Niriqatiginnga: Fostering Food Security and Innovation for Northern Supply Chains
Our project project will be presented during the Arctic Congress 2024 in Bodø, Norway.
We are really enjoying our project so far, and will be looking to connect and network with other UArctic member institutions, related programs and researchers who might be interested in some of this work too. We’ll be updating this page a lot, so please check back often for the latest updates.
Establishing Relationship Development and Engagement Activities for the Youth Component of Niriqatiginnga
In October 2023, we held a small workshop to clean up the project web site, re-work some of our content and start scheduling out some of the many events that we will be taking part in 2024. While talking about other programs we’re applying to, we thought this would be a great initiative to look into as well.
Being able to build relationships and engage with programs like the University of the Arctic could give us ideas for our own programming. This is important as we start to explore what our Niriqatiginnga youth entrepreneurship component could look like moving forward as a structured social program.
We are also thinking to submit this to Manitoba Agriculture’s Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Partnership program. Many of the activities we are proposing to do involve supporting initiatives, priorities, and innovative partnerships to enhance relationships with Indigenous peoples. We believe relationship development and engagement activities such as what we’re proposing here could contribute to increasing Indigenous participation and opportunities in Manitoba’s agriculture and agri-food economy, while actively work to address issues of northern food insecurity.
Introduction:
Niriqatiginnga means “come eat with me” in Inuktitut. The project was conceptualized using lessons learned on prior research and has been in an active planning phase since May of 2023. The project will formally launch in November 2023.
We are designing a new program, and we would like to explore potential collaboration with the UArctic, its Thematic Networks and relevant institutions.
The Niriqatiginnga project is new. It will establish a supportive network, connecting participants with mentors and expert researchers (HQPs) in the agriculture and food security sectors. In addition to its core entrepreneurship focus, it will create enhanced opportunities for knowledge sharing and skill development through real-world participatory northern food security and supply chain research.
It will focus on three areas: capacity building, food security and supply chain research and economic reconciliation through creative entrepreneurship.
Niriqatiginnga: Arts, Storytelling and Creative Entrepreneurship Project
This experimental, cross-sectoral arts and creative entrepreneurship initiative is informed by Manitoba Arts Council application 2022-1810 (2023) and 2023-3320. Its primary focus is to provide foundational skills training and professional development for established and emerging Indigenous artists and cultural entrepreneurs. As a community-driven, participatory project, it will partner and collaborate across the arts and culture, academic, private and non-profit sectors.
In May 2023, our team began planning a new cross-sectoral initiative with academia, artists and local cultural entrepreneurs to develop a framework for Indigenous cultural entrepreneurship. This initiative will include sharing best practices for data visualization and data-driven storytelling, supported by research from the Labovitz School of Business and Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth, and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. There will be a session between the groups in November 2023.
In July-August 2023, members of the project team actively consulted and collaborated with Elders, Inuktitut translators, researchers and Winnipeg-based artists to ideate and conceptualize our project’s direction, objectives, and intended outcomes as well as subject material ideas for our proposed Winter 2023-2024 programming.
The primary focus is to promote labor mobility, transferable skills, professional development, and training for arts and creative entrepreneurship. Activities include arts-driven research creation and professional development, alongside development of an online “marketplace” for Indigenous artists and cultural entrepreneurs.
Collaborators will gain experience and valuable insights into arts marketing, events management, project proposal writing and arts/creative sector supply chain dynamics. As a longer-term goal, we will explore opportunities to advance cross-sectoral opportunities for collaboration, and create a plan for organizational development and networking within and beyond the Manitoba arts community.
As artists and cultural connectors, active participation will have a significant impact on artistic development. Collaborating and exchanging knowledge with fellow Indigenous artists, other arts organizations, academics and technology innovators will realize deeper understanding, informing future artistic practices and capability to take on larger, longer-term activities. This project also addresses skills and abilities we have identified as necessary to grow and further develop.
A key focus of our project will see us learning about using data for storytelling. It will also include some basic “financial literacy” for artists. Our programs started small, during the pandemic and are growing. We connected and collaborated with an impressive number of international researchers, artists and events. This new project will focus on activities “closer to home,” engaging local artists and creative sector entrepreneurs while deepening the existing collaborations we have achieved with international partners.
