Insects tell a story : a web interwoven with entomology and Naskapi knowledge in Kawawachikamach

I am grateful for funding from Canada’s Northern Scientific Training Program, the Canadian Northern Studies Trust (W. Garfield Weston Award for Northern Research), the Quebec Center for Biodiversity Science, Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Graduate Studies, and the DIALOG network.Dans la région de Kawawachikamach, les insectes sont pollinisateurs et prédateurs de plantes d’importance culturelle, vecteurs de maladies, et source de nuisance pour l’humain et le caribou. Les membres de la Nation Naskapi ont exprimé leurs inquiétudes concernant des changements induits par le climat dans l’abondance, la distribution, la composition, et la phénologie des communautés d’insectes et leurs impacts sur le mode de vie naskapie. Suite à un échantillonnage d’insectes modernes et fossiles dans trois tourbières en 2015 et 2016, nous avons obtenu un aperçu de la diversité dynamique des assemblages d’insectes, les diptères, les hyménoptères, et les araignées étant les taxons les plus représentés. Étant donné que les moustiques (Culicidae) et les mouches noires (Simuliidae) maintiennent des populations denses dans la région, les insectes sont considérés comme des parasites nuisibles pour humains et animaux. Des travaux supplémentaires sont nécessaires pour déterminer si les caractéristiques des communautés d’insectes échantillonnées dépendent de la composition et la densité des fleurs à chaque site. Nos données provenant de l’échantillonnage à piège passif suggèrent que les araignées-loups (Lycosidae) figurent parmi l’un des plus abondants arthropodes terricoles de la région. Les travaux paléo-écologiques suggèrent le remplacement d’espèces aquatiques par des espèces non-aquatiques à l’échelle locale, parallèle à la disparition de Cladocera, Trichoptera et des acariens aquatiques Limnozetes et Hydrozetes. Des questionnaires effectués dans la communauté dévoilent l’apparition de plus gros insectes, une augmentation dans leur abondance, une émergence printanière hâtive, ainsi que l’apparition de nouvelles espèces au cours des derniers cinquante ans. Les jeunes naskapis de la communauté ont eu l’opportunité de s’impliquer dans les activités de recherche à travers des activités de plein air, une exposition d’art itinérante, et lors du festival Présence Autochtone à Montréal. À travers l’art, nous laissons s’exprimer perceptions et valeurs sur les insectes, tout en créant un espace de discours autour des relations insecte-plante-humain à travers les cultures et l’espace.In Kawawachikamach insects are pollinators and predators of culturally important plants, vectors of disease, and sources of annoyance for humans and culturally important animals. There is a rising concern amongst Naskapi that climate change and its effects on insect abundance, distribution, composition, and phenology impacts the ways in which people connect with the land. Insect sampling at three peatland sites during the 2015 and 2016 summer breeding seasons revealed that Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Araneae are the most represented taxa. Mosquitoes (Culicidae) and black flies (Simuliidae) sustain highly dense populations in the region and are considered to be important pests for humans and animals. Additional work is needed to determine if their abundance, distribution, composition, and phenology depends on the composition and density of flowers at the study sites. Based on results from the yellow pan trap method, wolf spiders (Lycosidae) are amongst the most abundant ground-dwelling arthropods in the region. Paleoecological work suggests a shift from aquatic to non-aquatic species at the local scale, concurrent with the disappearance of Cladocera, Trichoptera and the truly aquatic acarian genera: Limnozetes and Hydrozetes. Questionnaires conducted with community members reveal larger-sized insects, an increase in their numbers, an earlier spring-time emergence, and the appearance of new species over the past 50 years. Land-based activities for Naskapi youth, a traveling art exhibit, and our presence at the Montreal First Peoples’ festival, were opportunities for youth and members of the community to be involved in research activities and to create a space for discourse around insect-plant-human relationships across cultures and spaces

Intimate Partner Violence and COVID-19 in Rural, Remote, and Northern Canada: Relationship, Vulnerability and Risk

In rural, remote, and northern parts of Canada, the pre-existing vulnerability and risk for intimate partner violence has been exacerbated by COVID-19. The purpose of this commentary is to identify the unique impact of COVID-19 on intimate partner violence both in terms of the bearing on those experiencing abuse and on the service sector in rural, remote and northern communities where the rates of intimate partner violence and intimate partner femicide pre-pandemic are higher than in larger cities. The recommendations offered in this paper include enhanced safety planning, alternate housing for victims fleeing violence, and suggestions for service providers. We also offer ways to move forward with further research in the COVID-19 era

