Cultural Landscape

Examining the Impacts of the George River Caribou Herd Hunting Ban

July 2018

Guest post by: Jason Dicker, MA Student, Memorial University

My name is Jason Dicker. I am an Inuk from Nain, Nunatsiavut. I moved to Corner Brook, Newfoundland in 2013 to complete my BA in Environmental Studies after transferring from the College of the North Atlantic where I received my diploma in the Northern Natural Resources Technician program in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. After completing my undergraduate degree, I decided to expand the independent project I had been working on by conducting research at the graduate level about the caribou hunting ban in northern Labrador and to work with Inuit who are impacted by this moratorium.

I am presently in the two-year thesis route of the Master of Art’s, Environmental Policy program where I am laying out the groundwork for my thesis “Examining the impacts of the George River Caribou Herd hunting ban on northern Labrador Inuit: an integrated resource management perspective”. My research is under the supervision of Dr. Stephen Decker, who has a background in integrated resource management with a focus on human dimensions of wildlife management relevant to Newfoundland and Labrador.

I am also currently completing a 12-week internship with the Torngat Secretariat, a team of professionals based in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, that provides financial management, logistical, project management and analytical support to the Torngat Joint Fisheries Board and the Torngat Wildlife and Plants Co-Management Board.

I plan to include and apply Indigenous perspectives in my research and other academic-related work to support the Indigenization and decolonization of environmental research and practices.