TRACES (Tracking Long-Term Resilience in Arctic Sociocultural-Ecological Systems) is a five-year (2024-29), interdisciplinary research project focused on better understanding the nuanced and often-fraught relationship between Western-scientific understandings of conservation and ecological sustainability, and traditional Inuit ecological knowledge about environmental health and time-honored relationships with nonhuman animals. Our focus community is Igloolik (Iglulik / ᐃᒡᓗᓕᒃ / 'Place with a house'; pop. approx. 2049ᵃ) in the Amittuq (ᐊᒥᑦᑐᕐᒃ / 'It is narrow'), or northern Foxe Basin, region of Nunavut, Inuit Nunangat (ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓄᓇᖓᑦ / 'The places where Inuit live'), the traditional Inuit territories of what is now Canada. 

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For centuries, Amittuq residents (Amitturmiut / ᐊᒥᑦᑐᕐᒥᐅᑦ) have relied on Inuit cultural knowledge (Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit / ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᑐᖃᖏᑦ) to successfully harvest a wide variety of animal species--on land and sea, and in local lakes and rivers. While Amitturmiut continue honor such knowledge, they must also navigate a range of regulations on harvesting formulated largely through a non-Indigenous lens.

TRACES seeks to contribute to the discussion by bridging knowledge about past and present subsistence harvesting across Amittuq. Working alongside Iglulingmiut knowledge- and rights-holders, the research team, based at the Arctic Centre of the University of Groningen, will document modern Inuit subsistence harvesting out of Igloolik, past harvesting practices in the region (through archaeological survey and modeling), traditional knowledge about human/nonhuman-animal relationships across Inuit Nunangat, and the contemporary legal/regulatory frameworks Inuit must navigate when harvesting today.

TRACES is funded through a European Research Council Starting Grant (ERC-StG no. 101116504).