Nunami Sukuijainiq “Science on the Land”: Building a community-based environmental monitoring and science education program in Nunavik - José Gérin-Lajoie

This roundtable discussion will focus on the Imalirijiit (“those who study water”) and Nunami Sukuijainiq (“Science on the Land”) programs, which are land-based and hands-on science education programs for youth in Nunavik. These comprehensive programs successfully combine long-term environmental monitoring with science education and empowerment for youth through the organisation of science camps “on the land”. Camps focus on issues of importance to both researchers and community members, including water quality, edible marine and freshwater resources, country food quality, winter ecology and Inuit Knowledge. Meaningful involvement of researchers, youth, Elders and local community members during the camps has allowed for strong relationship-building, as well as intergenerational and intercultural knowledge transfer. These programs also focus on the complementarity between local and scientific knowledge, for a better understanding of arctic ecosystems. This roundtable will bring together key participants from these two programs to discuss benefits and challenges of the science land camp approach. The roundtable will open with a slideshow presentation and short description of the programs given by the chair (10 minutes). The chair will then ask the roundtable participants a series of open-ended questions to invite a meaningful discussion from different perspectives on community-based environmental monitoring, science education, collaborative research/data collection, communication and relationship building between community members and researchers (1 hour). The roundtable discussion will finish with an audience question period (20 minutes) which would make for 1.5 hours total for the activity.