Traditional knowledge of the effects of storm surges and changing coastal ecology on the breeding habits of geese (specifically black brant) in the coastal wetlands of southwestern Alaska was documented in a project initiated by non-Native biologists and an anthropologist. The project was both implemented and controlled by the local nonprofit regional corporation, which employed village researchers to interview elders and record their understandings of goose biology and habitat as related to storm surges. Although local and scientific understandings of brant behaviour generally agree on what is occurring (i.e., foraging habits, effects of past floods and coastal storm surges, and changes in nesting grounds), they do not always agree on why these changes are taking place. At the request of village researchers, interviews also documented Native residents' perception of non-Native research and regulation in the coastal wetlands. Elders articulated a fundamental conflict between the Yup'ik view of geese as nonhuman persons and the non-Native view of geese as manageable wildlife, and they expressed deep resentment toward the nonlocal control that researchers and wildlife managers represent. Many feel that local control of their land and their lives is more in jeopardy than the geese. Moreover, respect for elders is as important as respect for animals in affecting management processes at the community level, creating potential conflict which younger Yup'ik men and women with training in biology find difficult to resolve. Along with articulating resistance to control, elders' testimony presents possible solutions to this contentious issue, solutions founded on personal relations between community members and scientists. Villagers' statements reflect their view that how non-Natives work in the area is as important as what is accomplished. Cooperative management of research projects like this one appears to be as important as any specific research policy or results.
In the following pages I describe what happens when an exhibit dense in local meanings enters the national arena. The Yup'ik mask exhibit Agayuliyararput (Our Way of Making Prayer) began as "visual repatriation"—bringing objects out of museums back into a local context—and ended as a tribal exhibit displayed in three very different majority institutions, including an American Indian museum, a natural history museum, and an art museum. The mask exhibit was developed as a three‐way collaboration between Yup'ik community members, an anthropologist, and museum professionals. As it traveled farther from home, not only the objects but the process that produced the exhibit were differently presented. While majority institutions chase the language of collaboration, their institutional structures constrain how such collaborations are played out. For the "insider's perspective" of a locally grounded exhibit to survive, majority institutions must not only display the results of collaboration, but participate in the process, [collaboration, masks, museum exhibits, repatriation, Yup'ik Eskimos]
The Nelson Island Natural and Cultural History Project originated in the desire of community members in the Yup’ik villages of Chefornak, Nightmute, Toksook Bay, Tununak, and Newtok to document and share their history with their younger generation. To do so, they invited non-Native scientists to join them in village gatherings as well as on a three-week circumnavigation of Nelson Island (Alaska), during which elders reflected on changes in weather patterns, animal migrations, sea-ice conditions, and related harvesting activities. To date, a defining feature of our conversations has been the integrated way in which information is shared and elders’ reticence to distinguish between human impacts on the environment and the “natural” effects of climate change.Le projet d’histoire culturelle et naturelle de l’île Nelson trouve ses origines dans la volonté des membres des communautés yup’ik de Chefornak, Nightmute, Toksook Bay, Tununak et de Newtok de documenter et partager leur histoire avec les jeunes générations. Pour ce faire, ils ont invité des scientifiques non autochtones à se joindre à eux lors de rassemblements communautaires et d’une circumnavigation de l’île Nelson (Alaska) d’une durée de trois semaines. C’est dans ce contexte que les aînés ont exprimé leurs points de vue sur les changements des conditions métérologiques, des migrations des animaux, de l’état de la banquise ainsi que des activités de chasse, de pêche et de cueillette. À ce jour, l’une des caractéristiques déterminantes qui se dégage de nos conversations est la volonté de partager les informations de façon intégrée et la réticence des aînés à distinguer les impacts humains sur l’environnement des effets dits «naturels» du changement climatique
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.