Contemporary dynamics of rapid social change have dramatically affected the political, cultural, and economic systems of circumpolar Indigenous people. In line with three of the International Polar Year (IPY) priority areas, this project intends to (1) increase international collaboration between circumpolar institutions, (2) leave a legacy of infrastructure and data, and (3) increase Indigenous capacity for research and action. The Pathways study is a comparative, collaborative, and participatory circumpolar research project. Its aims are to explore responses to rapid social transition through the life experiences of circumpolar youth. The proposed study will examine 80 youth life history narratives. These narratives will come from an Alaska Inupiat, Alaska Yup?ik, Canadian Inuit, and Siberian Eveny community. In addition, the research team is developing collaborations using additional funding sources to examine the narratives of an additional 40 youth from a Norwegian Samì and Greenlandic community. In this study, the team intends to identify shared and divergent stressors and patterns of resilience in the transition to adulthood across these different circumpolar settings. Youth resilience is defined as the ability to overcome acute and on-going difficulties in the pathway to adulthood. The investigators seek to identify cultural strategies and resources that characterize resiliency across two age groups, ages 11-14 and 15-18, and across gender.
The impact of a shared colonial history and contemporary social suffering among indigenous communities in the Arctic has been extensively documented through decades of Arctic social science research. The issue of healthy adaptation and resilience among Indigenous youth has not been adequately considered, leaving developmental trajectories of healthy adaptation and resilience relatively unexplored. This research aims to build on Indigenous categories to describe the social experiences and resources shaping culturally patterned resilience strategies of young people responding to challenges distinct from those of their parents and grandparents. This will provide insights into the family, community, and cultural contexts that support healthy youth development, and identify key ingredients to successful prevention and intervention health strategies for Indigenous young people. Study across six circumpolar communities will also provide unprecedented insights into the effect of diverse social, political, cultural, and economic systems on youth development, and inform effective social policy for circumpolar youth.
This project builds on and sustains long-term participatory research relationships between local community institutions, community co-researchers, and a multidisciplinary team of international university researchers. Indigenous community co-researcher involvement and direction is emphasized throughout all phases of this project, whose aims respond to strong local interest in youth resilience and wellbeing. Development of interview schedules, data collection procedures, and the analysis will be in collaboration with Local Steering Committees (LSC) to ensure their cultural grounding. A representative from each LSC will be actively involved in the cross-site work through membership in an international Circumpolar Steering Committee. Dissemination with communities and regional Indigenous organizations will contribute to a developing network of circumpolar communities engaged in suicide prevention, promotion of collective wellbeing, and development of a circumpolar Indigenous identity. The study will also establish tracking procedures, participatory research infrastructure, and international circumpolar collaboration for future longitudinal, prospective study of safe passage into adulthood.
Due to rapid social change, Inupiaq youth are experiencing challenges of growing up in a world much different from that of their parents and their grandparents. Over the last two generations, this growing up process has changed significantly, forcing many young Inupiaq people to learn as they go. These youth are oftentimes left to come up with new ways for dealing with everyday problems and significant challenges, while figuring out how to find and take advantage of opportunities that were not available to their elders. Youth resilience is defined as the process of overcoming acute and on-going difficulties in the pathway to adulthood. Our research identifies cultural strategies and resources that shape resilience for older and younger (ages 11-14 and 15-18) Inupiaq boys and girls. We focused on young people who seemed to have many resilience strategies in their stories as a way to see more clearly what seemed to be working well in getting young people through hard times. In our study, participants are largely self-reliant, seeking out resources, relationships, and opportunities to participate in ways that let them demonstrate responsibility, independence, and connections to their communities. Young people weave together traditional Inupiaq lifestyles and expectations with available resources by 1) developing and maintaining relationships with others, 2) taking responsibility for themselves and others, 3) creating systems of reciprocity (and availability) to share both burdens and gains, 4) continuing to practice subsistence living, and 5) giving back to their families and community. In these processes, youth are gaining skills and knowledge, contributing to their communities in meaningful ways, and are thereby, developing their sense of competency, mastery, and ultimately, their self-reliance. Findings from this study show that conventional youth development programs that focus on educating or increasing "life skills" may not be appropriate for promoting resilience. We identify specific ways that young people’s resilience strategies can be encouraged across settings in this community. Inupiaq youth are competent, capable, and self-reliant. Youth development programs that provide them opportunities to do things for themselves, giving them relevant and important responsibilities, will encourage them to practice new skills and gain a sense of personal and community recognition. In this way, youth are contributing to the community in ways decided by them, with people identified by them as helpful. Youth participants actively reshape culture to fit their lives. Girls think about adulthood and culture broadly, participating in non-traditional roles (e.g., hunting) or seeking out ways to give back to the community (e.g., teaching photography or painting)—the girls are redefining the Inupiaq values of giving back. Boys, on the other hand, think about adulthood and culture more rigidly, sticking to more traditional cultural roles. Youth programing that focuses on providing support between youth and elders (particularly males) to incorporate cultural values in daily life will teach youth how to be successful, modern Inupiaq. Young people’s identities and strategies of resilience are developed around building and maintaining relationships with others. These relationships are not only cherished, but they provide a platform for building reciprocal relations, for trying out new ways to be in the world, and for feeling that they matter to others. Youth programming efforts should encourage young people to not only seek out and engage in connecting with others, but also allow them to be in charge of that process. Another important implication around relationships with others focuses on emotional and material support. Youth felt that when given options (through support from others), they could make decisions on how to handle their problems. Youth development programs should promote guidance from adults, while encouraging young people to be in charge of making decisions on how to effectively handle their problems. This room for self-reliance reinforces their feelings about being strong and capable young people—an important resilience strategy. As youth near adulthood, several felt unprepared and worried about the responsibilities associated with adulthood. Young people will be better prepared to navigate their pathways to adulthood when they are encouraged through social engagement, honest reflection, and healthy ways to grow up. Teaching young people that growing up is a process (rather than an endpoint) will help them realize that adulthood is a continued space where the skills, values, and competencies they are learning now are valued, necessary, and reciprocal. Growing up involved competing interests (Upward bound, sports, peer engagements), which became more pronounced as teenagers, and sometimes replaced time spent at camp or doing subsistence activities. Yet, young people described being better people, acting more responsible and less petty by ‘doing culture’ and being cultural on the land. Youth development that centers around subsistence and cultural activities along the entire pathway to adulthood will allow for meaningful engagement and fulfillment (promoting wellbeing, strength, survival, and continuity with one’s heritage); and young people won’t feel that they can participate in cultural activities during early childhood only.
