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Documenting Inuit Knowledge of Coastal Oceanography in Nunatsiavut

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Documenting Inuit Knowledge of Coastal Oceanography in Nunatsiavut Respecting ontology: Documenting Inuit knowledge of coastal oceanography in Nunatsiavut By Breanna Bishop Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Marine Management at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia December 2019 © Breanna Bishop, 2019 Table of Contents List of Tables and Figures ............................................................................................................ iv Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ v Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ vi Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Management Problem ...................................................................................................................... 4 1.1.1 Research aim and objectives ........................................................................................................................ 5 Chapter 2: Context ....................................................................................................................... 7 2.1 Oceanographic context for Nunatsiavut ......................................................................................... 7 2.3 Inuit knowledge in Nunatsiavut decision making .......................................................................... 9 2.3.1 Inuit knowledge and the Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement .............................................................. 9 2.3.2. Imappivut Marine Plan ............................................................................................................................. 12 2.4 Ontological context ......................................................................................................................... 12 2.4.1 Inuit knowledge as data: exploring the data-knowledge-information model ............................................ 16 2.5 Chapter Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 18 Chapter 3: Methodology ............................................................................................................. 20 3.1 Study area ........................................................................................................................................ 20 3.2 Study design ..................................................................................................................................... 21 3.2.1 Participatory mapping ................................................................................................................................ 22 3.2.2 Semi-structured interviews ........................................................................................................................ 24 3.3 Analysis: inductive content analysis .............................................................................................. 24 3.4 Limitations ....................................................................................................................................... 25 Chapter 4: Findings .................................................................................................................... 28 4.1 Overview of participatory mapping methodology ....................................................................... 28 4.1.1 Defining rattles .......................................................................................................................................... 30 4.2 Connection to the land and sea ...................................................................................................... 31 4.2.1 What it means to be out on the land and on the water ............................................................................... 31 4.2.2 Knowledge transfer .................................................................................................................................... 34 4.3 Community specific oceanographic features and trends ............................................................ 36 4.3.1 Hopedale oceanographic trends ................................................................................................................. 36 4.3.2 Rigolet oceanographic trends .................................................................................................................... 41 4.4 General oceanographic features and trends ................................................................................. 48 4.4.1 Weather ...................................................................................................................................................... 48 4.4.2 Sea ice ........................................................................................................................................................ 49 4.4.3 Currents and tides ...................................................................................................................................... 51 4.5 Chapter conclusions ........................................................................................................................ 51 Chapter 5: Discussion ................................................................................................................. 53 5.1 Changing weather and sea ice ........................................................................................................ 53 5.1.1 Weather: storms, wind and snow ............................................................................................................... 53 5.1.2 Sea Ice: quality and timing ........................................................................................................................ 54 ii 5.2 Embedding datasets with Labrador Inuit connection to place ................................................... 55 5.2.1 Accounting for place names & narratives ................................................................................................. 56 5.2.2 Structuring research around seasonality .................................................................................................... 57 5.2.3. The importance of mobility ...................................................................................................................... 58 5.2.4. Maintaining relationality .......................................................................................................................... 59 5.2.5 Prioritizing of community needs and values ............................................................................................. 61 5.2.6 Facilitating knowledge transfer ................................................................................................................. 62 5.3 Summary of recommendations ...................................................................................................... 63 Chapter 6: Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 66 References .................................................................................................................................... 67 Appendix I: ArcGIS Attribute Table Example ........................................................................... 76 Appendix II: Semi-structured Interview Guide .......................................................................... 77 Appendix III: Labrador Inuttitut Oceanographic Terminology ................................................ 79 Appendix IV: Word Tag Cloud Frequencies .............................................................................. 82 Appendix IV: Gus Semigak Travel Narrative ............................................................................. 84 iii List of Tables and Figures Table 1 Labrador Inuttitut terminology for oceanographic features ............................................. 29 Figure 1 Map of Inuit Nunangat ..................................................................................................... 2 Figure 2 Daily Ice Chart - concentration for the Labrador Coast. .................................................. 8 Figure 3 Map of the Labrador Inuit Settlement Area ................................................................... 10 Figure 4 Conventional Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom hierarchy. .................................. 16 Figure 5 Inuit Experience-Knowledge-Information-Data transformations. ................................. 17 Figure 6 Labrador Inuit Settlement Area map. ............................................................................. 20 Figure 7 Participant connections to the land and sea .................................................................... 33 Figure 8 Participatory mapping session in Rigolet. ...................................................................... 35 Figure 9 Hopedale community mapped trails and oceanographic features .................................. 38 Figure 10 Areas of changing current strength north of Hopedale. ............................................... 39 Figure 11 Close up of trails, currents and ice features around Hopedale ..................................... 41 Figure 12 Rigolet community mapped trails and oceanographic features. ..................................
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