Eric Oliver connects science and stories
“What does the data mean without the context of the story?”
It’s a question that came out of Dr. Eric Oliver’s recent community-based research in Nunatsiavut, Labrador. The Dalhousie University professor and MEOPAR researcher studies physical oceanography and climate science, working to better understand the changing ocean and how we can predict it.
In 2019, as part of his Community-Based Observing of Nunatsiavut Coastal Ocean Circulation (CONOC) project, Oliver and Dalhousie Ph.D. student Breanna Bishop hosted participatory mapping workshops in the Inuit communities of Hopedale and Rigolet, inviting people to share their traditional knowledge of the ocean and ice. Over multiple sessions, folks got together, kicked off their shoes, got down on their hands and knees and traced their mobility networks on massive 21-foot maps.
“Part of the plan was that the sessions should foster knowledge transfer across generations,” says Oliver, who has roots in Nunatsiavut. “The idea was that most of the people mapping would be older, but we would have the sessions open to everybody so that other people can not necessarily participate but be part of the process and share stories.”
The paths traced and stories collected didn’t just offer a way to validate CONOC’s scientific observations, they presented an opportunity to ensure the research connects with its most relevant audience: the communities themselves.
Now, with the support of MEOPAR’s Knowledge Mobilization Fund, Oliver and Bishop are taking those sprawling maps and the stories they collected in Rigolet and Hopedale, and using them to produce weather-proof travel booklets and larger, more fleshed-out atlases—an idea that came from the research participants. By sharing results in a format that can directly benefit Labrador Inuit, this project aims to both give the community an opportunity to interact with CONOC’s research outputs and support intergenerational knowledge transfer.
