ScIQ: An invitation and recommendations to combine science and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit for meaningful engagement of inuit communities in research

Abstract

Researchers wishing to conduct studies in Nunavut are asked by potential funders and licensing agencies to incorporate Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) and meaningfully engage Inuit communities, but they must usually interpret for themselves what this means and how to do it in practice. As a group of Inuit youth from four Nunavut communities, we have developed a concept we call ScIQ ( pronounced sigh-cue) to describe how science and IQ can be combined for more meaningful engagement to benefit both Inuit communities and scientific researchers. ScIQ is based on the understanding that IQ is not only knowledge that Inuit have gained over many generations; it is more holistic and includes Inuit values, customs and principles for living our lives. Incorporating IQ into research then, should be as much about how research is conducted as it is about data collected from Inuit and local knowledge used to conduct the research. Over a five-day Ikaarvik Youth ScIQ Summit in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, we developed 45 recommendations for specific things researchers can do before, during, and after their research that, from our perspective, are examples of truly incorporating IQ and result in more meaningful engagement of Inuit communities. This paper presents the Ikaarvik ScIQ recommendations.