Rigolet, Nunatsiavut

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Year(s) Funded: 2009-2010, 2010-2011
Topic Area: Knowledge Sharing / EducationSarah Blake, Town Manager, Rigolet Inuit Community Government (townofrigolet@yahoo.com)
Ashlee Cunsolo Willox, Labrador Institute (ashlee.cunsolo@mun.ca)
Sherilee Harper, University of Guelph (harpers@uoguelph.ca)
Victoria Edge, Public Health Agency of Canada (victoria.edge@phac-aspc.gc.ca)
Partners: Rigolet Inuit Community Government, My Word – Digital PhotoVoice Lab, University of Guelph, Public Health Agency of Canada
Title:
  • Changing Climate, Changing Health, and Changing Stories: a capacity development approach to community-based participatory health research in Nunatsiavut, Canada
  • Changing Climate, Changing Health, Changing Stories 2: uniting Nunatsiavut Youth and Elders through stories, community-based research, and wisdom

Action:  Believing in the importance of taking control of the research process and of ensuring that the community is prepared to meet the challenges of a changing climate and environment, Rigolet has been very proactive with research projects. These two projects are dedicated to piloting the use of digital storytelling as a health data-gathering strategy, a health communication platform, and a capacity-building approach, and combined this technology with qualitative methods (in-depth interviews, surveys, focus groups, PhotoVoice).

In addition, this project also established Canada’s first Inuit-run centre for research and multi-media methods: the ‘My Word:’ Storytelling and Digital Media Lab. This community-run lab has Macbooks, digital cameras, digital video cameras, a Mac computer, iPads, and all the required editing and media technology. This equipment is not only available to community members in Rigolet, the ‘My Word’ Lab is also able to travel to other communities to conduct digital storytelling workshops, train other communities in digital storytelling techniques, conduct research, and train others in research design and delivery.

Results:Community capacity building and training in research, technological, story creation, and facilitation skills has been the cornerstone of the Changing Climate project from its creation. Since the project started in 2009, it has provided training opportunities to community members in a number of areas:
  • Training in computer technology, editing, and story design and creation through the digital storytelling workshops;
  • Training in photography skills, digital camera usage, and photograph composition and style;
  • Training in research assistantship;
  • In-depth training in facilitation, workshop planning, digital storytelling and PhotoVoice, counseling referrals and self-care, working with people, professional writing, presentation skills, and business skills.
In addition, community members from all ages and backgrounds had the opportunity to share stories and listen to the stories of others. This sharing of wisdom through stories and between generations is essential to providing the opportunity for land-based knowledge to be shared, celebrated, remembered, and mobilized in the current time.
This project was conducted by a transdisciplinary team of Inuit and non-Inuit researchers from a variety of backgrounds and training, which further enhanced the effectiveness of the project and the overall results, and the relationship between the project and the community.

Outputs: Multiple outputs have been created including: 35 digital stories; Two DVDs of stories; a photo book and a calendar created to highlight the photographs; two websites created to share the stories: Facebook page and YouTube channel; and journal articles written.

Additional Resources & Publications

https://www.youtube.com/user/uKautsiga
http://www.townofrigolet.com/home/my_word.htm
http://www.townofrigolet.com/home/stories.htm
https://www.infona.pl/resource/bwmeta1.element.elsevier-86f69ff7-b6e3-3e30-9e22-46f030ba4e21