Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Traditional wild foods are fundamental to Inuit health and food security, and Inuit communities are experiencing new challenges to accessing these foods due to climate change and complex social and economic changes. Focusing on the community of Rigolet, Nunatsiavut, Labrador, this presentation will explore the viability of Inuit food sharing networks as a means of addressing food security issues. The objectives of this research project are, (1) to document and characterize common sources of food within Rigolet, (2) to track the movement of food within the community and between households, (3) to identify factors that facilitate or detract from the movement of food, and (4) to determine whether sharing networks function differently in times of stress. This research that will be presented is part of two on-going projects; the Inuit Health Adaptation to Climate Change project and the Inuit Traditional Knowledge for Adapting to the Health Effects of Climate Change project projects, which are currently being conducted in Rigolet in partnership with the Rigolet Inuit Community Government. The project is being conducted within a participatory research framework that seeks to ensure that the research methods and results are in cohesion with the experience and knowledge of Rigolet as a community. The participatory methods include semi-structured interviews, card sorts, and eight weeks of house visits with partner households to maintain a detailed inventory of foods within these households.