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Arctic Yearbook 2013
Dingman
The purpose of this article is to challenge customary modes of environmental knowledge rationale
that are embedded in a scientifically driven Western society to demonstrate that Arctic indigenous
peoples possess invaluable knowledge that significantly shifts the conventional manner of knowing.
Inuit accounts of environmental change are already influencing perceptions of environmental
change in scientific and institutional frameworks. Indeed, increasing collaboration between Western
scientists and indigenous researchers demonstrate that the gap between TK and Western scientific
knowledge is narrowing. In addition, I will show how Arctic indigenous peoples have adopted new
media technologies to bypass mediated accounts of indigenous knowledge. Increasingly, people far
and wide have local stories to tell which through the power of new media has the capacity to bring
many cultures into one place. Together this suggests an opening of pathways through which Arctic
indigenous knowledge gains a wider audience.
This article will primarily focus on Inuit as a growing constituency of activists who are infusing the
climate change discourse with compelling primary knowledge. However, I wish to acknowledge that
indigenous peoples from across the Arctic region are also engaged participants in the environmental
and political activities of the region.
Storytelling: How Narratives Enhance Meaningful Coexistence
Because I heard storytelling from my grandmother I received the strength to live and survive. If there were no stories to
go by, to survive or to learn to hunt and live, there would be nothing to learn from. My grandmother also gave me the
gift of storytelling.
- Eli Kimaliardjuk from Chesterfield Inlet (
Kiviuk‘s Journey
)
Although an inherent tension seems to exist between the narratives of indigenous knowledge and
western scientific philosophies, throughout society at-large narrative has made an ―astonishing
comeback‖ (Hinchman & Hinchman, 2001: xiv) as a legitimate expression of truth. In non-
indigenous ‗modern‘ societies, disenchantment with grand narratives that were thought to furnish a
universal ‗truth‘ are found not to provide salience and context in the public imagination (Lejano
(n.d); Hinchman & Hinchman, 2001: xiii). Likewise, polar scientists and decision makers
increasingly see indigenous knowledge as a ‗legitimate‘ form of knowledge providing context that
meta-narratives cannot. Lejano et al explain: ―Rather than be seen as an inferior form of knowledge,
these narratives instead display a rich integration of multiple ways of knowing – including scientific,
normative, and cultural dimensions‖ (Lejano, n.d.: 1).
To understand the significance of indigenous storytelling we must first take a brief look at narrative
analysis. From the perspective of Western societies, modernity sought to define society through a
universalist narrative which was thought to ―furnish legitimacy and social cohesion‖ far and wide
(Hinchman & Hinchman, 2001: xiii). This philosophy privileges the scientifically-driven meta-
narrative as the legitimate source of ‗truth‘, largely discrediting the local narrative as insignificant to
the endeavor of Western knowledge creation.
Postmodern theorists such as Michel Foucault sought to deconstruct these assumptions of ‗truth‘ by
arguing that there is no one true view or interpretation of the world. Notably, Foucault addressed
the relationship between power and knowledge, neither of which could be disassociated from the