TUKTU
The TUKTU project was set up to address the major concerns of the Inuit people of Qamani’tuaq as expressed in the ECOTRAD workshops and interviews. The different subjects investigated by the project are listed below in chronological order; each stage reflects the context and the issues at stake at the time as identified by the population.
INSERT THE CHRONOLOGICAL PLAN ( ARROW, ETC.)
The TUKTU research project was launched in 2013 and was completed at the end of 2017. It was co-designed by a group of Inuit elders in a series of participatory workshops conducted in 2009 (in the framework of the ECOTRAD project) and co-facilitated by the late Vera Avaala, a Baker Lake resident and counsellor who acted as a co-researcher in developing the TUKTU project.
Four main concerns identified by the elders were translated into research questions and served as guidelines for the project: the future for Nunavut youth, intergenerational knowledge transmission, safeguarding a caribou-centred livelihood, and mining impacts. The project also investigated ways to strengthen ties between Inuit and Saami communities through a youth exchange
programme.
Since 2013, an annual spring fieldwork visit has started with a community meeting to report back on the results of the previous year and to co-construct the research questions to focus on in the coming year. Each year, the new programme follows on from the previous year’s programme to ensure continuity. The results are posted on the TUKTU project Facebook page to keep the community informed, and each year prior to their visit, new students and research assistants introduce themselves through a short video to get acquainted with the community.
The annual investigations carried out with the community from 2013 to 2017 found that Baker Lake residents feel that mining
extraction generates positive opportunities (e.g. jobs, skills training and income), but also has negative impacts (e.g. environmental pollution, changes to caribou migration patterns, effects on social cohesion).
[expand title= »In 2013 … »]… Anna Deffner worked with elders to develop the CARIBOU WHEEL, a radar chart showing the importance of the caribou to traditional life and evaluated the impacts of the Agnico Eagle gold mine on the community’s caribou-centred livelihood. The Inuit–Saami youth exchange project was initiated by the Baker Lake school and a caribou/reindeer livelihood booklet created as part of an approach to strengthen the exchange. The TUKTU project also contributed financially to the Pauktuutit/Tester study [E1] on the social and economic impacts of the gold mine on the Inuit women of Baker Lake.
→ See the results for 2013[/expand]
[expand title= »In 2014 … »]…at the request of the community, Annabel Rixen focused on mining scenarios (1 mine, 2 mines, 0 mines) and evaluated these using a WELL-BEING WHEEL co-designed with Baker Lake residents in a series of participatory workshops. She explored alternative activities to gold mining and studied likely tipping point issues and resilience strategies.
→ See the results for 2014[/expand]
[expand title= »In 2015 … »]… Elise Brunel went to Baker Lake with expertise in participatory video. She spent her time with six families out on the land, giving the video camera to her hosts to film what was meaningful to them. Mining issues were barely addressed in these videos; participants chose to discuss their caribou-centred livelihood and document other issues such as Inuit culture and language and the future for young people. Also in 2015, Amélie Broage went to Sapmi in Sweden, bringing drawings, letters and questions from Baker Lake school students (grades 5 and 9) and presenting them to the Saami students in Gällivare and Karesuando schools.
→ See the results for 2015[/expand]
Working with a network that includes local institutions, mining company representatives and residents, the project employed triangular collaboration to facilitate local planning during this transition period. This included exploring new avenues for alternative
activities, as well as the possibility of recovering mining infrastructure for local use.
In response to local research interests, it was decided to engage in a more accurate assessment of changes in caribou migration
and the role of the mining industry in these changes (Warren Bernauer, 2015). To investigate mining impacts on migratory caribou, we took into account traditional ecological knowledge and the community’s empirical observations on the land, comparing these with available scientific data (geographical surveys, wildlife and vegetation studies).This was developed in collaboration with the
Kangiqsujuaq community of Nunavik and the Gällivare and Övre Soppero communities of Northern Sweden. A comparative study is planned, applying the methods developed in Nunavik and Qamani’tuaq to Sweden in the BOAZU project.
In 2016, the TUKTU project continued with improved methodological tools based on outcomes from previous field trips, and a focus on strategic planning for future mining scenarios. These were in some flux as the gold mine was to be closed and a uranium mine opened, but this did not take place in the end. The TUKTU project was completed in 2017.
The TUKTU project also developed an ongoing Saami–Inuit youth exchange to strengthen the ties between communities facing a similar paradox between mining offering employment opportunities yet having a negative impact on caribou hunting and reindeer herding. In the long term, this youth exchange may generate new ideas for sustainable management, Indigenous rights and economic alternatives to mining. As part of this programme, in both Saami and Inuit schools, Anna, Annabel, Elise, Cécile and Amélie developed short-term research projects co-designed and co-led by youths in conjunction with elders: one of these was a caribou/reindeer livelihood booklet that will continue to be added to. Saami students produced similar materials that were then presented in the Baker Lake schools.
With the connections between Inuit and Saami schools now established, we have submitted an extension to this programme to Nordregio, a Nordic research centre, with a proposal to include a school in Northern Greenland in the exchange.