9.Covid-19 Remote interviews

"Our territorial government collaborators are currently working from home with no field work permitted for the foreseeable future, and southern labs remain closed. We are working on plans to achieve our community goals remotely, but the full impact of COVID-19 on both lab work and field work remains to be seen." (schedule H report March, 31, 2020).

One year later, 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. Follow it 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 take the pilot recording in which Leonard shares his detailed knowledge on Southampton Island, and keep going.

Ice pressure ridge: Tech, TEK and Tea

10. 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

11. 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 sharing sessions with participants of the 2019 TEK collection workshops, 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. The visit, finally, also provided opportunities for me to collaborate in person on how to proceed with the publication and dissemination of the polar bear quota restriction impacts.

12. Voices of Thunder Meetings

Although other BearWatch researchers had visited Gjoa Haven before, for example in 2019 to organize the TEK workshops and polar bear quota restriction impact workshops, it was my first time to visit the community. I had already been communicating for a couple of months with several community representatives and the HTO-board of Gjoa Haven by remote conference-call about the co-creation and dissemination of publications on the polar bear quota restriction impacts on Gjoa Haven residents. Being physically present in the community, however, presented opportunities to also co-create an audio-visual production with multiple community members, in addition to the academic paper that was already in progress.

You find yourself here at a cross-road with many tracks. Choose carefully, as some of these tracks might lead you down different cuts, with a low chance of returning to this particular unfolding cut of the BearWatch project itself. For example, if you turn left, you can follow a track that cuts along the processes of co-creating the animated graphic documentary and other video projects which I ended up making with several community-members of Gjoa Haven in the Summer of 2021. If you take the bridge that crosses over that track, you can take a shortcut towards the final animated documentary and other audio-visual outputs that we created to generate recognition for the experiences of Gjoa Haven’s residents around their severely reduced polar bear quota. Neither track seem to return to this cut anytime soon. Alternatively, you could stick around in the community and help with logistical chores around town. This is a helpful way to get to know people. Otherwise, you could just move onward with the BearWatch project, by either moving forward to the next fieldtrip to Gjoa Haven, in which I come back by myself to present on some of the work I have done. Or by taking a small detour that passes by the community-lead sampling efforts done in Southampton Island in March 2022.

Detour to Cut 2: Aesthetic Action, co-creating a graphic documentary

Detour to Cut 1: Voices of Thunder Animated Graphic Documentary

Invitation: Help out with chores around town

Detour: Community-lead Sampling CH 2022