As part of the ELOKA mission of ensuring data sovereignty for Arctic residents, ELOKA helped create online atlases for two groups of Indigenous people: the Yup’ik in Alaska and the Evenki in Siberia, Russia. These atlases use an interactive platform to upload, document, and share the knowledge, places names, and culture of these communities. Recently these atlases have been translated from English into Yup’ik and Russian to support increased local use of these tools.
In September 2019, three international efforts were launched to advance Indigenous Peoples’ rights and interests in their data: The Oñati Indigenous Data Sovereignty Communique, the Establishment of the Global Indigenous Data Alliance (GIDA), and the CARE Principles of Indigenous Data Governance. Building on the rights frameworks recognized in the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples, these principles summarize an approach for ethical data management led by Indigenous communities. It is the first international effort led by Indigenous peoples to formulate data governance principles.
Thousands of short-tailed shearwaters, Australian migratory birds, washed up dead on the beaches off of Bristol Bay, Alaska, in late June 2019. By mid-August, the bird die-off stretched north to the Bering and Chukchi Seas.
Long before the introduction of weather service forecasts, Inuit read the Arctic sky and environment to predict the weather.
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 their changes in the Clyde River area.
A NSIDC project, the Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA), partnered with SnowChange Cooperative to create the cyberinfrastructure for the first online cultural atlas of Indigenous Knowledge from Siberia.
In this interactive, multi-media CD-ROM, Inuit from two Inuit communities in Nunavut, Canada, share their observations and perspectives on recent environmental changes. This CD-ROM is no longer available for distribution.
Published in 1997, Voices from the Bay: Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Inuit and Cree in the Hudson Bay Bioregion was a ground-breaking publication that documented the traditional ecological knowledge, concerns, and visions of the local Inuit and Cree. The book has a number of sections that include narrative, images, diagrams, and maps. Much of this material was created using digital technology such as word processors and indexing systems, image scanning, and Geographic Information Systems.
The Bering Sea Sub Network is a collaborative alliance of fishers and hunters from coastal villages around the Bering Sea and researchers formed to enable a systematic collection of local observations of physical, biological, and socioeconomic conditions in their regions. ELOKA is developing a system to ingest and manage these sensitive data with a structure designed to allow user-based controlled access.
This module of the Atlas of Community-Based Monitoring in a Changing Arctic (ArcticCBM) offers an inventory of programs that focus on Inuit mental health and wellness across the circumpolar region. It is based on programs identified by the Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada (ICC-Canada) in its Circumpolar Inuit Health Priorities: Best Health Practices and Research report (2012), as well as additional mental health and wellness programs identified in 2014 and 2015.