SELECTED THESES ON THE CIRCUMPOLAR ARCTIC

Upon the signing of the Nunavut Agreement, the new government pledged itself to the dual tasks of representing Inuit priorities within the context of public government and encouraging the development of community participation in and direction of decision-making. One of the principal components of the Agreement involves the management of wildlife. Indigenous ecological knowledge is an important element of the daily lives of Inuit and reflects the cumulative learning and understanding of Inuit about their environment. Combining each of these issues, this thesis examines the institutional capacity for including locally-based indigenous ecological knowledge in the management of natural resources in Nunavut.
Two field seasons in the Baffin region provided the basis for the results. The first season entailed working on an extensive study of indigenous ecological knowledge coordinated by the municipality of Sanikiluaq on the Belcher Islands. The second season in Lake Harbour on Baffin Island focussed on the extent of Inuit involvement in Hunters' and Trappers' Organisations, the Regional Wildlife Organisation, and the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board. Based on open-ended interviews and surveys of the literature, the particular emphasis of research was on Inuit experience in past uses of their ecological knowledge and their hopes for future applications of that knowledge under Nunavut.
Results indicated that while those people interviewed generally wished to include their ecological knowledge in natural resource management, the current structures of the three agencies examined limit their capacity to do so. The thesis therefore concludes that if Inuit hope that their ecological knowledge will help us to define how natural resources will be managed in Nunavut, they should consider initiating comprehensive measures for documenting their knowledge. In addition, the thesis recommends that Inuit should examine the possibility of creating an all-Inuit body to represent their concerns with the various comanagement boards which have been established under the terms of the Nunavut Agreement.