Building on Previously Supported Research and Community Programming
Elements of this program have been piloted and tested over the last three years, on projects supported by the US National Science Foundation, the ArcticNet Network Centre of Excellence, Canada Council for the Arts Digital Greenhouse, Global Dignity Canada, Lembas Works, Live It Earth, Chocolatier Constance Popp, and the Manitoba Arts Council’s Indigenous 360 Program. We also gratefully acknowledge support from the Arctic Buying Company Winnipeg, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design Creative Entrepreneurship Program, the University of Victoria Community Based Research Lab and the Labovitz School of Business and Economics at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
Niriqatiginnga also leverages prior research conducted by the University of Minnesota Duluth, with support from the US National Science Foundation:
EAGER: Collaborative Research: Developing and Testing an Incubator for Digital Entrepreneurship in Remote Communities
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1758814
Award Abstract #1758814 – $139,721.00
This work was led by Dr. Olaf Kuhlke, PhD at the University of Minnesota Duluth from July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2020
Information gained from our consultation and engagement activities can be used to help design and assess the effectiveness of future entrepreneurship training programming tailored to the unique needs of Northern Indigenous communities. Our project will also see involvement and mentorship from Nutrition North Canada suppliers. In collaboration with the broader research team, Niriqatiginnga aims to Identify areas where regulatory changes or policy support could be enhanced.
Niriqatiginnga is being designed as a long-term program fusing career development, creative entrepreneurship skills development with participatory food security research. It will study the impact of mentorship programs that pair experienced Nutrition North Canada and Manitoba food sector entrepreneurs with urban and newly-urban Indigenous youth. Participating youth will gain valuable skills and insights into entrepreneurship and the northern food sector, while working to address issues of northern food insecurity.
This program is designed to advance economic reconciliation, particularly in the context of Indigenous youth and community participation in agriculture and agri-food-related sectoral development, training and research creation. It also involves incubating opportunities for economic empowerment and addressing historical economic disparities through the co-creation of food sector entrepreneurship and community-based, participatory research opportunities.
This project’s impacts are expected to strengthen collaborative networks between academic researchers, non-profit organizations, Indigenous-owned businesses, emerging youth food sector entrepreneurs and community-based research projects. This knowledge will be integrated to prepare Indigenous youth and interested community members to participate in food sector entrepreneurship-related activities in 2024. It will also inform long-term, exploratory conversations on the potential of establishing a program similar to the UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in HIgher Education’s Knowledge for Change (K4C) Hub program.
Community Engagement
Community engagement began May 2023 in Winnipeg, is continuous and ongoing. Using prior participatory and co-designed approaches, the team will consult and engage experts including Highly Qualified Personnel from university entrepreneurship, economics, creative entrepreneurship and supply chain management programs; graduate students (economics, creative entrepreneurship), technology entrepreneurs and northern community researchers, Manitoba Agriculture staff and policy specialists.
In-depth meetings, round table group discussions and informal consultation sessions are actively employed to gather insights and perspectives to maximize our planning, design and development activities. This is to ensure goals and outcomes are realistic, achievable and aligned with the 2021 Parliamentary Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs (INAN) Committee report recommendation to develop social programming components for the Nutrition North Canada program.
As a Winnipeg-based project, Niriqatiginnga prioritizes the inclusion and empowerment of northern and newly-urban young adults, Elders, women, academics & interested community members. For our first year, a team of experienced and aspiring entrepreneurs will engage in targeted relationship building, mentorship, traditional knowledge exchange and learning to access resources. The project will be co-constructed and co-led with the full inclusion of Indigenous youth, women and Elders from Winnipeg and northern communities. It will also incorporate Inuktitut language used by the northern youth.
The project builds on work conducted in 2021 for the ArcticNet Strategy for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. A full record of previous and upcoming engagements for our program can be found here.
Our initial pitch deck for Niriqatiginnga can be found here: https://vimeo.com/828857592
As part of our Winter 2023-2024 program activities, we will be working with our team of northern and southern entrepreneurs, strategists, creative arts sector resources and academic researchers to better understand how pitch decks are created.
