Stewardship of the Land, Water and Ice: Implications for STEM Educational Opportunities In and Outside of the Classroom in Nunavik

Knowing the land, the environment and stories tied to it are ways of life for Inuit, deeply grounded in and emergent from a holistic vision of the world. Naturally, stewardship of the land, water and ice are integral to ways of knowing and being Inuit. Yet, that expert knowledge is rarely valued as science and often treated as complementary to Western science. It has led to calls for new research practices and policies to overcome capacity-building as a one-way street. In this paper, we offer three examples of truly collaborative work driven by local needs identified and assumed by Inuit and their community. We begin an environmental monitoring project pursued by youth and young adults that led to the monitoring of the health of local food sources and “creation” of food through a local greenhouse project in Arviat. We then document the expanded leadership to study water quality project in Pond Inlet, Nunavut. The third case illustrates a place-based science curriculum that has evolved from stewardship projects by the Arctic Eider Society in Sanikiluaq, Nunavut. The three cases offer important educational implications for STEM Education in Inuit Nunangat with a commitment to Inuit science and decolonisation.