Himalayan-Arctic Exchange: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Regional Learning in Community-Based Research Methods and Experiences

Huntington Consulting, Eagle River AK

Investigators

Abstract

This mini-workshop project, PI Henry Huntington, provides the resources for four Himalayan scholars to join their Inuit, Canadian counterparts in Nunavut to observe, gather data, and discuss the community based research projects currently underway in Clyde River, Baffin Island, Nunavut among the Inuit communities of this region. This project is part of the Arctic Social Sciences Program's faciliatation of international research collaborations on high-latitude/high-altitude cross-cultural perspectives on global climate change. The people of the Himalayas are undergoing rapid climate change comparative to the Arctic. For example, high altitude glaciers are melting causing massive flooding and threatening future sources of water., sacred sites are being destroyed, and changes in local flora and fauna are observed. NSF has funded several community based projects among the Inuit of Clyde River, e.g., the Igliniit project- is a collaboration between geomatics engineers and the Inuit to develop an interactive, mobile, Inuktitut (local language) GPS/field computer/weather station that allows Inuit hunters to record environmental information as they hunt and travel; the Silarlirijiit project - is a collabortion between NSF scientists and local elders to better understand regional wether patterns. By bringing together these two communities, Himalayan and Arctic, for a technological, knowledge, and scientific exchange, the mini-workshop has the potential not only to affect the way in which indigenous communties monitor and understand the changes in their regions but it also has the potential to inform our understanding of traditional knowledge systems about the environment, create new models for working with communities in high-altitude regions, and the ability to increase our understanding of the key social structural elements of how environmental change affects social-cultural processes. This project is quite transformational - it is a first ever exchange of scientific/local knowledge between high latitude and high altidute communities and collaborating scientists on climate change. The scientific merits are quite high, the project will give insights into local culture based knowledge systems; will transfer technology between two very diverse regions - technology developed in collaborations with indigenous communities; and this exchange has the potential for scientists to gain critical insights into social structural resilience that exists regardless of local cultural knowledge.