Recharting the Courses of History: Mapping Concepts of Community, Archaeology and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in the Canadian Territory of Nunavut

This dissertation considers the contemporary place of history in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. The political evolution of Nunavut has led to a situation in which incoming archaeology projects must justify their research according to standards of benefit and relevance to Inuit people. Archaeology is desired to function within a framework of "Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit"—more popularly known as IQ, or Inuit traditional knowledge—so as to foster the survival of Inuit culture and traditions in the modern world. As a result of this mandate, Arctic archaeology has been forced to re-position its research in relation to community engagement, social and political landscapes, and Inuit production of historical meaning. Through a series of interviews and ethnographic case studies in the Nunavut municipality of Cambridge Bay, this research asks how the application of a community-based approach can help archaeologists and Inuit create a hybridized, or "parallel", form of archaeological engagement that furthers community wellness and the creation of more nuanced history-based identities. I argue that by shifting the practice of archaeology into local frameworks of experience and learning, resulting research can create new archaeological awareness regarding the nature of Nunavummiut memory and community, while at the same time meeting territorial desires for historical investigation to be conducted in a manner both inspired by, and compatible with, concepts of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.Ph

Mapping Inuinnaqtun: The Role of Digital Technology in the Revival of Traditional Inuit Knowledge Ecosystems

The term Inuinnaqtun is often used in reference to a dialect of Inuktut spoken by Inuinnait (Copper Inuit) of the Central Canadian Arctic. The broader meaning of Inuinnaqtun, however, is to speak, to create, to practice, to do, to think, to be, like an Inuinnaq (a human being). Inuinnaqtun was once its own robust ecosystem, with Inuinnait physically immersed in a landscape and way of life that nourished a fluent and full language, supported human relationships, and maintained a sophisticated body of cultural knowledge. The Inuinnait journey into the 21st century has challenged the practice of Inuinnaqtun, along with the connectivity of its ecosystem. How can an integrated Inuinnaqtun ecosystem be restored in contemporary Inuinnait society? In this paper, we outline the decade-long development of a digital mapping program to document traditional forms of engagement between Inuinnait people, language and land, and facilitate the continued circulation of knowledge that underlies these relationships. In reviewing its various successes and challenges, we critically question digital technology’s ability to digitally represent Inuinnaqtun ontology, in addition to the role that digital technologies can play in facilitating the local relocation of knowledge, objects and relationships dispersed into global contexts

Building from the ground up: Reconstructing visions of community in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut

The Inuit qalgiq, or gathering house, once served as a forum for bringing communities together through acts of storytelling, drum dancing, shamanism, and the intergenerational transfer of knowledge. While the specific traditions associated with these structures have varied over time and space, they have remained of central importance to the affirmation of group identity and communal decision-making. In 2008, the excavation of an early Thule qalgiq near the Nunavut hamlet of Cambridge Bay provided a team of local participants and University of Toronto archaeologists with an opportunity to interpret the social position of the qalgiq in the context of a contemporary Inuit population currently struggling with issues of collective identity. This article presents a project originally designed to reconstruct a qalgiq as a museum exhibit with a structure drawn primarily from archaeological findings. By embedding the project in local understandings of history as a source for community wellness and revival, however, a different course was taken. While combining archaeological blueprints with contemporary realities and beliefs, the qalgiq was ultimately re-imagined as a venue in which ideas about community, both past and present, can be voiced.Le qalgiq, ou maison communautaire inuit, servait de forum pour rassembler les communautés lors d’activités liées à des récits, des danses du tambour, du chamanisme et du transfert intergénérationnel des connaissances. Alors que les traditions spécifiques associées à ces structures ont varié avec les époques, elles sont restées cruciales pour l’affirmation de l’identité du groupe et la prise de décision commune. En 2008, une fouille archéologique d’un qalgiq du début du Thuléen près du hameau de Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, a été l’occasion pour une équipe de participants locaux et d’archéologues de l’Université de Toronto d’interpréter la position sociale du qalgiq dans le contexte d’une population inuit contemporaine aux prises avec des questions d’identité collective. Cet article présente un projet conçu à l’origine pour reconstruire un qalgiq dans un musée avec une structure dessinée principalement à partir de découvertes archéologiques. Toutefois, en intégrant le projet dans la vision locale de l’histoire comme source de bien-être de la communauté et de renouveau, une autre voie a été prise. En combinant des plans archéologiques avec les réalités et les croyances contemporaines, le qalgiq a été finalement réimaginé comme un lieu où les idées sur la communauté, passée et du présente, peuvent être exprimées

