Two NWT women are working with the world's preeminent scientific organization to build a bridge between traditional knowledge and Western climate change science.
photo courtesy of Joanne Speakman
Deline's Joanne Speakman and Mandy Bayha were in San Diego, Calif. last week to present on the link between their people and the Northern landscape at a conference held by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on its Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) program.
"We really feel like we're here on behalf of people back home," said Speakman in an interview on May 22.
Both Speakman and Bayha said they hope their participation in this program, and the relationships they are building, will lead to more opportunities for Northern Indigenous youth to get into scientific fields, even in this project itself.
ABoVE is an ecological field research program, in its fourth year of an eight- to 10-year mandate in western Canada and Alaska, that aims to get a better understanding of the vulnerability and resilience of Arctic and boreal ecosystems to climate change. It's looking both at environmental systems and social systems in hopes that its data will help inform decision-making at local, regional, national and international levels.
The project's relationship with the NWT began in 2015, as part of the response to the territory's extreme wildfire season the year before.
"What kind of made our presentation unique was the fact that we talked about traditional knowledge and our culture and the importance of our connection to the land, to Dene people," said Speakman. "That's something that the ABoVE team is really trying to incorporate more into their research and they want to build stronger relationships, especially because this project could take 10 years."
photo courtesy of Joanne Speakman
Speakman said this approach matters particularly because of the North's history of researchers coming up, conducting their research, and never partnering meaningfully with communities or returning to share what they've learned.
Bayha said their presentation was very well-received, and they were approached afterwards by those working at the cutting edge of climate change, asking the two women about how to develop meaningful, genuine and long-term relationships with Indigenous communities.
"We just really had a message to bring and that was our perspectives on what the land means to us, its importance," said Bayha. "It's really our way of life and our cultural and spiritual ties to the land are far more than just for harvesting or for subsistence.
"It's tied to our healing, who we are – our very identity is tied to it. And so having that perspective alongside the western science perspective, I think creates this sort of amazing narrative"
Working on climate change issues in Canada
Speakman and Bayha were brought into the project by Cindy Gilday at the Sahtu Secretariat Inc., who has been a mentor to the two. Gilday has worked with NASA and the GNWT for a few years, particularly with this project, and has been working on climate change issues in Canada, Alaska and Greenland for more than 40 years.
"Getting this generation involved and engaged was another step towards waking up humans to care for the Earth, as our Dene elders taught us," Gilday said.They were taken on a NASA Gulfstream III jet last year as it flew across the North, surveying the land via radar for the ABoVE project.
The two wrote about their experiences, and presented to GNWT and ABoVE representatives in Yellowknife, which led to their invitation to last week's San Diego conference.
photo courtesy of Joanne Speakman
"We've really become a solid part of the team and it's, it's unreal," said Bayha.
While down south, Bayha said the two were taken under the wing of Dr. Peter Griffith and other scientists that made them feel at home and like part of a big family.
"If that's any indication of how they're going to continue to research, I'm so excited and it gives me so much hope," said Speakman.
Griffith told News/North it has been rewarding to work with the two women, who have been enthusiastic about the project each step of the way, and have helped the team incorporate traditional knowledge.
"We have some good intentions that we've expressed from the beginning of the planning of this process for co-production of knowledge and recognition of traditional and Indigenous knowledge," said Griffith. "And just because we have good intentions it doesn't mean that we're doing a good job until we really slow down and talk with people."
He said Bayha and Speakman are also helping coordinate fieldwork and make connections with youth in the region to help out.
photo courtesy of Peter Griffiths
"We're just extensions of this greater collective at home and we're here to try to create opportunities in the future for young people back home," said Bayha.
"I think the biggest highlight for me is the fact that organizations like NASA are paying attention and realizing how valuable traditional knowledge is and how important it is to collaborate with Indigenous communities and see them as the stakeholders."