Dr. James Ford, PI and three IHACC team members were recently interviewed on the health impacts of global climate change on indigenous peoples. The show aired on Montreal community radio station CKUT 90.3 FM on October 25.
October 25, 2011: What are the health impacts of global climate change on indigenous peoples? The Indigenous Health Adaptations to Climate Change research project (IHACC) has been working with indigenous communities in Peru, Uganda and the Canadian Arctic to try and find out. This week we chat with Dr. James Ford, one of the project's principal investigators, to learn more about the project. We also hear from some of his lab members, Will Vanderbelt, Mya Sherman, and Marie-Pierre Lardeau, as they discuss the project's goals and elaborate on their findings.
In particular, we find out how adaptable indigenous communities really are, largely due to their traditional knowledge, and we learn how essential it will be for this knowledge to be passed on despite challenges in changing climate, technology, and economic contexts. This type of research is not only essential for helping indigenous groups adapt to climate change, but can also hold lessons for other groups as we all attempt to enhance our capacity to cope.
The IHACC project's main aims and study areas were recently profiled in a 'notebook' article in New Scientist magazine. The article ran in the September issue, and is available online on the magazine's website.
PhotoVoice (PV) is participatory research tool designed to empower marginalized communities to share their knowledge through the visual medium of photography. PV aims to:
Enable people to record and reflect community strengths and concerns;
Promote critical dialogue;
Reach policymakers.
How is PhotoVoice used?
Photo voice is applied in four steps:
An initial workshop presents the methodology, discusses ethics in research with community members, and trains them in the use digital cameras.
Trainees become co-researchers in the project and are asked to document a specific issue. The IHACC pilot projects asked participants to answer the question “How does the environment affect your health?” They were given 2-3 days to take pictures.
Participants meet with researchers to sort through pictures and select 2-3 key photographs that most reflect the question
Finally, a closing group workshop allows for reflection on and discussion of photographs and their meanings. Participants are then asked to contextualize and codify photographs.
Why use PhotoVoice?
PV was used in IHACC pilot study because it is a method that allows communities to actively engage in research and define priorities. Participants take ownership of the research and have the time to tailor their participation into their daily schedule, recording issues throughout their daily activities. For example, IHACC pilot study participants would take their cameras to their fields and on their fishing boats. Unlike most participatory methodologies, PV does not require long workshops where participants are made to think and reflect on their lives on the spot. PV allows participants to take their time to consider the research questions, think about what they want to communicate to the research team and policy makers, before coming back to the group for discussion. Consequently, PV is a means for the community to talk about issues that might otherwise be left unheard. During pilot research, PV emerged as particularly useful for documenting the importance of traditional medicines and approaches to health, and effective for oral cultures with their focus on narrative, context, stories, and sharing.
Use in the main project
PV methodologies will be further used and developed during the IHACC program. In particular, participants will be given cameras for a longer period of time to capture seasonality in health risks, document variation in adaptive mechanisms over time and by risk, and highlight opportunities for adaptation. The use of PV for surveillance and monitoring will also be explored.
Results from each of the photovoice workshops can be found below - In order to view the quotations, click the play button on each slideshow, and select ' show info' from the top of the flickr menu bar.
