USING HARVEST RESEARCH IN NUNAVUT - AN EXAMPLE FROM HALL BEACH

In the last several years, many Inuit and more than a few non-Native n ortherners have expressed increasingly negative opinions about the uti lity of scientific research conducted in Nunavut.(1) One genre, Native harvest studies, has received particularly intense criticism from sci entists, northerners, and government as frequently esoteric, and even in conflict with the needs of Inuit. This is partially because: (1) mu ch recent harvesting research has come to be perceived by Inuit as a t ool for wildlife management and, by extension, for the control of harv esters; (2) creative application of the already extensive harvesting d ata base for Nunavut is hampered by the ''memory failure'' of institut ions responsible for the curation of this information. This paper desc ribes a case in which harvesting and dietary research contributed to a satisfactory settlement from the Northwest Territories Workers Compen sation Board far a group of Hall Beach hunters injured during hunting. Drawing on this incident, I submit that the evolving ecological, soci oeconomic, and political environment of Nunavut may see more problem a reas which are best approached through ''curiosity,'' rather than ''ad vocacy,'' research.