Tech, TEK and Tea
Significant technical interventions were required to conduct and live-stream Coral Harbour TEK interviews in a way that followed local Covid-19 protocols, and allow southern BearWatch team members to participate remotely ((20 pieces of material equipment, a checklist and a manual: see Appendix A).
The interviews were conducted at a large dining table in Leonard Netser’s living room, which provided for the required distancing between “interviewer” and “interviewee”. A third, locally hired research assistant, was also present in the room to attend to several recording devices, streaming platforms, battery levels and communication channels. All three people present in the room were masked and physically distancing from each other.
A mounted phone, a large table-stand microphone and two go-pro cameras, of which one mounted on a structure that was built over the dining table to film the mapping exercise that was part of the interview, were required to respectively live-stream the go-pro recording, a conference call and to also record high-quality audio. Other materials required for these interviews included a large paper map of Southampton Island, an acetate sheet and waterproof markers in front of the interviewee, and a piece of paper to mark specific timestamps in front of the interviewer. This was in addition to another phone mounted on a tripod elsewhere in the room to record an offline version of the interview. Although “This new practice evolved from an expressed desire of the community, adapting available technology, revised ethics approval from Queen’s University, and agreement on Covid-19 protocols that exceed local requirements” (LSARP report, March 2021), its material realities did not function in a satisfactory way when executed.
Disruptive Dynamics
Due to poor internet connection the go-pro livestream recording of the map was “choppy” and hard to follow. The choice was furthermore made, in response to the fact that the interviewee did not speak English, to conduct the interview in Inuktitut with several moments of summary in English from Leonard during the interview, and more elaborate translation of marked timestamps afterwards. This resulted in much feedback and questions from the researchers that were attempting to follow the interview remotely across different channels, in turn requiring attendance from the research assistant in the room who was also attending to multiple battery, and storage functionalities. In addition to this, arguably dominating, technological presence in the room, the format of the interview and the material realities of adhering to Covid-19 protocols in the form of wearing masks and physical distancing proved enough reason for Leonard to interrupt his interview with the elder.
Instead of continuing with multiple livestreams Leonard suggested, after about an hour, to finish the interview with a cup of tea, and without the use of a map or cameras. I take the particular forwarding of a cup of tea at this point, as an opportunity to contemplate the material conditions that are required to facilitate the external gaze. In this case, the stark contrast between a packing list of 20 items required to facilitate southern engagement, and a the low-tech requirements for a self-contained strategy, are pointed out by the suggestion of replacing all the equipment by one cup of tea, plus one recording device.