Community-based Participatory Process – Climate Change and Health Adaptation Program for Northern First Nations and Inuit in Canada

Abstract

ObjectivesHealth Canada's Program for Climate Change and Health Adaptation in Northern First Nation and Inuit Communities is unique among Canadian federal programs in that it enables community-based participatory research by northern communities.Study designThe program was designed to build capacity by funding communities to conduct their own research in cooperation with Aboriginal associations, academics, and governments; that way, communities could develop health-related adaptation plans and communication materials that would help in adaptation decision-making at the community, regional, national and circumpolar levels with respect to human health and a changing environment.MethodsCommunity visits and workshops were held to familiarize northerners with the impacts of climate change on their health, as well as methods to develop research proposals and budgets to meet program requirements.ResultsSince the launch of the Climate Change and Health Adaptation Program in 2008, Health Canada has funded 36 community projects across Canada's North that focus on relevant health issues caused by climate change. In addition, the program supported capacity-building workshops for northerners, as well as a Pan-Arctic Results Workshop to bring communities together to showcase the results of their research. Results include: numerous films and photo-voice products that engage youth and elders and are available on the web; community-based ice monitoring, surveillance and communication networks; and information products on land, water and ice safety, drinking water, food security and safety, and traditional medicine.ConclusionsThrough these efforts, communities have increased their knowledge and understanding of the health effects related to climate change and have begun to develop local adaptation strategies.

Two-Eyed Seeing in Research and its Absence in Policy: Little Saskatchewan First Nation Elders' Experiences of the 2011 Flood and Forced Displacement

“…Aligning with our inclusion criteria, 89% of the examined literature had water as its main focus. Our review confirmed that the research to date has predominantly focused on water in the context of drinking water (26%); those that did not, instead used water as an example of how Indigenous knowledge, ideas, and practices are applied to water and used in other environmental contexts (see Jones, Rigg, & Lee, 2010;King, 2004;Peace & Myers, 2012;Riedlinger & Berkes, 2001).…”

“…This literature documented Indigenous relationships to water and/or lands, oral histories, and traditional knowledge. Interestingly, these articles also tended to be published more recently; two-thirds of articles in this category were published after 2010 (Anderson, Chow, & Haworth-Brockman, 2011;Baird et al, 2013;Caine, 2013;Fresque-Baxter, 2013;Grimwood & Doubleday, 2013;Longboat, 2012;McGregor, 2012;Peace & Myers, 2012;Restoule et al, 2013;Sam, 2013;Szach, 2013). Three articles specifically explored the perspectives of women and their relationship with land and water (Anderson, 2008;McGregor, 2011;Szach, 2013) and one focused on youth (Fresque-Baxter, 2013).…”

“…There were cases where the authors discussed the implementation of Indigenous knowledge systems in management, such as the Aboriginal Steering Committee that emerged from Northern Voices, Northern Waters (Miltenberger, 2011), the Great Bear Lake Management Plan discussed in Caine (2013), and the Whitefish Lake Plan (Natcher, 2000). In their paper, Peace and Myers (2012) noted that their knowledge mobilization products included film and photovoice products that were published online, community-based ice monitoring, surveillance, and communication networks, and information products on land, water, and ice safety. These types of outputs are outside the box of conventional academic publications that tend to narrate findings and conclusions to academic audiences, and speak to the importance of long-term partnerships that can support such integrative knowledge implementation.…”

Community-based monitoring of Indigenous food security in a changing climate: global trends and future directions

“…While the majority of articles mentioned climate change as justification for pursuing CBM, a limited number of articles (n=8) described the implementation/evaluation of a community-based food security monitoring system including climate change indicators. The studies that did consider climate change were mostly situated in Arctic regions [71,[75][76][77][78]; for example, a study in Alaska employed a participatory CBM system to explore environmental conditions likely associated with climate change, health, and food security outcomes [76]. In another study, an integrated CBM system in Nunavik, Canada tracked climatic and ice conditions to support safe access to land and other resources [71].…”

Youth-Led Participatory Video as a Strategy to Enhance Inuit Youth Adaptive Capacities for Dealing with Climate Change

“…In this context, research on human dimensions of climate change in the Canadian North has seen increasingly meaningful partnerships with and leadership by Inuit communities. Such research uses diverse approaches premised on active community participation through all stages of the research process (Harper et al, 2012;Pearce et al, 2012;McClymont Peace and Myers, 2012). These approaches include PhotoVoice (Healey et al, 2011) and digital storytelling (Cunsolo Willox et al, 2012b).…”