2022 TD Walter Bean High School Lecture

View on YouTube

The Meaning of Ice: Co-production of knowledge and community action in a changing Arctic

What does ice mean to different people? How can linking different ways of knowing about ice add to our understanding about the Arctic, and how it is changing? What does this mean for the rest of the world and our sustainable future? Dr. Shari Fox addressed these and other questions in a lecture that explored sea ice and the changing Arctic environment through community-led research, harvesting, photography, science, art, and more. She was joined by her colleague, friend, and photographer Robert Kautuk, whose photography exhibition accompanied this year’s lecture.

About our 2022 TD Walter Bean Professor
Shari Fox

Dr. Shari Fox is a Senior Research Scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder and the Director of the Ittaq Heritage and Research Centre in Clyde River, Nunavut. For over 25 years, Shari has been working alongside Inuit on collaborative environmental research and action in the Arctic. She is dedicated to research that centres Inuit knowledge and together with Inuit, works on many local to international-scale research initiatives. A decade-long project she co-led with a team of Inuit, “The Meaning of Ice”, won the 2018 inaugural International Mohn Prize for, “outstanding research related to the Arctic”. She was named an International PEW Fellow in 2019, has been a leader in several national and international climate assessments, and was shortlisted for the 2022 Shackleton Medal “in recognition of her work linking Indigenous and scientific knowledge systems”. Dr. Fox holds bachelor and Masters degrees from the University of Waterloo, a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado Boulder, and completed a postdoc at Harvard University.

About our 2022 TD Walter Bean Artist
Robert Kautuk

Robert Kautuk is a photographer based in Kangiqtugaapik (Clyde River), NU who uses drones and Digital SLR cameras to document stunning views of his community in the Canadian Arctic. Kautuk’s use of technology provides a special look at rarely seen moments, activities and landscapes that are not accessible or possible to capture using conventional cameras. In addition to his own practice, Kautuk is also a regular contributor to Nunatsiaq News. He works in IT for the Ittaq Heritage and Research Centre and is a noted contributor to northern mapping projects. Through Ittaq, he also actively partakes in knowledge sharing initiatives, including Picturing Arctic Moder-nity: North Baffin Drawings from 1964 (co-organized between the Agnes Etherington and the Canadian Museum of History, 2017), an exhibition and accompanying website with interviews and video clips that underscore the importance of cultural heritage to contemporary Inuit communities. Kautuk has been featured in many publications including Inuit Art Quarterly and their guide on photography called Views from the North (Art Toronto, 2018), as well as in Up Here, and Above&Beyond.