Arctic Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom
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CAFF Assessment Series Report No. 14 April 2017 Arctic Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom: Changes in the North American Arctic Perspectives from Arctic Athabascan Council, Aleut International Association, Gwich’in Council International, and published accounts. ARCTIC COUNCIL Acknowledgements CAFF Designated Agencies: • Norwegian Environment Agency, Trondheim, Norway • Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ottawa, Canada • Faroese Museum of Natural History, Tórshavn, Faroe Islands (Kingdom of Denmark) • Finnish Ministry of the Environment, Helsinki, Finland • Icelandic Institute of Natural History, Reykjavik, Iceland • Ministry of Independence, Nature, Environment and Agriculture, Greenland • Russian Federation Ministry of Natural Resources, Moscow, Russia • Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Stockholm, Sweden • United States Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska CAFF Permanent Participant Organizations: • Aleut International Association (AIA) • Arctic Athabaskan Council (AAC) • Gwich’in Council International (GCI) • Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) • Russian Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON) • Saami Council This publication should be cited as: Merculieff, I., Abel, P., Allen, Chief J., Beaumier, M., Bélanger, V., Burelle, M.-A., Dickson Jr., T., Ebert, M., Henri, D., Legat, A., Larocque, B., Netro, L., and Zoe-Chocolate, C. 2017. Arctic Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom: Changes in the North American Arctic, Perspectives from Arctic Athabascan Council, Aleut International Association, Gwich’in Council International, and published accounts. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna International Secretariat, Akureyri, Iceland. ISBN 978-9935-431-61-5. Cover photo: Preparing salmon for the smoker. Photo: USFWS, Alaska/Flickr.com Back cover: Aleut Girl (Jada Bear) of King Cove halibut fishing. Photo: Nadine Kochuten, 2012 Design and layout: Courtney Price For more information please contact: CAFF International Secretariat Borgir, Nordurslod 600 Akureyri, Iceland Phone: +354 462-3350 Fax: +354 462-3390 Email: [email protected] Internet: www.caff.is Note: The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the Arctic Council, its working groups or subsidiary bodies; many of the statements and statistics cited in this report are the recollection or perspective of the interviewees. CAFF Designated Area Arctic Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom: Changes in the North American Arctic Perspectives from the Arctic Athabascan Council, Aleut International Association, Gwich’in Council International, and published accounts. Lead Author Ilarion (Larry) Merculieff. Contributing Authors Peter Abel, Chief James Allen, Maude Beaumier, Véronique Bélanger, Marie-Andrée Burelle, Tommy Dickson Jr., Dr. Mark Ebert, Dominique Henri, Dr. Allice Legat, Bridget Larocque, Lorraine Netro, Camilia Zoe-Chocolate. Technical support and editing Maryann Fidel at the Aleut International Association Table of Contents Foreword by the Lead Author ...........................................................................................................6 Preface .....................................................................................................................................9 1.0 Introduction ..............................................................................................................................10 1.1 The essence and substance of Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom regarding biodiversity ....... 11 2.0 Multiple ways of relating to the land, environment, and biodiversity ..................................15 2.1 The land, places, and names: Same words, different meanings .............................................................. 17 2.1.1 Place names reflect Arctic Indigenous relationships to nature ................................................. 18 2.2 Indigenous Arctic languages and their relationship to nature ............................................................... 20 2.3 “Watching” from the knowledge and understanding of Arctic Indigenous Peoples ....................... 21 2.3.1 A traditional upbringing .......................................................................................................................... 22 3.0 Applying Arctic indigenous ways of knowing to understand biodiversity change ............27 3.1 Knowing biodiversity and change from the perspective of harvesting plants ................................ 27 3.2 Harvesters watching change after a forest fire ............................................................................................. 28 3.3 Knowing biodiversity change through harvesting marine organisms ................................................. 29 3.4 Knowing biodiversity change through harvesting terrestrial animals ................................................ 33 3.5 Knowing biodiversity through history ............................................................................................................. 34 3.6 Knowing biodiversity through the observation of many changes ........................................................ 34 3.7 Knowing biodiversity through a regional perspective (Harvesting in the Bering Sea Region) .. 36 3.7.1 The Bering Sea ............................................................................................................................................ 36 3.7.2 Who are the Indigenous Peoples of the Bering Sea? .................................................................... 37 3.7.3 Harvest in the Bering Sea ....................................................................................................................... 38 3.7.4 The challenges to traditional harvest in the Bering Sea .............................................................. 40 4.0 Applying Arctic Indigenous ways to understand and manage biodiversity change ...........43 Caribou on the tundra. Photo: Valerijs Novickis/Shutterstock.com 5.0 Examples of co-application of Traditional Knowledge and science in the Canadian Arctic 49 5.1 Peary Caribou scientific assessment – co-application of ITK to habitat and population modeling ..................................................................................................................................................................... 49 5.1.1 Consultation activities with Northern communities .................................................................... 50 5.1.2 ITK contributions to the Peary caribou science assessment ....................................................... 50 5.2 Polar bear research program ................................................................................................................................ 50 5.3 Eastern Arctic sea duck, seabird, and shorebird research program ....................................................... 52 5.3.1 Marine habitat use of thick-billed murres at Digges Island ........................................................ 52 5.3.2 East Bay Island migratory bird research ............................................................................................. 52 5.3.3 Arctic terrestrial birds and ecosystems project ............................................................................... 54 5.3.4 Winter ecology of sea ducks in the Belcher Islands ....................................................................... 54 5.3.5 Hudson Strait common eider and polar bear surveys .................................................................. 54 5.3.6 Assessment of the status of ivory gulls and harlequin ducks .................................................... 55 6.0 Western science and Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom: challenges and opportunities .56 6.1 Challenges and potential actions for the inclusion of Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom in research and scientific assessments ....................................................................................................................... 58 7.0 Key messages for action ............................................................................................................66 8.0 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................67 9.0 Addendums ................................................................................................................................68 Addendum 1: Excerpts from forestry harvest project, CAFN elders interviews ....................................... 68 Addendum 2: A best practices example ................................................................................................................. 71 10.0 Contributing Authors ..............................................................................................................73 Reviewers ................................................................................................................................................................ 75 11.0 References ................................................................................................................................76 6 Foreword by the Lead Author This report, written in large part by Arctic indigenous To begin to understand the importance of Arctic peoples, acknowledges the importance of including peoples’ knowledge and wisdom is to recognize it is Arctic indigenous peoples’ Traditional Knowledge and based on their successful existence for thousands of Wisdom (TK&W) in scientific efforts to fully understand years in some