Arctic College eyes wildlife
Contaminants workshop enters 10th week-long course mixing students with elders to learn environmental concerns
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Monday, October 24, 2016
IQALUIT
Nunavut Arctic College's Nunatta campus hosted its 10th week-long wildlife contaminants workshop in September.
Second-year student Amanda Taqtaq prepares polar bear fat tissue for contaminants analysis during a wildlife contaminants workshop at Nunavut Arctic College's Nunatta Campus Sept. 26 to 30. - photo courtesy Jason Carpenter |
"It's the only workshop of its kind," said senior instructor Jason Carpenter.
One day, the students are in the classroom talking with an elder about what environmental concerns; the next, the students are in the laboratory using state-of-the-art equipment with some of the nation's leading scientists, explained Carpenter.
Izaac Wilman is a second-year environmental technology student.
"We had Joshua (Kango), a respected elder from Arctic Bay. He definitely had a lot of good information from an IQ (Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit) standpoint. And he's had years of experience so has a good understanding of what is going on in the environment right now," Wilman said, adding that knowledge is just as important as the scientific knowledge.
He noted that the class learned how Inuit traditionally determined the safety of country foods.
"The workshop talks about contaminants that are in the North, locally, and that come to the North from elsewhere in the world. It talks about how they can affect our daily life and how it can accumulate in some of the foods many Inuit and people in the North eat," he said.
"It also helps a person feel more confident discussing that with other people in the community."
A key concept the students learn is weighing the benefits of the food as well as the potential health risk and balancing the message without creating unnecessary fear about nutritional food sources.
In the past the students have worked with samples from birds, caribou and seals. This year the workshop was focused on Arctic char and polar bears.
Wilman says the communication skills are important.
"Because it's not just a southern voice telling people, 'Don't eat your food because it's contaminated.' People in our community are actually aware of why it's contaminated, where these contaminants are coming from and what to be careful about."
"A lot of our students return to their communities to work as environmental practitioners and they're often seen in their communities as the go-to person when it comes to environmental issues," Carpenter said. "They need to understand they're going to be looked to sometimes for their expertise and leadership and that they need to be thoughtful in what they say and how they say it."
For Jamal Shirley, the Nunavut Research Institute's manager of research design and policy development, the growth of the program is exciting.
"The workshop grew from something very simple 10 years ago when we had an International Polar Year project team provide a demonstration of a very specific lab technique to our students involving taking tissue sample from marine birds for contaminant study," Shirley said.
Impressed by the hands-on activities, the workshop developed and expanded with help from experts from Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the hunters and trappers associations, and several universities and colleges.
This year's was the largest workshop to date, Shirley said, adding the range of knowledge will serve the students well in their future careers as environmental practitioners.
