MOBILIZING INUIT KNOWLEDGE: REPRESENTATION AND INSTITUTIONAL MEDIATION IN THE ERA OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE Noor Jehan S. Johnson Department of Anthropology McGill University, Montreal November 2012 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © 2012 Noor Jehan Johnson Abstract This thesis examines the production and mobilization of Inuit knowledge in and beyond the Canadian Arctic in the context of climate change. Drawing on multi- scale, ethnographic research, it focuses in particular on the role of institutions, such as government departments and community-based organizations, in mediating between different understandings of change. Inuit knowledge is increasingly transmitted through land-based programs and supported by grant funding from outside the community. I argue that adaptation to climate change is therefore as much about understanding how to work within political and institutional frameworks as it is about responding to changes in the local environment. I examine how Inuit knowledge, represented in material forms – such as reports, maps, and films – as well as through the work of spokespersons, is mobilized in scientific conferences, bureaucratic office environments, and multilateral governance meetings like the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). I argue that spokespersons play a particularly significant role in rendering Inuit knowledge palatable for qallunaat (non-Inuit) audiences by selecting particular aspects to emphasize over others, and by translating Inuit observations into the language of science. A variety of factors constrain the mobility of Inuit knowledge and limit its potential to shape territorial, national, and global decision-making about climate change. These include bureaucratic commitments to written documents and hierarchical organization, as well as public narratives that emphasize the vulnerability of Inuit to climate change based on a simplistic conception of Inuit identity as traditional and rooted on the land. Inuit, however, engage with the changing Arctic in a variety of ways, including exploring the potential of oil and gas development in increasingly ice-free waters. Ultimately, I suggest that Inuit knowledge reflects the ability to endure in the face of change—most recently, anthropogenic climate change. Drawing on the comfort and stabilizing force of tradition, it is also informed by and shapes political relations in spaces far from the Arctic tundra. i Résumé Cette thèse examine la production et la mobilisation des connaissances inuit dans l’Arctique canadien et ailleurs, dans le contexte des changements climatiques. S’appuyant sur une recherche ethnographique menée à plusieurs échelles, elle s’intéresse particulièrement au rôle de différentes institutions qui servent d’intermédiaire entre différentes perspectives sur ces changements, incluant des protocoles éthiques, des ministères et des organisations communautaires. Les connaissances inuit, comprises traditionnellement comme étant liées au territoire, sont de plus en plus supportées par des programmes institutionnels et des subventions venant de l’extérieur de la communauté. Je mets de l’avant que l’adaptation aux changements climatiques dépend donc autant de la compréhension du fonctionnement de la politique et du cadre institutionnel que des réponses aux changements développées dans l’environnement local. J’examine comment les connaissances inuit, représentées sous forme matérielle (comme des rapports, des cartes ou des films) et par des porte-parole sont mobilisées dans des conférences scientifiques, des environnements bureaucratisés et des réunions de gouvernance multilatérale, comme celles de la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les Changements Climatiques (UNFCCC). Je soutiens que les porte-parole jouent un rôle particulièrement significatif en rendant les connaissances inuit acceptables pour les qallunaat (non- Inuit) en mettant l’accent sur certains aspects et non sur d’autres et en traduisant les observations inuit dans un langage scientifique. Plusieurs facteurs contraignent la mobilité des connaissances inuit et limitent son potentiel à influencer la prise de décision aux niveaux territorial, national et global au sujet des changements climatiques. Ces facteurs incluent les engagements bureaucratiques envers des documents écrits et des organisations hiérarchiques, de même que des récits publics qui insistent sur la vulnérabilité des Inuits aux changements climatiques basée sur une conception simpliste de l’identité inuit qui serait traditionnelle et enracinée sur le territoire. Les Inuit, toutefois, interagissent avec l’Arctique qui se transforme de diverses manières, incluant des explorations pétrolières dans les eaux ouvertes qui augmentent de plus en plus rapidement. Ultimement, je suggère que les connaissances inuit reflètent la capacité de perdurer malgré ces changements, c’est-à-dire les changements plus récents qui sont anthropogéniques et touchent le climat. S’inspirant du confort et de la force stabilisatrice de la tradition, ces connaissances interagissent avec des relations politiques établies loin de la toundra arctique. ii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................... i Résumé .......................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... v Introduction: Mobilizing Knowledge ................................................................... 1 0.1 Conceptual Frameworks ........................................................................................ 7 0.1.1 A brief overview of anthropological representations of indigenous and Inuit knowledge ............................................................................................................................... 8 0.1.2 Inuit knowledge as boundary object: theories of representation and translation ....................................................................................................................................... 10 0.1.3 Claiming epistemology: the political context of Inuit knowledge ............ 14 0.1.4 Institutionalizing and bureaucratizing knowledge ........................................ 16 0.1.5 Affective knowledge .................................................................................................... 19 0.2 Introduction to my research sites ................................................................... 22 0.2.1 Clyde River, Nunavut ................................................................................................... 23 0.2.2 Iqaluit, Nunavut ............................................................................................................. 27 0.2.3 The Inuit Circumpolar Council, Ottawa, Ontario (and elsewhere) .......... 31 0.3 On multi-sited ethnography .............................................................................. 36 0.4 Institutional and event ethnography .............................................................. 41 0.5 Chapter Summaries .............................................................................................. 44 Chapter 1: Socio-bureaucratic Translation and Knowledge Production in Clyde River ............................................................................................................ 49 1.1 Clyde River institutions and the formalization of research .................... 57 1.2 Ethics, institutions, and the juridification of research ............................. 64 1.3 Research as economic development ............................................................... 73 1.4 Research as “capacity building” ....................................................................... 83 1.5 Climate change planning as “building capacity” ......................................... 88 1.6 A federal audit in an out-of-the-way place ................................................... 92 1.7 Underwriting land skills through socio-bureaucratic translation ....... 96 1.8 Proposal politics .................................................................................................. 103 1.9 Confessions of a climate change spokesperson ........................................ 106 Chapter 2: Land and Healing in Clyde River: Conceptions of Identity and Environmental Change ........................................................................................ 113 2.1 Over-articulated knowledge: Competing conceptions of environmental change ................................................................................................................................ 115 2.2 “Healing the Land”: Theology and rituals of stewardship ..................... 124 2.3 God’s miracles: Agricultural metaphors and ecological relations ...... 127 2.4 Inuit, HTL, and scientific interpretations of environmental change . 132 2.5 Inuit identity, qallunaat institutions, and land-based knowledge ..... 137 2.6 The Land and the Community in Clyde River ............................................ 143 2.7 Transmission of skill through land-based programs .............................. 145 2.8 Healing through land-based programs ........................................................ 152 2.9 Secular and evangelical approaches to land-based healing ................