Nunavut PhD student wins award for research that blends Inuit knowledge and western science - Action News
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Nunavut PhD student wins award for research that blends Inuit knowledge and western science

"It's great to look at a question youre thinking about from different angles. Who better to ask than the local hunters, harvesters and elders? asks researcher Enooyaq Sudlovenick.

Enooyaq Sudlovenick won the Weston Family Award in Northern Research

Enooyaq Sudlovenick is studying belugas in Nunavut and Northwest Territories, not far from where she grew up surrounded by Arctic wildlife. (Science World)

A PhD student has received a prestigious award for her work studying belugas in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Enooyaq Sudlovenick, who was raised on Baffin Island, Nunavut, is one of the 2021 recipients of the Weston Family Award in Northern Research.

Sudlovenick, who studies at the University of Manitoba, looks in-depth at the health of beluga populations through the lenses of both Inuit knowledge, or Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, and western science.

Incorporating both perspectives "just makes for a better project overall," she told guest host Cory Chibry on CBC Radio's Northwind.

"It's great to look at a question you're thinking about from different angles. Who better to ask than the local hunters, harvesters and elders?" she said.

As she's progressed through her studies, Sudlovenick has found herself drawn again and again to the Arctic marine animals she came to know as a child, researching Arctic char, followed by ringed seals, and now belugas.

Sudlovenick is going in-depth on beluga health by speaking to Inuit harvesters, hunters and elders, as well as by looking at metrics like contaminant loads and disease exposure levels. (The Canadian Press)

"All the animals I've worked on are important to Inuit," she said. "I grew up fishing, I grew up hunting seals and even beluga hunting in the bay here."

She says that with climate changeposing a new threat to wildlife populations, "we need to know how they're doing."

With files from Cory Chibry