Redefining Arctic research with equity at the center
Indigenous leadership and equitable partnerships must determine the future of Arctic science.
Morris Alexie and Sue Natali examine a map during a community visit to the Alaska Native Village of Nunapicuaq.
photo by Greg Fiske
In 2018, a group of Inuit youth stood before a scientific crowd at the annual ArcticNet conference in Ottawa, Canada. They spoke in Inuktitut—and observed the faces of the largely Western scientific crowd quickly turn to confusion.
For Indigenous communities in the North, the feeling of exclusion in a Western scientific space is commonplace. Researchers arriving in the Arctic often approach communities with very little consideration of linguistic barriers, historical context, or cultural differences. By flipping the script on the researchers, the Inuit youth delivered a clear message: Arctic research has an equity problem.
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