Relationships between cost of hunting and fishing with sharing practices in the Arctic community of Gjoa Haven, Nunavut - Jacqueline Chapman & Stephan Schott

The transition to a wage-based, commodity driven economy has altered the traditional sharing of country food practiced in many Northern communities, yet the degree of impact is relatively unknown. At the same time, response to food insecurity often identifies increasing commercialization of natural resources such as fisheries or the trading of country food as a solution. The trading of traditionally shared foods may not benefit everyone in the community, and decreased sharing may negatively impact vulnerable households that historically received food through the sharing networks. Sharing behaviour may also be linked to spatiotemporal variation in the availability of harvested species. Using a multi-year harvest study paired with socioeconomic profiling and trip-by-trip cost analysis, this paper strives to identify the direct and indirect costs associated with harvesting country food, socioeconomic barriers to harvest, seasonal trends in harvesting, and how these factors interact to influence sharing behaviour. We investigate the costs and benefits of hunting and fishing efforts and the relationship between employment and harvest and sharing practices. We examine the distribution of country food with other households in terms of sharing and selling, and how sharing varies by season, type of hunter and mode of transport (snowmobile, boat and ATV).