Our Niriqatiginnga Project is also building a platform to support communicating and disseminating the results of our community-based work. It can be found at: https://niriqatiginnga.ca
Our most recent project update video can be found here: https://vimeo.com/876160300
Resources and Related Research
Resources and Related Research our program will be using throughout and to design the formal program post-pilot/prototype can be found here:
https://niriqatiginnga.ca/resources/
Anticipated Program Outcomes
Inclusive Partnerships supporting formal and informal adult education: The project will have supported building collaborative partnerships between Indigenous community-based research projects, local organizations, academic researchers, and government agencies to create conditions needed to establish a Niriqatiginnga research hub.
Community Empowerment and Social Cohesion: As Indigenous individuals and communities actively engage in food security research, creative entrepreneurship and related sectoral development activities, they will experience a sense of empowerment. We hope to see increased social cohesion, and cultural pride. We aim to ensure this program is designed to nurture a stronger sense of community, self-determination, resilience and a positive outlook on the future while advancing economic reconciliation.
Expanded Formal and Informal Entrepreneurship and Food Sector Training Opportunities: Collaboration with educational institutions and industry partners results in the development of tailored training, curriculum and educational programming. These co-developed early career experiences will be designed to offer urban and newly-urban Indigenous youth and community members opportunities to build relevant skills, gain agricultural and sector-related knowledge, and a deeper understanding of Arts and Participatory Research methodologies.
Advancing Economic Reconciliation: Niriqatiginnga is dedicated to advancing economic reconciliation, particularly in the context of Indigenous youth and community participation in agriculture and agri-food-related sectors. Niriqatiginnga emphasizes creating opportunities for economic empowerment.
The project will begin On November 17, 2023 and the first phase will run until June 30, 2024.
We are designing Niriqatiginnga as a “framework” because we are aiming for modular and emergent experiences. Some components of the project will be smaller, shorter, and highly experimental while other activities will take longer, have a more formal structure and require a more sustained level of effort. Each activity and “mini-project” overlaps with and complements the others.
Calendar of Project Activities:
For information on upcoming project and program activities, conferences and other special events, please see our Events calendar. We are currently adding more each day, so check back often for news, updates and changes.
Mentorship, Project and Program Design
Youth Entrepreneurship and community-based, participatory research programming for Niriqatiginnga is facilitated as a Corporate Social Responsibility program. Administration support is provided by the Arctic Buying Company Kivalliq, Inc. The Arctic Buying Company is a 100% Inuit women-owned business established in 2010, headquartered in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. The company supports a wide range of Northern Shipping, Food Services, Sealift Logistics and Health Program Administration services from its Winnipeg, Manitoba facilities. The company is registered with the Nunavut Tunngavik, Inc. (NTI) Inuit Firm Registry and has been a Registered Nutrition North Canada Program supplier since 2010.
As a collaborative initiative, Niriqatiginnga is co-designed and delivered with advice and guidance from a diverse and experienced group of mentors from industry, academia, cultural and creative sectors. These mentors have been chosen based on their academic and professional backgrounds and for the strong relationships they have developed working together on past community-based and participatory arts entrepreneurship and research initiatives.
The Niriqatiginnga project team regularly shares short updates in a variety of formats about their progress using their own, dedicated channels and are keen to explore opportunities for information sharing and knowledge exchange with the wider UArctic community.
Engaging UArctic Thematic Networks
Potential UArctic programs and institutions we could consult and engage with in Canada include: Polar Knowledge Canada (POLAR); Université Laval; Université du Québec à Rimouski and University College of the North.
Engaging the UArctic Thematic Network on Northern Food Security
The Thematic Network on Northern Food Security focuses on indigenous peoples food culture, arranges courses and programs and facilitates student and faculty exchange. Here’s what their network is about:
Within the Arctic region there are considerable opportunities for commercial food production, both for export and for meeting local food needs. Food industries are producing large volumes of food commodities that are culturally comparable with Indigenous/local food preferences and also have high export value. However the Arctic foods value chain is challenged by a host of social, economic, logistical and political obstacles.
Industries located along value chain tend to be fragmented and have little to no coordination or communication. This has perpetuated an overreliance on raw export, bottlenecking of distribution points, and limited innovation in primary and secondary product development. Given these conditions the Thematic Network on Northern Food Security is proposing to establish an Arctic Foods Innovation Cluster (AFIC). An AFIC would pull together relevant actors in the Arctic food value chain for a cluster-based approach to food producers with governments, indigenous communities, universities, research centres, vocational training providers and industry associations, with a shared aim of increasing the Arctic’s competitiveness in food industries.
Some of the suggested activities of an Arctic Foods Innovation Cluster include:
- Serving as hub(s) of expertise drawn from communities, industry, investors, governments and researchers — all converged on food innovations.
- Being an incubator for business models, new technologies and value-added products; Bring greater awareness to Arctic foods and their globally unique places of origin;
- Being a global leader in food innovations that can find solutions to Arctic food challenges.
Relevance to Niriqatiginnga
The goal of the network is to advance the Food Security and Self-Sufficiency of Northern Communities, and increase training and research in increasing plant low temperature stress resistance. It supports a number of activities, particularly in the areas of Outreach and Engagement and Academic Programming.
The Outreach and Engagement section organizes conferences and workshops to increase cooperation and connect different interest groups, discuss challenges and/or barriers in key areas in addition to solutions and opportunities present. The Academic Programming section is responsible for organizing courses and programs for students while facilitating student exchange between institutions. The Academic program has been active since 2007, where the first students participated in one of the network’s courses.
The Thematic Network on Northern Food Security also focuses on:
- Increasing institutional partnerships between the TN on Northern Food Security and other UArctic member organizations and the Circumpolar Agriculture Conference.
- Organizing conferences
- Continuously facilitating student and faculty exchange programs
Engaging the UArctic Thematic Network on Local-Scale Planning, Climate Change and Resilience
The aim of this Thematic Network is to explore how communities confront climate change, including assessment of governance structures around food security, climate adaptation or processes dealing with it, and how they seek to adapt to emerging challenges arising from increases in temperature and more extreme weather events. Their research facilitates a better understanding of local expertise and highlights, in particular, the value community planning perspectives can bring to discourse on climate resilience. It sheds light on local government decision dynamics around motivational factors and extent of planning for climate resilience.
This Thematic Network (TN) also works collaboratively with local actors and key stakeholders to identify current and future environmental challenges, and to scope how research through the TN can assist communities increase their resilience to the impacts of climate variability, be it through the co-development of policy approaches, on-the-ground action implementation, research capacity and/ or knowledge mobilization, for example.
The Niriqatiginnga initiative has a strategic interest in both of these thematic networks because they works within and across scales from larger urban centres to small communities, including attention to Indigenous forms of community planning. These RNs also overlap with climate resilience, supply chain infrastructure and northern food systems. Our project believes developing relationships within this UArctic thematic network could lead to enhanced collaboration and relationship development between Canadian and international researchers, as well as facilitating north-south engagement.
Project Next Steps
Next steps for the project will largely begin during January of 2024. These activities will include identifying lessons learned, best practices and resources needed to continue local educational and outreach efforts. This work contributes to developing a long-term research plan that outlines how research activities can continue beyond the project’s initial design timeframe.
The core purpose of this project will focus entirely on building local capacity and preparing to establish a formal, structured entrepreneurship program for our project. As such, our program has an interest in establishing deeper relationships with other Arctic and northern entrepreneurship projects; and to participate in relationship development and engagement opportunities through the University of the Arctic, its Thematic Networks and partner institutions.
A final, primary objective will be to develop and incubate partnerships with Indigenous-owned, Nutrition North Canada suppliers, Canadian and American academic institutions, and governmental agencies such as Manitoba Agriculture that also have programs that could support developing future research projects.
Outcomes will enhance capability and prepare youth research assistants for possible participation in a Mentorship Training Program in October 2024.
Interviews and feedback collected post-engagement will be used to measure the project’s impact on the community, including economic, cultural, and social factors. This will also inform additional skills development and capacity-building programming for participants, especially focusing on food sector entrepreneurship, business development, and leadership skills.
Budget
Our application to the Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Indigenous Relationship and Engagement Program was submitted on October 27, 2023.
Learn More about our project
Niriqatiginnga is a small, grassroots and experimental program, that is just beginning its journey. We’re very keen to connect and learn from other entrepreneurship, food security and food systems.
If you’re interested in learning more or wish to actively engage with us, we encourage you to reach out. Contact us today! We look forward to connecting!
Last Updated: October 23, 1:28 p.m.
