Silalirijiit Project: Clyde River, Nunavut

Silalirijiit map

Clyde River (Kangiqtugaapik), Nunavut, is located on the east coast of Baffin Island. Starting in 2009, local hunters and Elders partnered with researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder and Colorado State University to initiate the Silalirijiit Project.

An Inuktitut word, Silalirijiit (pronounced see-lah-LEE-ree-yeet) means "those who work with or think about weather." This project links Inuit knowledge with climate science and environmental modeling to understand weather patterns and weather changes in the Clyde River area.

Evaluating the nature and significance of weather changes in the Arctic requires an approach that merges different tools, methods, and ways of knowing the environment. In Silalirijiit, a collaborative, multicultural and multidisciplinary team of weather experts are exchanging skills and knowledge all with the common purpose of understanding the weather in this part of the Arctic.

Silalirijiit is funded by the US National Science Foundation (OPP 1733688). The NSF title for the project is, Working with Inuit Elders and Youth to Identify, Document, Quantify, and Share Human-Relevant Environmental Variables (HREVs) in Clyde River, Nunavut. The principal investigator of the project is Shari Fox, University of Colorado Boulder.