Traditional Knowledge and Science - Finding Common Ground

Climate change and weather. Herbal medicine. Wildlife populations. For thousands of years, indigenous populations have developed a body knowledge, based on long-standing experience of their environments, to guide their communities. 

For Aboriginal people, traditional knowledge is literally a matter of life and death; the ability to read weather patterns, prepare a medicinal tea, or predict where the caribou will be crossing are essential skills. In Nunavut, the term Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) has been used to describe Inuit knowledge of changes that have occurred in the past, and traditional ways of approaching these changes or problems. 

At the same time Western  science has developed its own tools and approaches, based on what is usually called the "Scientific Method". Both ways of knowing have their strengths and their uses. But "science" and "traditional knowledge" frequently clash in the North, as government and Aboriginal organizations struggle to come to terms with such urgent and real-world issues as the impact of climate change on communities or the need to set a polar bear quota. When a group of local hunters provide one interpretation of events and scientific researchers provide another, how can the two bodies of knowledge be reconciled?

The Nunavut Wildlife Management Board (NWMB) is the principal regulator of access to wildlife in  Nunavut under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. The mandate of the NWMB to ensure the protection and wise use of wildlife and wildlife habitat for the long-term benefit of Inuit, as well as other residents of Nunavut and Canada. The challenge of integrating IQ and science is right at the heart of their mandate.

To address that challenge, in 2008 the NWMB commissioned a “Report on Options for Design and Implementation of a Database for Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Studies.” The intent was to create an IQ database to help NWMB include IQ  in its decision making processes, in accordance with the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement and the Nunavut Wildlife Act. The report, completed by Fred Weihs of Aarluk and George Wenzel of McGill Unversity in October 2008, concluded that six phases were needed in order to develop such a database: Needs Assessment, Design, Implementation, Testing Phase,  Documentation , and Publishing . 

Fred Weihs, Geoff Rigby and Galin Kora have begun working with George Wenzel on the Needs Phase, determining the scope of information available to develop an IQ database, establishing how a database should be organized and searched, and defining access. Interviews with key stakeholders are underway, and Aarluk will be presenting a report with key findings and recommendations to the NWMB on September 22^nd, 2011.

h/t Geoff Rigby