6 min read.
By Cléa Frapin, Conservation and Monitoring Biologist – Northern Canada and Thomas Gianoli, Biologist, Bird Monitoring – Northern Canada
A vast expanse of nature, the sound of the tide rising and falling in Ungava Bay, birds singing, seals poking their heads above the water, Polar Bear tracks, and in the midst of it all, the laughter of young Inuits playing Happy Salmon. Against this stunning northern backdrop, we introduced the youths from Kangiqsualujjuaq to bird biology and monitoring techniques during a landcamp in Nunavik.
The Imalirijiit Project
It all began at the northern retreat organized by the Institut nordique du Québec in the fall of 2024, when José Gérin-Lajoie presented the Imalirijiit community environmental monitoring project. Imalirijiit means “T…
6 min read.
By Cléa Frapin, Conservation and Monitoring Biologist – Northern Canada and Thomas Gianoli, Biologist, Bird Monitoring – Northern Canada
A vast expanse of nature, the sound of the tide rising and falling in Ungava Bay, birds singing, seals poking their heads above the water, Polar Bear tracks, and in the midst of it all, the laughter of young Inuits playing Happy Salmon. Against this stunning northern backdrop, we introduced the youths from Kangiqsualujjuaq to bird biology and monitoring techniques during a landcamp in Nunavik.
The Imalirijiit Project
It all began at the northern retreat organized by the Institut nordique du Québec in the fall of 2024, when José Gérin-Lajoie presented the Imalirijiit community environmental monitoring project. Imalirijiit means “Those who study water” in Inuktitut, a name given by young people during the first camp in the territory. This is a joint initiative between the Inuit community of Kangiqsualujjuaq and scientists from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), who wanted to monitor the environment of the George River. Kangiqsualujjuaq is located in Nunavik (Northern Quebec) southeast of Ungava bay, at the mouth of the George River, which flows from south to north on 565 kilometers. The community was, and remains, concerned about the impacts of the development of a rare earth mining project, which began around 2010 in the upper George River watershed, on the border with Labrador. The Inuit community of Kangiqsualujjuaq, which is highly dependent on the resources of these waters, wishes to carry out environmental monitoring in collaboration with scientists in order to establish its own baseline and track the potential impacts of the mine on the George River ecosystem.