Re-Presenting the Past: A New Archaeological Outreach Strategy for the Canadian Territory of Nunavut

In 2013, an Arctic-based organization known as the Inuit Heritage Trust spearheaded a new campaign to increase archaeological awareness in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. While Nunavut remains an Inuit-centered territory—founded on the knowledge and values that have long sustained its predominantly Inuit population—the rules and regulations surrounding archaeological resources are largely grounded in more scientific, and distinctly non-Inuit, valuations of the past. For multiple reasons, Inuit and non-Inuit traditions for understanding and preserving heritage resources have proved difficult to reconcile, despite numerous attempts at community outreach programs and the regular hosting of archaeological fieldschools. For many Inuit, the methodological and impersonal approach to history endorsed by incoming archaeologists remains a foreign concept. This paper will present a series of community resources developed as part of the Inuit Heritage Trust’s new archaeological awareness campaign, produced in partnership with archaeologists Brendan Griebel and Tim Rast. These resources seek to address the question of how to educate about Nunavut’s past through a framework that aligns with the interests and realities of both professional archaeologists and Inuit populations. To date, this campaign has produced two unique resources: the first, a guidebook series that explores archaeology’s relevance to community members, students and heritage workers in Nunavut, and the second, a portable excavation and experimental archaeology kit. While the campaign does not intend to change the way that either Inuit or archaeologists value the past, it does attempt to create a mutual awareness of differing worldview so that both groups might better navigate the complex landscape of regulation and interaction ascribed to Nunavut’s heritage resources

Drought-related leaf functional traits control spatial and temporal dynamics of live fuel moisture content

Large forest fires generally occur when the moisture content of fuels is low. For live fuels, our understanding of the physiological basis of variation in moisture content has recently advanced. However, process-based models of live fuel moisture content (LFMC) remain elusive. Here, we aim to further our understanding of the role of physiological mechanisms and plant functional traits in driving spatiotemporal variations in LFMC. We examined whether temporal variation in LFMC could be predicted from pressure-volume curve data, which measures leaf water potential and water content on cut shoots dehydrating on a bench. We also examined whether leaf dry mass traits could predict spatial variation in maximum LFMC. We undertook our study in eucalypt forests and woodlands spanning a large climatic gradient in eastern Australia. We found that LFMC models developed from pressure-volume curves reliably predicted seasonal variation in LFMC across four co-occurring species. A two-phase LFMC model, which fit models above and below the turgor loss point (mean absolute error = 3.7-33.2%), performed similarly well to a simple linear model (mean absolute error = 3.4-35.3%). Across a large climatic gradient, the maximum LFMC of 16 species was correlated with specific leaf area (R2 = 0.54), with the exception of one species with terete terminal stems. Maximum LFMC was highly correlated with aridity (R2 = 0.82), with lower LFMC observed in more arid sites. Our study demonstrates that spatiotemporal dynamics of LFMC are governed by both leaf dry mass traits and the relationship between leaf water potential and water content, which in turn is determined by traits such as cell wall elasticity. Thus, incorporating these traits into models of LFMC, whether these models are based on drought indices, soil moisture, or remotely sensed imagery, is likely to improve overall model performance, and subsequently improve forecasts of wildfire danger

The carbon cost of the 2019–20 Australian fires varies with fire severity and forest type

