and interested in the idea. He had told me that coming back in the spring would allow be good timing for him. I had furthermore anticipated that travelling to Coral Harbour alone, would also provide for a slower pace and less pressure from other project related activities like sampling.

An unexpected ice-pressure ridge has, however, emerged on this path. We can't keep going. Leonard is engaged elsewhere and needs to move a cabin before the spring ice becomes too unsafe to travel across.

Ice-pressure ridge: Seasonal Activities