Professor Frances Abele and members of her research team, (PhD candidates Josh Gladstone and Sheena Kennedy as well as undergraduate journalism student, Teevi Mackay), have partnered with Isuma TV and others on Digital Indigenous Democracy (DID) on a complex project titled Nipivut Nunatinni (Our Voice at Home). It involved the production of radio programs designed to facilitate communication and discussion among residents of Nunavut communities about the economic development decisions they face.
DID employs the internet, community radio, local TV and social media to amplify Inuit traditional decision-making skills and provides necessary information in their language, to enable the conversation and maximize sustainable opportunities.
The first radio program was broadcast on May 2, 2012, and is focused on the Environmental Review of the $6 billion Baffinland Iron Mine (BIM) on north Baffin Island. Inuit consensus will be expressed publicly in a multimedia Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA), looking at the positive and negative impacts of the proposed mine in terms of international human rights standards and best practices and then presented to the regulatory process online through IsumaTV and through local radio and TV channels in all Nunavut communities.
Upcoming episodes will provide an explanation of the Environmental Impact Statement produced by doctoral candidate Josh Gladstone, a report on the socio-economic baseline study of Igloolik by Sheena Kennedy and a planned interview with Tom Berger on the Berger Inquiry by Frances Abele.
More information on DID, Isuma TV with links to the broadcasts is available here: http://www.isuma.tv/lo/fr/did