Documenting Environmental Change in Nunatsiavut through Inuit Knowledge: The Nunatsiavut Sea Ice Observer Program

– By Emma Harrison – 

“On this date in 1988, I crossed over Lake Melville on a snowmobile. I hope I’m totally wrong, but all indications are we’re heading into another late season.”

November 18, 2023 – Derrick Pottle, Nunatsiavut Sea Ice Observer for Rigolet

Nunatsiavut, meaning “our beautiful land” in Inuttut, is an Inuit self-governing region in northern Labrador that has seen significant environmental changes in recent decades. Observations from Inuit knowledge holders like Derrick Pottle highlight transformations in sea ice and ocean conditions, including later freeze-ups, earlier melt, aseasonal precipitation, and warmer ocean temperatures. Nunatsiavummiut (the people of Nunatsiavut) are sikumiut, “people of the ice,” and these shifts in sea ice seasonality are not only altering traditional livelihoods, subsistence activities, and food security but are also presenting new challenges to Inuit identity, physical health, and mental well-being.

This is a critical moment to document the impacts of climate change in Nunatsiavut. As the warmest Inuit region, Nunatsiavut is already experiencing changes that are expected to ripple across the Arctic in the coming years. Inuit communities have long adapted to fluctuations in sea ice, weather, and ecosystems, integrating environmental change into their intergenerational knowledge. The Nunatsiavut Sea Ice Observer Program (NSIOP) builds upon this expertise, generating detailed records of sea ice and environmental conditions based on the observations of Inuit knowledge holders. Its mission is to preserve these records for future generations, enhance their use for environmental policymakers and researchers, and promote Inuit knowledge systems as central to understanding and responding to climate change.

Community-led Observations

At the core of the NSIOP are the Observers, community members recognized as local experts by their peers and by community leadership. The program recruits one or two observers from each Nunatsiavut community, who document environmental conditions throughout the sea ice season, typically spanning from December to June. These observations take various forms, including narratives, photographs, videos, and annotated maps.

Unlike many scientific data collection programs, NSIOP does not adhere to a standardized reporting format. Instead, observers act as decision-makers, reporting what they deem to be of high value in the context of community use of the sea ice. This open-ended approach allows them to integrate observations of sea ice, weather, animal behavior, and broader environmental factors. Observers offer a holistic view of the landscape and climate, informed by their deep connection to the land and sea. Rather than focusing on isolated metrics, they convey complex conceptual models rooted in Inuit Knowledge that capture intricate relationships between environmental variables. This perspective, shaped by lifetimes of observing seasonal cycles, animal behavior, and ice conditions, contrasts with scientific monitoring systems, where data collection is often standardized and limited to single variables.

In a report from January 8th, 2024, Reuben Flowers, an Observer for Hopedale, detailed the environmental conditions of the week:

“Both Adlatok Bay and Udjutok Bay froze up quite fast and relatively uniform this year once it got cold. The last two years it was different in that many holes were left open in the bays and it took a long time for them to freeze over. It’s a later freeze up this year than traditional but it was fast even tho temps were above normal which leads me to believe water temps must be lower.”

His report highlights the complex dynamics of sea ice formation that are difficult to measure. The spatial scale of the observations (individual bays) arises from activities that define daily life in Nunatsiavut, yet is challenging to sample with sensors, drones, or satellites. He provides temporal context by comparing recent and long-term patterns in sea ice formation and offers a hypothesis to explain the conditions. He continues by explaining how these shifts affect animal movement and behavior:

“All the old harp seals left the bays last week on their southern migration just before freeze up. They knew this year there would be no holes left for them to breathe and feed in. This too was in contrast to the last couple years. Ptarmigan are scarce but I got 9 this trip as I was able to travel all the way to Udjutok Bay on the ice (this is earlier too than last 2 years). Seen a fox eating a dead seal. Also seen water squirting out of a small breathing hole (size of a toonie) from a seal trapped in the bay, belamer (Kaiguliak) most likely.”

This observation underscores a critical aspect of adapting to climate change in Nunatsiavut, where people rely on seasonal hunting for food. Although Ptarmigan were scarce, he was able to hunt several to feed his family because the ice allowed him to travel up the bay. Animal movement and human adaptation form an interconnected system, where a state change in one aspect cascades throughout the network. People’s adaptive responses are linked not only to changes in animal behavior but also to the environmental conditions that facilitate travel. This highlights the economic and practical challenges posed by climate change and emphasizes that effective adaptation requires understanding how environmental changes affect people’s ability to meet their essential needs.

Responses to climate change, such as adjusting travel routes or preparing communities and policies to manage food security, cannot be developed from environmental data alone, no matter how well documented or modeled. They must be grounded in the lived experiences and knowledge systems of those who depend on the land.

Bridging Knowledge Systems

Community engagement and bridging knowledge systems are crucial goals for both science and society but achieving them is complex and requires as much skill as any advanced analytical procedure. To support the research community’s growing interest in these approaches, we offer insights from our own research process.

