Do Nothing
Doing nothing will not dismantle ongoing settler-coloniality within polar bear management and monitoring. Doing nothing doesn't render those of us active in this field, innocent.
Working as a white, settler guest on matters of wildlife conservation places me in a particular lineage of administrative and scientific agents that have historically played a disruptive role in Indigenous human/nature relationships -often under the flag of bringing the ‘right’ intentions or acting from morally ‘innocent’ position.
Considering this cultural inheritance, I have had to come to terms with my choice to insert myself in the Arctic as an international student as an action that has implicated me directly in the material dynamics of ongoing settler-colonialism, and reconciliation in Inuit Nunangat (the Inuit homelands).
Such realizations come with an awareness to tread carefully and with openness to being held accountable- the latter of which I understand as a commitment to embracing my role as a researcher to be non-innocent.
Such an embrace entails learning to become comfortable with discomfort, incommensurability and unlearning, while also applying myself and my research towards a futurity of meaningful settler-Indigenous reconciliation- with a willingness to learn and adapt my course on the way.