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Co-operative Management of Auyuittuq National Park: Moving Towards Greater Emphasis and Recognition of Indigenous Aspirations for the Management of Their Lands Read chapter Read first chapter

2016 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

Conflicting Understandings in Polar Bear Co-management in the Inuit Nunangat: Enacting Inuit Knowledge and Identity

Author : Stéphanie Vaudry

Published in: Indigenous Peoples’ Governance of Land and Protected Territories in the Arctic

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

The co-management of polar bears between scientists and the Inuit in Nunavut has been fraught with tension. This chapter explores the Inuit’s perspective by highlighting where the bear fits within Inuit cosmology and how it influences their relationships with the animal, with respect to hunting. Since 2005, environmentalists have tried to ban polar bear hunting on an international scale and to get the animal put on the list of species threatened with extinction. This has had a major impact on already fragile northern economies, as it discourages sport hunting, which many Inuit count on for needed income. After analyzing the data, it appears that sport hunting has positive effects on Inuit communities: it provides economic and material resources all throughout the year, but also allows for the reaffirmation of Inuit identity and the transmission of Inuit knowledge to younger generations.

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previous chapter The Governance of Protected Areas in Greenland: The Resource National Park among Conservation and Exploitation
next chapter Beyond the Protection of the Land, National Parks in the Canadian Arctic: A Way to Actualized and Institutionalized Aboriginal Cultures in the Global
Footnotes
1
Martin (2003: 96, 115) points out that the hunt, aside from its contribution to food and economic autonomy, brings in much needed revenue to Inuit communities.
 
2
The signatories included Canada, Denmark, the United States, Norway (Greenland), and the Soviet Union (in 1974).
 
3
A polar bear kills on average six seals per month, mainly young seals, to sustain itself; significantly less than an Inuk. The bear thus poses a greater threat to seal populations; nevertheless, environmentalists direct their attention towards the Inuit (Randa 1986: 83).
 
4
Polar bears could once be found as far south as the Saint Lawrence Valley (Randa 1986).
 
5
A master research regarding the Huron-Wendat territorial management and claims with the Government of Québec recently shows that it is more the bureaucratic structure of the state and its informal policies than the data itself that complicates the process, since this Indigenous nation produces reports made by Indigenous scientists (François-Xavier Cyr, personal communication, 2015).
 
6
Inuit Quaujimajatuqangit can be translated as “traditional Inuit knowledge,” a product of quaujimajaq, or ‘that which is known.’
 
7
Age-old stories, or legends, in Inuktitut.
 
8
These sums are awarded by the Inuit Hunting, Fishingand Trapping Support Program, financed by the Government of Quebec and managed by the Kativik Regional Government. The funds help support hunters to carry out their activities throughout the year (Martin 2003: 104). A similar program also exists in Nunavut (see Martin 2003: 116).
 
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Metadata
Title
Conflicting Understandings in Polar Bear Co-management in the Inuit Nunangat: Enacting Inuit Knowledge and Identity
Author
Stéphanie Vaudry
Copyright Year
2016
Book
Indigenous Peoples’ Governance of Land and Protected Territories in the Arctic

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-25033-5

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-25035-9

Copyright Year: 2016

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25035-9_8