Bridging New Technologies with Traditional Knowledge
With ice melting in the Arctic, Indigenous communities that must traverse this landscape for hunting, fishing, and transport face increasingly dangerous situations. Our three-year, $500,000 grant supports SmartICE as they provide real-time ice information to help Inuit communities in Canada plan safe travel across increasingly unpredictable sea ice. This effort includes training Inuit youth for employment as “ice mappers” in their home communities. Under their grant from CJRF, SmartICE will create a culturally appropriate training curriculum to enable these young people to interpret radar satellite imagery and make travel hazard maps.
Profile
Grant:
2019: $500,000
CJRF Region:
Arctic
Issue Area:
Sustainable Livelihoods
Why SmartICE?
Youth will have the opportunity to strengthen their Inuit language, culture, and knowledge, while also co-designing adaptation solutions for their communities. SmartICE is creatively investing in a local, high-tech livelihood that also supports traditional knowledge, food systems, and lifeways. SmartICE provides access to climate change adaptation tools that provide invaluable, data-driven insights into sea-ice thickness and local ice conditions. In combination with Inuit sea ice knowledge, it can assist in empowering communities to make informed decisions focusing on safety.
Photo courtesy of SmartICE.