Community Engagement

Community engagement

This page provides information that will help with the logistics of community engagement. Ideally, research conducted within the Gwich’in Settlement Area should be designed to benefit the people who live here. Please see our Research Advice page for suggestions on how to meaningfully work with communities.

Renewable Resources Councils

Each community within the Gwich’in Settlement Area has a Renewable Resources Council (RRC) which oversees conservation, research and wildlife management within their region. They may be able to assist if you have questions about logistics or the landscape and wildlife in their area. They can also help you communicate information to their communities. Their contact details are here.

In the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (map), each community has a Hunters and Trappers Committee (HTC) which fulfills a similar role to the RRCs. Their contact information can be found here. Note that Inuvik and Aklavik each have an RRC and an HTC.

Hiring Locals

If a field assistant or wildlife monitor is needed, we encourage you to hire someone from the local communities. Employing locals helps to ensure that the people of the Gwich’in Settlement Area benefit from your presence through skills transfer, work experience and job creation. It also benefits your project by giving you access to the detailed knowledge of the land, wildlife, and weather that local people possess. The Renewable Resources Councils may be able to assist with the hiring process.

John Carmichael of Aklavik worked as a Char monitor for decades and mentored countless youth.
John Carmichael of Aklavik worked as a Char monitor for decades and mentored countless youth.
Wildlife monitor Jason Blake McLeod watches for bears while the rest of the team conducts field work near Tsiigehtchic.
Wildlife monitor Jason Blake McLeod watches for bears while the rest of the team conducts field work near Tsiigehtchic.

Sharing Research Results

The Gwich’in Renewable Resources Board would appreciate a copy of your final results (reviews@grrb.nt.ca). There is limited data available from the Gwich’in Settlement Area, so any information you can provide would be helpful to our biologists.

We also encourage you to communicate the results of your work to the local communities. Please consider sending a plain language summary of any findings to the Renewable Resources Councils.

The Aurora Research Institute in Inuvik runs a speaker series where researchers are invited to present their work. For more information, please contact their Communications and Research Admin Coordinator, Amanda Chaulk, at Amanda.Chaulk@auroracollege.nt.ca.

We encourage you to upload your data products to the NWT Discovery Portal to make them more accessible to other northern researchers.