Representing Traditional Knowledge: Resource Management and Inuit Knowledge of Barren-Ground Caribou

Abstract

Comanagement regimes in Canada's North rarely include indigenous systems for understanding the environment. Mapped representations and accompanying narratives illustrating the collective knowledge of indigenous hunters can make unique management contributions. Both the multigenerational knowledge of indigenous communities and opportunities allowing a discussion of diverse ways of interpreting environmental observations are crucial to involving indigenous learning systems within current regional wildlife management. It is not just the factual “data” of indigenous hunters that are relevant to resource management. It is the opportunities for social learning or for resource managers to understand how indigenous hunters learn about the environment that are directly relevant to resource management decision making.