Collaborative Research: Using Visual Methods to Engage Indigenous Youth and Community Members in Cross-Site, International Analysis: A Methodological Study

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The proposed five-site data analysis meeting will actively engage community members in international and cross-site analysis of data generated through the National Science Foundation Circumpolar Indigenous Pathways to Adulthood (CIPA) study. Approximately 150 Indigenous people from Siberia, Norway, Canada and Alaska have been actively guiding this International Polar Year study. The current project will further involve some of these youth and elders in cross-site analysis and knowledge production. More specifically, Yupik, Inupiaq, Inuit, Sami and Eveny young people from each participating community will produce digital montages that represent key cross-site findings. Sharing these productions at the cross-site meeting will invite dialogue across communities about key aspects of daily life that are evident (or noticeably absent from) the images. The adult and elder community co-researchers will be able to draw on and reflect upon their own life experiences in relation to the youth montages (and in relation to historic perspectives from older community members) from other communities. Because of the variant pace of social change across the participating communities, this project has an unprecedented opportunity for insight into mechanisms impacting everyday youth resilience?the processes by which they get through difficulties--through the reflections of Sami, Inuit, Yupik, Inupiaq and Eveny elders, adults and youth. We believe this method provides a unique opportunity to engage local people in cross-cultural, cross-national meaning-making. The interdisciplinary research team assembled here brings together investigators from social and medical anthropology, psychology, public health, and education. These diverse perspectives, including those of the indigenous community members?should provide insights into the effect of diverse educational, social, and political policies on the experiences of Indigenous youth as they become adults, and, specifically, into the ways human systems are responding to social transformation in the Arctic. To our knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to utilize visual elicitation techniques to facilitate international, interdisciplinary and community-engaged data analysis.