Planning: Beyond Ice

Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage AK

Investigators

Abstract

The Arctic is warming four times faster as a result of climate change than any other region, but the impacts of this warming are not well known beyond the local communities in the region. The Alaska Pacific University (APU) will organize a one-year planning project to further develop relationships with four Indigenous communities along the Alaskan Yukon River who are experiencing environmental and social impacts from the climate crisis. The Beyond Ice project aims to amplify the local community voices along the reach of the Yukon by sharing their stories of resilience, challenges of living in drastically changing conditions and visioning of a future through this transition. The emerging paradigm of knowledge co-production is the fulcrum for all parts of Beyond Ice; from project design to implementation and evaluation. The partnerships involve the villages of Eagle, Nulato, Russian Mission, and Nunam Iqua which span the heart of Alaska from the interior to the Bering Sea. With this planning grant, Indigenous community members, artists, scientists, museums, and evaluators will develop plans to co-produce concrete outcomes, envisioning: (1) interactive community art exhibits based on local and Indigenous perspectives (2) educational art experiences at Anchorage Museum’s Northern Perspectives Festival, and (3) a STEM education program featuring K-Adult curricula. The planning process will build critical partnerships required to design and implement a viable co-production model rooted in equity and inclusion. This planning grant will support development of tangible frameworks aimed at stories through photography, sound, video, and documentary methods in order to engage in multiple ways of knowing and to examine, support, and empower multiple community members, elders, and especially young people. The goal of collaborations between Indigenous communities, scientists and museums is to provide rapid dissemination of ongoing research studies and highlight the co-production of knowledge for more effectively communicating this invaluable work to the public. Beyond Ice will ultimately provide Yukon Arctic Indigenous communities with a platform to share Indigenous perspectives beyond their borders. Beyond Ice’s inclusive process supports multiple community members, elders, and young people, empowering each to engage in the co-production of knowledge highlighting Indigenous observation of the changing Arctic. This award is co-funded by the Office of Polar Programs in the Directorate of Geosciences and the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Program in the Directorate for STEM Education. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.