Consutation Wrap-up

We finished a week of community consultations yesterday, and I met with the Nunatsaivut Government Research Committee to talk to them about the recommendations we received from the focus groups, to review the final survey, and go over again the recruitment and interview methods we are using. The process was very useful, altogether.

The last focus group was a mix of ages, and like the two before them, they recommended a number of additions. They like the suggestion of asking about responsibility (who do you think should be responsible for dealing with...?) that the young people had made in the youth section, and recommended it be added to each section. They also suggested that we expand our question on Inuit traditional knowledge to include customs and values....the concern was that the former was too narrow. This was a very interesting insight. The notion of traditional Inuit knowledge has of course become very political during the land claims process and since, and one of our participants thought that alot of what was unique and interesting about the past here was not included: Moravian traditions that had become largely caught up with local identity, and was now looked at as foreign, and local values as much as particular knowledges.

This was very smart, and might be phrased differently by a social scientist like me looking at how legal processes serve to narrow the range and specificity of particular discourses, but not much is gained by turning it into academic talk. The point is particular interesting because that is precisely what happened in Alaska.

Another suggestion was to end with a more positive note (surveys about social problems tend to be very gloomy), and ask what the interviewee thought was the most positive thing Nain had going for it right now. This is very smart as well, and might point to a variety of different images of the community. I will be very interested to see how people answer that question.

The meeting with the Research Committee went very well, I think (haven't heard back yet). They have been friendly and supportive throughout, and considerably more competent than some of the ethics review panels I have dealt with back in New York (who shall remain nameless, but whose initials are CUNY GC!). With their final go ahead, we will start interviews soon...Monday I hope.

Just catching up, I also went to a Vale Inco meeting with the community Wednesday night. I thought I was going to the Aurora Uranium Mining meeting (missed it, it was at the Community Hall at 6:00). Instead I went to the NG building at 7:00 to find Vale Inco talking about shipping at Voisey's Bay. Ordinarily, shipping is a large concern because winter shipping breaks up the ice that people regularly cross to go to their cabins (where they hunt and fish, get firewood, and other resources). Two factors make this an usual year. The first is that the Voisey's Bay strike means that there aren't at present any ships planned. The second is that this year the ice has come in so late, because of both weather and warming, that it is still in very poor condition, and people are unable to travel. Were it a usual shipping year, it would be a fiasco.

They discussed the pontoon bridge that a local company, Sikumiut, puts across the broken ice, which seems to have worked well. But most of the talk was concern for the late spring. When the ice forms, if it does not form properly, due to uneven heating and cooling, and stormy weather, it will melt in uneven fashion when the Spring comes. This makes it very dangerous to travel over, and people were expecting a rough Spring. This is critical because it is an important time for gathering country foods...the weather is milder, but the travel routes are still covered in ice and snow, and are accessible. In other words, Spring is a peak harvest time, and poor ice conditions in Spring put a lot of people at risk.


I'll end with a photo of our the building where our office is located, and where most of the interviewing will take place. On the first posting you can see a picture of it in August. Here it is in January (the tallest building on the left. Again, double click to blow it up to full screen size.