Whiteboard animation for knowledge mobilization: a test case from the Slave River and Delta, Canada

Abstract

ObjectiveTo present the co-creation of a whiteboard animation video, an enhanced e-storytelling technique for relaying traditional knowledge interview results as narratives.DesignWe present a design for translating interview results into a script and accompanying series of figures, followed by technical steps to create a whiteboard animation product.MethodOur project used content analysis and researcher triangulation, followed by a collaborative process to develop an animated video to disseminate research findings. A 13-minute long whiteboard animation video was produced from a research study about changing environments in northern Canadian communities and was distributed to local people. Three challenging issues in the video creation process including communication issues, technical difficulties and contextual debate were resolved among the supporting agencies and researchers.ConclusionsDissemination of findings is a crucial step in the research process. Whiteboard animation video products may be a viable and culturally-appropriate form of relaying research results back to Indigenous communities in a storytelling format.

Identifying transformational space for transdisciplinarity: using art to access the hidden third

“…Videos depicted the delta day 2016 activities and were translated into English, Cree, and Chipewyan. A “Delta Ways Remembered” video (Bradford and Bharadwaj 2015 ) used whiteboard animation to tell stories from elders and local people from the South Slave region of the NWT. 2 Maps illustrated the three inland river deltas.…”

“…Art has also enhanced teaching through deeper emotive and sensory experiences (Marshall 2014 ; Jacobson et al 2016 ; Jacobson et al 2007 ) including community and participatory theater (Strickert and Bradford 2015 ; Brown et al 2017 ). Collaborative art has been used to understand diverse values against the backdrop of changing socio-cultural environments (Billings et al 2007 ; Zurba and Berkes 2014 ; Zurba and Friesen 2014 ), and to understand socio-ecological change (Bradford and Bharadwaj 2015 ; Rathwell and Armitage 2016 ). Artistic expression can connect researchers with more subjective emotions as well as multiple senses in support of intuitive “perceptions of coherence” (De Wolf and Lumer 2017 :16) that might respect different ways of knowing and enable connection to the hidden third space in transdisciplinary practice.…”

“…The DDN was initiated in 2014 and sought to complement the significant work by community organizations, collaborative multi-party monitoring partnerships (such as the Slave River and Delta Partnership and Peace-Athabasca Delta Ecological Monitoring Program), and other researchers that had roots back to 2011. Knowledge generated by these efforts and others have included insights from community-based water monitoring programs (AANDC/GNWT 2012 ; Pembina Institute 2016), tracking contaminants in fish (Green et al 2016 ; Ohiozebau et al 2016 ), providing insights from indigenous knowledge (Wolfe et al 2007 ; White 2006 ; Wesche 2009 ; Bradford and Bharadwaj 2015 ), measuring long-term hydrological change (Sagin et al 2015 ), understanding the role of water in shaping place identity (Fresque-Baxter 2015 ), and power dynamics in decision making (Andrews et al 2018 ).

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Perspectives of water and health using Photovoice with youths living on reserve

“…Two of the key ethical aspects in these models are that exploitive or polluting activities need to be held in check and that no natural hierarchy exists (i.e., humans are not above other species). YQFN Elders and others have revealed that community ethics and values based on the interconnectedness of nature are changing (Bradford and Bharadwaj ). Examining the drivers of this potential point of differentiation in these participants’ perspectives from those of the TEK models is a future goal.…”

Promoting Inuit health through a participatory whiteboard video

“…These videos depict a hand drawing images on a whiteboard, accompanied by narration, sound effects and music. This format can be tailored to specific populations and used to share information, including research results (Bradford and Bharadwaj 2015).…”