Expressions of Intent for International Polar Year 2007-2008 Activities

Expression of Interest Details

PROPOSAL INFORMATION

Making Waves: Incorporating Local Indigenous Knowledge in Drowning Prevention and Aquatics Programming in the Northwest Territories (Canada) and Alaska (United States of America)  (Drowning prevention)

Outline
As major funding agencies allocate research dollars to investigations intended to find ways to enhance injury prevention in Aboriginal/Native Alaskan populations, it is particularly timely and important to conduct research into initiatives that have dealt with similar issues and objectives in the past; the Northwest Territories (NWT) Aquatics Program and Alaska’s Marine Safety Education Association’s programs (AMSEA) are examples of programs in need of such research. In this program of research, data concerning the use of Indigenous knowledge in drowning prevention and aquatics programming will be gathered by conducting archival research, participant-observation, and semi- and unstructured interviews in seven northern communities: two in Alaska and five in the NWT. Discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1992; Phillips & Hardy, 2002) will then be used to examine oral and written statements that participants, programmers, and policymakers use and have used in discussions of the NWT Aquatics Program and AMSEA’s programming. Though the thousands of children who participate in the water safety and physical activity programs that the NWT Aquatics Program offers speaks to the program’s popularity, it does not necessarily speak to its success; two of the program’s main goals since its inception in 1967 – dramatically decreasing drowning rates and developing aquatics leaders within the NWT - still have not come to fruition. Questions about the development and relevance of this program, its conceptual underpinnings, and its abilities to meet the unique needs of northern, often Aboriginal, residents of the NWT thus need to be investigated. Similarly, while AMSEA’s cold water survival programs for commercial, non-commercial fishers, and recreational boaters have been deemed successful, Alaska continues to have the highest drowning rate of any state in the United States of America. Indeed, local safety practices and beliefs (e.g., offering tobacco to a body of water to ensure a safe voyage; following menstrual practices concerning water) continue to be marginalized, even as the NWT reports a drowning rate of six times the national average (Government of the NWT, 2004) and Alaska a drowning rate that is over ten times the national average (AMSEA, 2005). This project will extend the limited body of anthropologically-informed knowledge on the role of northern Aboriginal/Native Alaskan cultural practices in water safety; such a contribution may play a large part in understanding and preventing water-related fatalities in the NWT and Alaska.

What significant advance(s) in relation to the IPY themes and targets can be anticipated from this project?
This project relates to Theme #6, “to investigate the cultural, historical, and social processes that shape the resilience and sustainability of circumpolar human societies, and to identify their unique contributions to global cultural diversity and citizenship.” In particular, it examines issues pertaining to human health. Drowning is a leading cause of accidental death in the North, and drowning rates in the North are astonishingly high when compared to figures for Southern-based populations. Furthermore, drowning rates amongst Northern Aboriginal/Native Alaskans is much higher than non-Aboriginal/Native Alaskan populations in north. As such, this is research worthy of focused inquiry.

What international collaboration is involved in this project?
This project involves collaboration between research conducted in Northwest Territories (Canada) and in Alaska (United States of America). This project will link the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association’s work with research being conducted with the NWT Recreation and Parks Association and the Government of the NWT.

FIELD ACTIVITY DETAILS

Geographical location(s) for the proposed field activities:
Fort Simpson, Inuvik, Fort Smith, Fort Good Hope, and Tuktoyaktuk, NWT; Barrow and Kenai, Alaska

Approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities:
Arctic: 06/06 – 08/06      05/07 – 08/07      05/08 – 08/08
Antarctic: n/a

Significant facilities will be required for this project:
Accommodation for a researcher and several local research assistants will be needed; beyond that, there are no significant logistical support or facilities that will be needed.

Will the project leave a legacy of infrastructure?
No – this project does not require any infrastructure so, as a result, there will not be a legacy of infrastructure left after the completion of the research.

How is it envisaged that the required logistic support will be secured?
Commercial operator

the NWT Recreation and Parks Association, the Government of the NWT, and the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association have all agreed to provide logistical support.

Has the project been "endorsed" at a national or international level?
Yes - This project has been endorsed in full by the IPY Joint Committee for IPY proposal number 167, “Arctic Human Health Initiative.”

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND STRUCTURE

Is the project a short-term expansion (over the IPY 2007-2008 timeframe) of an existing plan, programme or initiative or is it a new autonomous proposal?
Yes

This project overlaps slightly with a study examining the use of aquatics activities for physical activity enhancement in 3 NWT and 2 Nunavut communities. The Alaska collaboration and inclusion of activities pertaining to commercial fishing are entirely new for this proposal.

How will the project be organised and managed?
This project will be managed as part of my (Dr. Audrey Giles) program of research as a professor at the University of Ottawa. It will be organized with the help of the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association, the NWT Recreation and Parks Association, and the Government of the NWT.

What are the initial plans of the project for addressing the education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
While interviews and fieldwork are being completed, workshops on water, ice, and boat safety will be made available to the communities in which the research is taking place.

What are the initial plans of the project to address data management issues (as outlined in the Framework document?
Data will be stored with the Alaska Marine Safety Education and will be provided to the Water Incident Research Alliance. Bi-monthly reports will be issued to participating communities to ensure that they receive information in a timely fashion. Data will be archived at the University of Toronto’s data library.

How is it proposed to fund the project?
I have applied for funding through IPY Canada, I have received $107,000 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and $10,000 from the University of Ottawa.

Is there additional information you wish to provide?
Few research projects have taken anthropologically-informed approaches to studying injury prevention. As such, we believe this to be an innovative project that focuses attention on one of the leading causes of death for northerners in Canada and the United States.

PROPOSER DETAILS

Dr Audrey Giles
School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa
334 Montpetit Hall
125 University St., University of Ottawa
K1N 6N5
Canada

Tel: +1 613 562-5800 ext. 2988
Mobile: no
Fax: +1 613 562-5149
Email:

Other project members and their affiliation