FORT SIMPSON - You don't have to dig very far into Fort Simpson's history to find tragic drowning stories, yet according to Dr. Audrey Giles many people don't think water safety is a major concern.

Dr. Audrey Giles with a poster presenting some of her findings she gathered about safety and traditional knowledge concerning water in Fort Simpson - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

Giles spent part of last summer in Fort Simpson interviewing 20 local residents about opinions on water safety and traditional knowledge about water. Her research is part of a three-year project.

People often say that drowning does not happen in Fort Simpson until they really stop to think, said Giles. After being prompted, her interview subjects were able to list a number of drowning incidents.

"If people had died in any other way, people would stop to think about it," she said.

As part of her project, Giles is looking at drowning rates in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut and at how to develop culturally-appropriate forms of water safety education. She is also documenting the history of the NWT Aquatics Program. Fort Simpson was a good place to begin research because the program started here when an aboveground pool was installed in the village in 1967, said Giles.

The rate of drowning in NWT and Nunavut is 10 times the national average and aboriginal people drown more often than non-aboriginals do, Giles said.

"This is something that is killing people, especially aboriginal people, at an alarming rate and yet there are no resources that are going into it," said Giles, who works in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa.

Giles is looking at reasons for this discrepancy and what can be done to decrease drowning fatalities.

Although there's a lot of water safety training done for children, men aged 20 to 50 are the group at the highest risk, said Giles. Alcohol and boating are the leading cause of aquatic fatalities in the North. There's a trend for kids to wear personal flotation devices (PFDs) but not adults, even if they are in the same boat, said Giles.

Giles suggests that water safety education needs to be made more culturally appropriate.

Swimming lessons and water safety courses are geared for people in the south, said Giles.

In the south children are taught to stay away from water, but in the North that is impossible because there is so much of it. Other differences include the fact that in the south people are told to wear lifejackets because the water is dangerous, but in the North there is an emphasis on showing respect for water because it's powerful and can give and take life, said Giles.

Many cultural traditions such as making an offering of tobacco are not included in southern teaching plans, she said.

From her interviews, Giles said that community members think it's important for pool staff coming from the south to recognize existing expertise in the community.

"The recognition of traditional knowledge is really important to people," she said.

There is also a desire for local people, especially aboriginal people, to work at the pool so they can be good role models. Other suggestions included having a larger RCMP presence on the water in the summer so people will be less likely to drink and boat, said Giles.

In addition to Fort Simpson, Giles also had a student gathering research last summer in Taloyoak. This summer interviews will be conducted in Tuktoyaktuk, Hay River and the Hay River Reserve followed by another location in Nunavut in 2008.

The findings will be published in academic journals, but Giles will also be working with the NWT Recreation and Parks Association to create something like a cultural awareness module for pools across the North.