“If there’s one or two, take them but if there’s three, leave them”: Inuit Cultural Norms and Traditional Knowledge Regarding Sustainable Harvest Leading Contemporary Species Management Planning

Through Inuit graduate student and Inuit youth-led interviews with Elders and harvesters throughout Nunatsiavut, this study will focus on respectfully gathering and acknowledging the value of past and present Inuit approaches to sustainable harvest and management and, in collaboration with Nunatsiavut Government resource and wildlife managers, explore how such perspectives can guide contemporary species management plans. Inuit have carried out sustainable harvests of wildlife throughout the Arctic for millennia(2) – even during large wildlife population fluctuations and prior to contemporary, often western science-based, harvest/quota regulations. Inuit Elders and harvesters hold immense knowledge regarding cultural norms and traditional practices surrounding sustainable harvest and management that have helped sustain species for millennia(2). Though informed by generations of oral histories and practices, Inuit traditional knowledge is not antiquated or static but continues to evolve and be applied in contemporary contexts as Inuit face significant changes in climate conditions and access to traditionally harvested species. This study will engage Inuit youth in each Nunatsiavut community to assist with conducting interviews and will also engage three master’s level Inuit graduate students who will each focus on a set of study objectives over a three-year period. These students will be enrolled in a Masters of Arts in Environmental Policy program ensuring this project’s strong connection with both Inuit perspectives and policy-driven outcomes. This study is designed to align with the five priority areas for Respectful and Beneficial Research for all Inuit as presented in the National Inuit Strategy on Research(6).