Mining and Communities in Northern Canada

For indigenous communities throughout the globe, mining has been a historical forerunner of colonialism, introducing new, and often disruptive, settlement patterns and economic arrangements. Although indigenous communities may benefit from and adapt to the wage labour and training opportunities provided by new mining operations, they are also often left to navigate the complicated process of remediating the long-term ecological changes associated with industrial mining. In this regard, the mining often inscribes colonialism as a broad set of physical and ecological changes to indigenous lands. Mining and Communities in Northern Canada examines historical and contemporary social, economic, and environmental impacts of mining on Aboriginal communities in northern Canada. Combining oral history research with intensive archival study, this work juxtaposes the perspectives of government and industry with the perspectives of local communities. The oral history and ethnographic material provides an extremely significant record of local Aboriginal perspectives on histories of mining and development in their regions. With contributions by: Patricia Boulter Jean-Sébastien Boutet Emilie Cameron Sarah Gordon Heather Green Jane Hammond Joella Hogan Arn Keeling Tyler Levitan Hereward Longley Scott Midgley Kevin O'Reilly Andrea Procter John Sandlos Alexandra Winto

Northern and Indigenous Health and Health Care

The provision of northern health care entails many unique challenges and circumstances that are rarely represented in mainstream health sciences education. This OpenEd Resource provides accessible content on health and health care from a northern perspective for the growing number of health professionals being educated in northern communities

What about the men? Northern men’s research project final report

https://www.nwtliteracy.ca/sites/default/files/research/nmrp_final_report_2015_0.pd

Diamonds are Forever: A Decolonizing, Feminist Approach to Diamond Mining in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

This dissertation examines the impact of the development of diamond mines in the Yellowknife region, Northwest Territories (NWT), asking two questions: how has the diamond-mining regime affected the gendered social relations in the regional racialized mixed economy? And, how can violence against Indigenous women living in the region be situated in the context of structural shifts in the mixed economy? The analysis developed in response to these questions is informed by a theorization of the mixed economy as a dynamic set of social relations characterized by tension between the temporal imperatives of capitalist production and the place-based imperatives of subsistence. Taking a decolonizing, feminist political economy (FPE) approach, this dissertation responded to these questions by drawing on documentary analysis, interviews, and talking circles to examine the often invisibilized labour performed by Indigenous women that reproduces the mixed economy. The central contention is that the diamond-mining regime represents a new imposition upon daily and intergenerational social reproduction performed by Indigenous women, an imposition that is sometimes violent, and that is met with resistance. The dissertation unfolds in six substantive chapters. Building on a theoretical and historical grounding offered in chapters one and two, chapters three-five draw on field research to examine shifts in local relations of capitalist production, social reproduction, and subsistence production. The analysis reveals that the Fly-In-Fly-Out (FIFO) diamond-mining regime, itself a spatial articulation of the capitalist separation between (masculinized) capitalist production and (feminized) social reproduction, introduces, or, in some cases, intensifies a nuclear male-breadwinner/female-caregiver structure. Woven through this analysis is an examination of the relationship between structural and embodied violence. Indeed, the structural shifts imposed by the diamond-mining regime characterized in this dissertation as structural violence contribute to Indigenous womens experiences of embodied violence in the Yellowknife region. At the same time, Indigenous women meet these shifts with decolonizing resistance in the form of the day-to-day labours they perform to reproduce the place-based social relations of the mixed economy

Canada's Residential Schools: The Inuit and Northern Experience

The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Comission of Canada Volume 2

Inuvialuit language and identity: Perspectives on the symbolic meaning of Inuvialuktun in the Canadian western Arctic.

The revitalization of ancestral languages has been an issue of great concern to Aboriginal communities across North America for several decades. More recently, this concern has also found a voice in educational policy, particularly in regions where Aboriginal land claims have been ratified, and where public schools fall under a mandate to offer curricula that meet the needs of Aboriginal students. This research seeks to explore the cultural significance of Inuvialuktun, a regional Inuit language comprised of three distinct dialects traditionally spoken by the Inuvialuit of the northern Northwest Territories, Canada. More specifically, the research seeks to examine the role of current Inuvialuktun language revitalization efforts in the establishment of Inuvialuit collective and individual identities across several age groups. Tying into the sociolinguistic discourse on ancestral language revitalization in North America, the research seeks to contribute a case study from a region underrepresented in the literature on language and identity. The applied aim of the study is to provide better insight on existing language ideologies and language attitudes subscribed to by current and potential learners of Inuvialuktun in the community of Inuvik, NWT. Data obtained by the study is intended to aid local and territorial language planners in identifying potential obstacles and opportunities regarding language learner motivation. The project was conducted in partnership with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC), the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre (ICRC), the Beaufort Delta Education Council (BDEC), and Aurora College, providing qualitative access to current and potential learners, as well as current and future teachers across several educational contexts. --Leaf ii.The original print copy of this thesis may be available here: http://wizard.unbc.ca/record=b184462

New caribou crisis – then and now

The reported decline of the Bathurst herd has caused considerable concern and has raised rumours of a “crisis” in which there is a possibility of extinction. This paper reflects on relevant lessons learned from the officially declared “crisis” of population decline in 1955/56 and a second crisis of overpopulation identified by the author a decade later