18. Building Relationships in the Arctic: Indigenous Communities and Scientists

Climate change, pollution, and resource extraction have heightened interest in arctic research, and communities now encounter scientists more often. This chapter addresses how to build sustainable research relationships through the perspectives of Indigenous Greenlanders and arctic researchers. Collaborative research, community-based participatory research, and Indigenous methodologies provide examples of research partnerships but do not explain the initial steps of building relationships. I examined results from fifteen interviews with arctic researchers, nineteen interviews with Inuit Greenlanders, and four focus groups—working with fourteen of the original Greenlandic interviewees. Through a grounded theory approach, I found the central theme to a sustainable relationship was trust, surrounded by eight prominent actions necessary to create, build, and sustain trust. The actions for trust include: knowing extensive community history; developing strong local contacts; communicating openly about the project; treating the community members as equals; displaying manners and etiquette through honesty and reciprocity; acting ethically in Indigenous cultures outside of the academic world; exchanging knowledge to build social capital; and giving project results to the community so they can be put to practical use.