Final Report of the Inuit Bowhead Knowledge Study, Nunavut, Canada.

Abstract

As mandated by the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement of 1993, Inuit knowledge of bowhead whales in Nunavut, Canada was collected by means of 257 individual interviews with 252 Inuit hunters and elders in 18 communities during 1995 and 1996. During 1996 and 1997, follow-up workshops were held in eight of these communities where bowheads appear to be most numerous and seasonally predictable in their occurrence. The interviews and workshops were tape-recorded and were of an informal and semi-directive nature, with trained community interviewers and workshop facilitators employing questionnaires or an agenda consisting of open-ended questions or specific topics. We sought information from interviewees and workshop participants on bowhead whale distribution and migrations, changes in frequency of sightings and distribution since about 1915, behaviour and ecology, and the cultural and traditional importance of the bowhead whale to Inuit. Information on Inuit hunting and Euro-American commercial whaling of bowheads was also collected. We analysed the transcripts of 175 translated interviews and the eight workshops to produce a compendium of informants’ quotations pertaining to 1) Population Ecology of Bowheads and 2) Cultural and Traditional Importance of Bowheads to Inuit. Quotations or parts thereof were then catalogued within a detailed topical framework comprising these two main topics. This topical framework of quotations formed the basis for further analysis and the structure of this report. Inuit testimony indicated that the number of bowhead whales seasonally occurring in the marine waters of Nunavut has increased significantly in recent decades, generally since the 1950s, 1960s, or 1970s, with the reported years and extent of increase varying among communities and among different informants from the same community. Informants documented the cultural and traditional importance of bowhead whales and whaling for the Inuit of Nunavut, and many argued on cultural and societal grounds for the renewal and re-vitalization of the bowhead hunt.