Many projects, researchers, community groups and organizations our arts incubator projects have been honoured to work with and learn from over the last few years will be gathering this May-June for the 2024 Arctic Congress in Bodø, Norway. Each week this spring, we’re going to look at a different session and presentation that we are most looking forward to at this year’s event.
This week, we’re looking forward to Arctic Futures: Inuit Youth and Climate Storytelling. This inspiring climate change adaptation project will focus on participatory methods that have been used to amplify voices and to engage communities in documenting their social and environmental observations of change, such as the use of photovoice methods, digital storytelling, and Participatory Video.
This highly-anticipated presentation features researchers and presenters Maeva Gauthier (University of Victoria); Michele Tomasino (Mangilaluk School); Jaro Malanowski (Avatar Media); Kendyce Gruben (Tuktoyaktuk Community Corporation); Eriel Lugt (Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk); Carmen Kuptana (Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk); Nathan Kuptana (Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk) and student Darryl Tedjuk.
Participatory Video is a powerful knowledge dissemination tool that can empower youth, strengthen resilience in communities and leads to effective communication avenues with decision-makers to advocate for change. In this research presentation, University of Victoria researcher Maeva Gauthier will share a short movie trailer and the journey of her PhD using a community-based participatory research approach to engage youth in Tuktoyaktuk, on the edge of the Canadian Arctic ocean. Focusing on knowledge co-production and guided by a team of partners, these young leaders embarked on a journey of reflections and storytelling to share what climate change means to their community. One of the outcomes of this project was production of a 22min film “Happening to Us.”
This project has created ripple effects locally and beyond where younger students have shown interest in learning from the local mentor filmmakers. These young leaders have been involved in new research projects and connections have been made with local, regional, national and global policy-makers. Since the start in 2018, the youth participants have shown increased levels of confidence, engagement, and leadership. Highlights and challenges encountered over the course of this journey will be discussed.
We were incredibly happy to meet and present with them in 2022 as part of our pilot project supported by the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Greenhouse. We can’t wait to see their presentation in Norway!
This exciting presentation, part of Session 4.5.1, Strategies for centering Indigenous voices for Arctic community-led research and co-production of knowledge for early career researchers, will take place on June 1, 2024 from 13:30 to 15:00 in the Sinus room at the Stormen Concert Hall. To register for the 2024 Arctic Congress, visit their web site at: https://arcticcongress.com