A common pitfall for researchers working with community partners is defining research goals and methods in isolation. In the NSIOP, we’ve addressed this challenge by co-defining goals with our community partners during annual in-person gatherings. This collaborative process ensures that the goals reflect the diverse needs and perspectives of all participants, resulting in outcomes that benefit everyone involved.

During the 2023 workshop in Rigolet, we established the following shared goals:

1. Pass on Observers’ deep knowledge of the land.
2. Represent Inuit cultural values of learning by doing and by being out on the land.
3. Educate outsiders, promoting respect for Inuit knowledge holders.
4. Preserve the unique, authentic voice of each of the Observers.

These principles have guided our methodology. For example, to maintain the unique voices of the Observers, we avoid reducing their data into simplified variables. This approach has enabled meaningful collaboration while ensuring the research process does not overburden our community partners. Respecting the cultural value of being on the land means enabling the Observer team to spend their time being on the land by removing obstacles such as frequent online meetings.

Preserving Knowledge for Future Generations

Setting a shared conceptual foundation allows us to build a research program that supports our goals. James Jacque, our program coordinator, digital artist, and a youth from Postville, Nunatsiavut, is leading the creation of a curricular toolkit for local schools. This toolkit incorporates the Sea Ice Observers’ reports into lesson plans. While the provincial curriculum often focuses on life outside of Nunatsiavut, NSIOP-based content reflects the joy and richness of life on the land.

For example, on May 21st, Todd Broomfield, the Observer for Makkovik, reported:

“There are still a few sheets of ice left to thaw out and are now mostly gone. We call them a “bar” and the ice is mostly thin and full of drain holes that seals use. Seals are concentrated on these sheets of ice and this is normal in springtime… One of my favorite things to do is travel in the pack ice and find ways through it, not knowing if you will be able to get to your destination, spent lots of time doing this over the years and I just love it!”

Observations like this form the basis for lessons that inspire young people to connect with their heritage while developing essential skills such as math, writing, and critical thinking. Unfortunately, changing lifestyle patterns are reducing the time young people spend on the land learning in traditional ways. Enriching the local curriculum with lessons that teach respect for elders’ knowledge, understanding the ecological dependencies of key species, and learning how to read the land can help shift the focus back toward an Inuit way of learning and living.

We aim to preserve these observations not only as a link to today’s world but also as a resource for future generations who will face unprecedented environmental changes. In partnership with ELOKA (Exchange for Local Knowledge of the Arctic, https://eloka.nsidc.org/eloka), we are developing a searchable database to house and manage this data. The tool emphasizes community-level accessibility, with an intuitive, user-friendly interface designed for exploration by community members. Researchers will be able to access the dataset under terms established by Data Governance protocols co-developed with the Nunatsiavut Government. This approach advances Indigenous Data Sovereignty by encouraging researchers to work with Indigenous data under community-set governance, while prioritizing its use by the Nunatsiavut community to ensure the knowledge stays centered on those who live by it.

By centering Inuit knowledge and fostering collaboration, the Nunatsiavut Sea Ice Observer Program is working to create a vital record of environmental change and an example of meaningful collaborative research. Initiatives like the curricular toolkit and data management system ensure this knowledge remains a living resource, elevating Inuit voices in the global conversation on a changing planet.

On June 3-6, 2024, the 58th annual Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Congress was held virtually with help from the Winnipeg Centre and the BC Interior-Yukon Centre. The theme of the Congress was “Extreme Events in a Changing Climate,” wherein session topics spanned the latest science and solutions on the climate emergency to high impact weather and the global water crisis, among others. More information on the Congress can be found here. To highlight the diverse and impactful research presented, we asked session chairs to choose one talk or poster to share with the Bulletin. This article is part of the series of Outstanding Presentations at the Congress.

Emma Jayne Harrison, Ph.D., is a Research Associate in the Department of Oceanography at Dalhousie University.

The Nunatsiavut Sea Ice Observer Program (NSIOP) is a grant-funded initiative, housed administratively in the Department of Oceanography at Dalhousie University, with affiliate partnerships including Memorial University, the Nunatsiavut Government, and the communities of Nunatsiavut. Our program is funded by Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and Indigenous Community-Based Climate Monitoring Program, and grew out of a pilot project that was part of the Ocean Frontier Institutes’s Sustainable Nunatsiavut Futures project (https://www.ofi.ca/sustainable-nunatsiavut-futures).

The NSIOP team is Dr. Eric Oliver (PI, Dalhousie University), Dr. Susan Ziegler (PI, Memorial University), James Jacque (coordinator, Postville, Nunatsiavut), Dr. Emma Harrison (Research Associate, Dalhousie University), Derrick Pottle (Observer, Rigolet, Nunatsiavut), Maurice Jacque (Postville, Nunatsiavut), Todd Broomfield (Observer, Postville, Nunatsiavut), Reuben Flowers (Hopedale, Nunatsiavut), Ross Flowers (Hopedale, Nunatsiavut), and Ron Webb (Nain, Nunatsiavut.