M - O
type: Concept

NORMA
type: Concept
in scheme: projects
definition: Short Title: Northern Material Culture, Then and Now (NORMA) Project URL: http://nsidc.org/eloka/partners.html Proposal URL: http://classic.ipy.org/development/eoi/proposal-details.php?id=201 Perhaps the most lasting product of the scientific output from the 1st International Polar Year (IPY) are the encyclopaedic ethnological reports resulting from expeditions to Pt. Barrow, Alaska and Fort Chimo in the Ungava District (now northern Quebec). Together, John Murdoch's Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition (1892) and Turner's Ethnology of the Ungava District (1894) form the intellectual bedrock of northern native studies in their respected regions. These publications are likely the only research results from the original IPY which still are consulted routinely by researchers. The volumes have limitations as ethnological studies; they provide a comprehensive and valuable review of the material culture of Barrow's Inupiat residents and the Inuit and Innu of the Quebec-Labrador peninsula at the time of the first IPY. Both books are highly regarded by contemporary northern native community members across Alaska's North Slope and throughout the Eastern Canadian Arctic. We propose a modern version of these ethnological collecting projects. Using the categories developed by Murdoch and Turner, with a few additions (e.g. communications equipment, navigation devices), the project will document modern equivalents of the items Murdoch collected, how they are manufactured or obtained, and their uses. Photographic (digital) and written documentation will require modest expenditures. It is possible that much of the documentation can be accomplished as part of the school curriculum, involving students with Elders, or as part of a summer/after school program. It could also provide excellent material for science fair projects. A number of educators have expressed interest in incorporating the data collection process into broader educational endeavours. This idea builds o…