Nunavut: An Inuit Approach to Wildlife Management
10:00 a.m., Monday, Nov. 9, 2009
Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall
Admission: free

With the formation of Nunavut in 1999, an Indigenous-dominated territory comprising nearly one-fifth of the landmass of Canada, the Inuit of Canada’s high arctic began to take control over their land and natural resources. Nunavut Territory was a product of modern treaty negotiations between Inuit and Canada’s federal government to resolve Indigenous land ownership throughout the vast territory. With the birth of the new territory, Inuit began to revise how natural resources, such as wildlife, are managed. This presentation will explore how Inuit concepts are being incorporated into the wildlife management regime of Nunavut Territory in collaboration with Canada’s federal government.

Dr. Jay T. Johnson is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Kansas. Originally from Kansas City, Kan., and of Munsee Delaware and Western Cherokee descent, Dr. Johnson teaches cultural geography and Indigenous Nations studies courses. His current research interests concern the broad area of Indigenous peoples’ cultural survival with specific regard to the areas of resource management, political activism at the national and international levels, and the philosophies and politics of place which underpin the drive for cultural survival. Much of his work is comparative in nature but focuses predominately on New Zealand and North America.