Successful Engagement between Iñupiat and Scientists in Utqiaġvik, Alaska

Abstract:

Climate change has become a global threat that the world is struggling to grasp. At the frontlines of these changes, the Arctic warms at an amplified rate. U.S. research funding agencies have taken unprecedented and aggressive measures to steer Arctic sciences to not only consider its impacts on Indigenous communities in the Arctic, but to work with those communities in producing research that benefits locals in the Arctic. Barriers have prevented positive engagement between scientists and Indigenous communities, including the irrelevancy of research to locals’ daily lives and wide cultural and geographical gaps between research institutions and Indigenous entities. There are few models of successful and mutually-beneficial relations between Indigenous communities and scientists in the Arctic. This presentation focuses on the extremely unique and historic example of relations between local Iñupiat and Arctic scientists in Utqiaġvik, Alaska. The presentation provides both a short history of the relations between Iñupiat and scientists in Utqiaġvik, and a snapshot of how Indigenous science specialists and Arctic researchers in Utqiaġvik view cross-cultural knowledge exchange as they experience it in 2020. Three primary findings of this effort include: there are multiple forms of successful engagement exist between Iñupiat and academic scientists in Utqiaġvik, two of which include co-production of knowledge and contractual logistical service; relevancy of research is an extremely important precursor to successful engagement between scientists and communities; and both Iñupiat science specialists and Arctic researchers must possess unique sets of skills for long-term success in working together. This research has the potential to have broad implications for how Indigenous contributions are acknowledged, compensated for, measured, and valued in the face of increasing scientific research in the Arctic.