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More Northern researchers needed
Course teaches basic research skills to Arctic residents

Samantha Stokell
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, November 17, 2011

INUVIK
Until Northerners conduct research studies themselves, the questions asked and answers received will continue to benefit only the southerners who do the work, participants were told at a basic research skills seminar at Aurora College in Inuvik Nov. 7 to 9.

NNSL photo/graphic

Kugmallit Bay in Tuktoyaktuk was filled with open water on Nov. 4 after strong wind pushed the ice out into the ocean. A study on temperatures and ice freezing could help improve traffic safety and help people who rely on ice roads to adapt to climate change. - photo courtesy of Merven Gruben

The workshop, intended to train Northerners, informed students how to address issues, how to form questions and find answers, how to find funding, and how to interpret data. Approximately 30 students from across the Beaufort Delta attended the session and became inspired to look at their own community with questioning eyes.

"Now we can actually start a project. I have more respect for scientists who put a lot of time into their work," said Niccole Hammer, an office administration student at Aurora College who attended the seminar.

"Researchers now have to be allowed into the communities. So we let the researchers in and it's just intrusive. They're always a stranger."

The people who live and work in a place for long periods of time can observe changes or note problems, participants were told. If residents had the tools to complete studies and to create data on a specific issue, they could have the power to change policy and lobby governments to perhaps spend money differently.

"I'm a foreigner and I'm not in the best position to know what Northerners know," said Francis Zotor of the Aboriginal and Global Health Group which helped run the workshop.

"Someone who comes from the community knows the language and how the community feels and I can teach them the skills and empower them."

Because of climate change, many studies are being undertaken in the Arctic right now, but mostly by southerners coming north. Shannon O'Hara, an Inuit research adviser with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, wants to see more communities taking advantage of funding to do their own research on environmental or health issues.

The Aklavik h. pylori study tapped into the Health Canada Climate Change and Health Adaptation Program for First Nation and Inuit Communities, which provides between $500 and $200,000 for research projects. The Aklavik project studied water quality and its correlation to the high number of stomach cancers in the community and will expand to include all Inuvialuit communities.

"This region in particular, the Inuvialuit Settlement Region and Gwich'in Settlement Region, there's so much research in the region. It's just about time the communities looked at what's affecting them," O'Hara said. "We have different priorities with concerns about health and adapting to climate change. We just have to offer these courses to build capacity."

Questions the participants developed included what kind of physical activity do people undertake in the winter; how many people have left the community in the past three years; how many people have been to the dentist in the past three years; at what age do people start drinking alcohol; and how many people take sugar in their coffee.

The organizers hope that people will become inspired by the course and will take advantage of Health Canada funding. The federal government has extended the program by five years, which means there is the opportunity for long-term projects.

"When you have an idea, you need to build on that. You might think it's a little idea, that it doesn't matter, but you need to talk to other people and do something about it," Zotor said. "You're not alone. You have to mobilize and we will be here to help you. If you don't do it, no one will and it won't change."

Another research course will be offered in February. The deadline for application to the Health Canada program is Jan. 23. For more information contact Shannon O'Hara at the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation.

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