Journal
FACETS
Volume 4, Issue -, Pages 293-314Publisher
CANADIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING
DOI: 10.1139/facets-2019-0006
Keywords
Indigenous knowledge; community-based monitoring; participatory research; social-ecological monitoring; adaptive management
Categories
Funding
- Social Science and Humanities Research Council
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
- Vancouver Foundation
- University of Victoria, Patagonia Environmental Research Funds
- Elizabeth Henry Scholarship for Communities and Environmental Health
- Marine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response Network, BC Parks Living Labs
- Jacobs Research Funds
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Researchers and government agencies are increasingly embracing Indigenous knowledge to inform ecological monitoring. However, there are few detailed accounts of designing monitoring methods based in Indigenous knowledge to meet Indigenous objectives. This research details the design of a program initiated by the Gitga'at First Nation to document the knowledge and observations of their harvesters as a contemporary monitoring initiative. We, Gitga'at and academic researchers, first conducted informal interviews with knowledge holders to gauge interest and to establish community objectives. We then convened community meetings and workshops to design methods to document harvesters' knowledge and observations. We tested and revised these methods (a post-harvest season interview guide, and a logbook to be completed by harvesters) over the course of two harvest seasons. Semi-structured interviews were more successful than the logbooks in meeting multiple community monitoring objectives. However, we were encouraged by younger participants' suggestions to develop a digital app based on the logbook to encourage future participation. Our work can serve as a guide to other Indigenous peoples and collaborators who wish to leverage the knowledge of their land and (or) sea users, and the methods we develop are available to adapt to other cultural, social-ecological, and political contexts.
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