Now that I had a list of of solid and applicable guidelines to the workshop agenda, it was time to organize the workshop itself.

Seeking and preparing a space that would be fitting, and provide the right conditions to space of exchange and open-ness, we decided on the ... center. A room in which the community sometimes organizes drumdances and other cultural affairs. We also found a caterer, and decided on a menu for each day including the community feast on the first night. Thirdly, we needed to scout an appropriate site to build a Qaggiq: a big communal igloo, especially for gatherings - to be built on the second day of our workshop.

Of course much more needed to be done. Follow the side-trail to get a full understanding of all the preparation that was required for the final workshop. Alternatively, keep going, to jump straight into the workshop.

3 day Workshop Gjoa Haven

At the evening of the 21 November it was time to start our Gathering.

Attendees from the south who would join for the gathering, including Bettina ...., the director of Genome Canada and Les ...., the .... of Genome Canada had arrived the previous afternoon. Marsha Brannigan, recently retired wildlife biologist for the NWT, who had run the BearWatch project, Kimberley McClintock project manager for BearWatch, and prof. Graham Whitelaw and prof. Stephen Lougheed, PI's of the project also arrived three days prior to the gathering.

The next parts of this cut will take you through the final gathering per agenda point. Each session will be accompanied by guidelines, insights, motivations or research questions that underly the decision made for that segment.

Opening: Movie Screening and a Feast

24 community members, including our research partners and interpretor showed up to our opening feast and movie screening. Apart from community members, there were in total five Queens University researchers, one former government biologist and two Genome Canada funders present for the evening. During this first evening we had no online participants calling in.

As discussed in the pre-workshop we took plenty of time for people to arrive and get comfortable. Attendees were greeted by Mx. Science, and we made sure that elders were seated in the comfortable couches and received something to drink.

Once, we felt that people had had enough time to settle in, we opened the gathering by individually introducing ourselves, and with some words from the Gjoa Haven HTA vice-chair, James Qitsualik, who had lead the project within the community. We then screened the three community co-created movies: Voices of Thunder, Pihhiq, and the throatsinging film with Kathy and Janet.

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After the movies, it is time to eat. As was explicitly put forward during the pre-workshop, we can use food to all find ourselves on common ground – we are all human. It's a way for people to feel comfortable. "Within the community we have human-to-human differences as well".

Polar Bear Landscape Presentation

After the feast Marsha Brannigan presented on the governmental context within which the BearWatch project had played out. This presentation was put on the agenda, to sketch a contextual backdrop for the next couple of days. Despite its awkward placement after the feast, Branigan clearly had lots of experience with presenting for community members, and often built in "empty" moments for people to ask questions or comments.

The opening evening ended with an invitation to come back the next days. We explained how the next three-day gathering was also part of my research, and that people would be asked for their informed consent to be part of this research and to be photographed, if they would come back for the next three days. We indicated our starting time, and explained the program for the next day: Science-presentations.