Aim: To estimate loss of above-ground carbon (AGC) and conversion of live carbon to dead carbon following understorey and canopy fire. Location: South-eastern Australia. Time period: 2019–2020. Major taxa studied: Four widespread resprouting eucalypt forests. Methods: Above-ground carbon was measured in 15 plots in each of four forest types one-year post-fire. We also assessed topkill, that is, trees subject to canopy loss that failed to resprout epicormically. Results: While canopy fire was associated with greater declines in AGC than understorey fire, this was only statistically significant for only one forest type, where AGC declined from 154 to 85 Mg C ha−1 following canopy fire. Significant post-fire increases in dead AGC were observed in one forest type, where dead carbon increased from 22 to 60% after canopy fire. Topkill of trees following canopy fire (48–78% of stems) was higher than topkill after understorey fire (36–53% of stems) and in unburnt forest (12–55%). Topkill occurred primarily in small-diameter stems. Consequently, there was no effect of fire on the proportion of dead AGC in trees, with the exception of the forest with lowest productivity (i.e., lowest biomass) and lowest annual rainfall, where dead tree carbon increased from 8% in unburnt forest to 13 and 53% after understorey and canopy fire, respectively. AGC in understorey vegetation and coarse woody debris was similar or lower in burnt compared with unburnt forest. Litter carbon was significantly lower and pyrogenic carbon significantly higher in burnt forest, with no difference between understorey and canopy fire. Main conclusions: While increased fire severity was associated with increased changes to carbon stocks, there were differences among forest types. Specifically, the driest forest type had the highest rates of topkill following canopy fire. These results highlight the importance of spatial variability in fire severity and forest type in determining the effects of fire on carbon stocks

[In Press] Tapping into the physiological responses to mistletoe infection during heat and drought stress

Mistletoes are important co-contributors to tree mortality globally, particularly during droughts. In Australia, mistletoe distributions are expanding in temperate woodlands, while their hosts experienced unprecedented heat and drought stress in recent years. We investigated whether the excessive water use of mistletoes increased the probability of xylem emboli in a mature woodland during the recent record drought that was compounded by multiple heatwaves. We continuously recorded transpiration (⁠TSLA⁠) of infected and uninfected branches from two eucalypt species over two summers, monitored stem and leaf water potentials (⁠Ψ⁠), and used hydraulic vulnerability curves to estimate percent loss in conductivity (PLC) for each species. Variations in weather (vapour pressure deficit, photosynthetic active radiation, soil water content), host species and % mistletoe foliage explained 78% of hourly TSLA⁠. While mistletoe acted as an uncontrollable sink for water in the host even during typical summer days, daily TSLA increased up to 4-fold in infected branches on hot days, highlighting the previously overlooked importance of temperature stress in amplifying water loss in mistletoes. The increased water use of mistletoes resulted in significantly decreased host Ψleaf and Ψtrunk⁠. It further translated to an estimated increase of up to 11% PLC for infected hosts, confirming greater hydraulic dysfunction of infected trees that place them at higher risk of hydraulic failure. However, uninfected branches of Eucalyptus fibrosa had much tighter controls on water loss than uninfected branches of Eucalyptus moluccana, which shifted the risk of hydraulic failure towards an increased risk of carbon starvation for E. fibrosa. The contrasting mechanistic responses to heat and drought stress between both co-occurring species demonstrates the complexity of host–parasite interactions and highlights the challenge in predicting species-specific responses to biotic agents in a warmer and drier climate

Specific leaf area and vapour pressure deficit control live fuel moisture content

The live fuel moisture content (LFMC) is an important precondition for wildfire activity, yet it remains challenging to predict LFMC due to the dynamic interplay between atmospheric and hydrological conditions that determine the plant's access to, and loss of water. We monitored LFMC and a range of plant water-use traits (predawn and midday leaf water potentials [ψleaf]), leaf traits (specific leaf area [SLA]), hydrological status (soil water content [SWC] in the shallow layer and full profile) and atmospheric variables (air temperature, vapour pressure deficit [VPD], CO2 concentrations) in a mature eucalypt woodland at the Eucalyptus Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (EucFACE) facility during a drought. We combined plant traits, hydrological status and atmospheric variables into a biophysical model to predict LFMC dynamics, and compared these with predictions of LFMC based on a satellite model and established relationships between ψleaf and LFMC from pressure-volume curves. Predawn ψleaf could be well predicted from changes in SWC, but variation in midday vleaf and LFMC were more responsive to atmospheric than hydrological variables. The biophysical model explained up to 89% of variability in LFMC and outperformed established approaches to predict LFMC. SLA was the single most important variable to predict LFMC, followed by VPD, which explained 33% of the remaining variability in LFMC. Our study demonstrates that the co-variation of plant traits and atmospheric and hydrological conditions affect LFMC during drought, suggesting a new way forward for predicting LFMC by combining biophysical and satellite-based models of LFMC with seasonal forecasts of meteorological and hydrological variables. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog