Current ads
Jobs
Tenders
Notices
General

Click below

Encourage women to be equals in fishery: report

HTOs need to improve "abysmally low" participation rate of women

JANE GEORGE

Leesee Papatsie and Joanna Kafarowski say HTOs are excluding women from participation in the fishing industry. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

---

Hunters and trappers organizations have been singled out by a new research project for their "old boys" atmosphere that contributes to a marked absence of women in decision-making roles in Nunavut's fisheries.

The project's preliminary recommendations suggest that ways be found to get women and youth involved in every group, government department or organization that deals with fisheries and provide more support to women who want to study wildlife management.

The idea for this project, undertaken by the Arctic Council and the national Inuit women's association Pauktuutit, came out of the circumpolar women's conference held three years ago in northern Finland. Since then, each of the Arctic Council countries has developed its own project.

Contributors to Canada's portion of the project include federal and territorial governments, foundations, institutes, the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, the Baffin Fisheries Coalition and the Kakivak Association.

Last week, the Canadian project's lead researcher Joanna Kafarowski and local investigator Leesee Papatsie met with a small group of people in Iqaluit to discuss what they had learned over the past two years of interviews in Iqaluit and Panniqtuuq.

The absence of the Amarok Hunters and Trappers Organization at this meeting, which included representatives from the Qulliit Status of Women Council, the territorial and federal governments and the Nunavut Research Institute, was conspicuous because of the criticism of the male-dominated organizations.

Kafarowski mentioned the "abysmally low" participation by women in HTOs as a major barrier to meaningful involvement by women in fisheries.

The HTOs must make room for women and youth in their leadership, the researchers recommended. The HTOs should try to be more inclusive and offer more family-oriented activities as a way of involving women and youth.

In the fishing industry, men also predominate, particularly in the offshore fisheries' huge factory trawlers.

Women do predominate in Nunavut's sole fish plant in Panniqtuuq where three out of four workers are female.

"It's good that women are there, but they may be exploited," Kafarowski said.

Fish plant work is boring, repetitive and even dangerous as workers wield sharp knives in a stressful, production-oriented atmosphere.

"They are happy having a job, but not as much happy about the job," Papatsie said.

First aid and more support for childcare are what these workers told the researchers they needed.

Additional support for women studying environmental technology, who are away from their home communities when they are at Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit, is "absolutely critical," the researchers said, because advanced study is key to moving into the increasingly technological fisheries industry.

But some at the meeting suggested other underlying reasons for why more women aren't involved at the top levels in Nunavut's developing fishing industry.

The industry is young, said Wayne Lynch, Nunavut's new fisheries and sealing manager. He said the GN is finding it a challenge even to involve men in the industry. The process of building the fisheries - and increasing women's involvement - could take years.

Imported, southern-style hiring practices and management practices were also suggested as reasons women aren't more visible in the fishing industry.

"As Inuit, there's no gender thing. If it was left up to traditional ways, women would be the equals," said Letia Papatsie Janes, who was present at the meeting.

Commercial fisheries also mean Inuit must go out and get more fish than they need to sell their catch for cash, an idea that runs against traditional harvesting where fishers only take what they need.

The final project report, available in English and Inuktitut, will be circulated by the end of this year.

Similar projects are also wrapping up in Holman in the Northwest Territories and Kangirsuk, a Nunavik community noted for its Arctic char.

TOP

Advertising
Specs, rates,
& maps
Multi-paper
buying services
About the market
E-mail ad dept

More Information