Clear language, big ideas: Communicating research in Nunavut

“What’s the value in research if the community it affects is unable to understand the findings, or act on the outcomes? That question is at the heart of the StraightUpNorth (SUN) team’s efforts to ensure that research findings are communicated not only in academic publications, but also in plain language reports. Their goal is to share results in ways that are easily accessed and understood by the Nunavut communities they’re meant to serve. Anyone who wants to conduct research in – or about – Nunavut has to apply for a Scientific Research License, as legislated by the Nunavut Scientist’s Act. Research licensing is administered by the Nunavut Research Institute (NRI), based in the territorial capital of Iqaluit. Licensed researchers are required to report to the NRI on their activities each year, but they do not always report back to communities directly. “Researchers are strongly encouraged to develop a formal partnership or collaboration with communities as part of a research project, but this is not actually required within current Nunavut legislation,” said Alexis Beltrano, a recent PhD graduate of the School of Earth, Environment, and Society. At times, this can result in researchers flying to remote field sites outside of communities, where community members may not be aware of the research taking place. This can be potentially harmful when considering the importance of Inuit consultation and engagement in Arctic research. So the SUN team, led by Professor Gita Ljubicic, is finding ways to make research work for Nunavummiut (people of Nunavut). Working closely with the NRI, the SUN Team has been rethinking community consultation and engagement, with the aim of contributing to efforts that support and enhance Inuit self-determination in research . Beltrano has a long-standing partnership with the NRI, which started in 2019 when she was an undergraduate student. She began working with Ljubicic and the NRI in the development of the Isirvik Research Portal . That expanded into a master’s project looking at research trends in Nunavut, and then, her PhD work on understanding community experiences with the research license review process. Beltrano has been working with the NRI to identify opportunities to enhance research outcomes and reporting to better serve the needs of Nunavummiut. An important part of this is learning how to make research outputs more accessible to the public. One of the most common requests from community organizations who review research licenses is the need for plain language communications. Simply put Maddy Lutes, a fifth-year undergraduate student in Environment & Society, is part of the team that takes research outputs and turns them into plain language reports. Lutes has been working as an undergraduate research assistant with the SUN Team for the last two years. She got involved after taking a course on “Northern Environments and Societies” with Ljubicic. Through the course, Ljubicic learned about Lutes’ Métis heritage, and encouraged her to apply for the IndigiNerds summer research program at McMaster. Ljubicic supervised her first research project, and since then Lutes has continued to find opportunities to be involved and learn more about community-engaged research in the Arctic. Lutes describes the SUN team as “a research group that works with community rather than for community.” The SUN team has worked on a wide range of projects that aim to address Inuit community priorities. A few examples include: goose monitoring to restore Inuit food sovereignty in Arviat , caribou and community wellbeing in Gjoa Haven , and understanding Inuit community uses and needs for weather, water, ice and climate information services (across eight Nunavut communities) . Once research is completed in the North, it can be shared using a variety of formats to reach different audiences. “Summary reports are one the team’s main methods of providing community partners – and the public – an overview of all that was learned in a project. It is especially important for community members to see their contributions,” Lutes said. Once a research project is completed, findings are shared in a variety of formats, to reach different audiences. This can include reports, informational posters, social media posts, and community presentations. This approach emphasizes making research accessible and available through multiple forms of knowledge sharing. “It is especially important for community members to see their contributions,” Lutes said. Lutes’ research assistant role has focused on the editing and formatting of research reports, while also contributing to broader research communication efforts. “We spend hours, hours, hours on the formatting of the reports alone,” Lutes said. She thinks deeply about colour schemes, how people’s eyes flow to take in information, and how much information is too much or not enough. Experienced interpreters translate the reports into appropriate dialects of Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun (depending on the community or region). There needs to be consideration for local dialect of Inuktut (Inuit language), although this is a challenge when attempting to produce reports that will be circulated across Nunavut. Having the research described in plain language English is important to be accessible to a diverse public audience, but it is also critical for accurate translation into Inuktut. “[Plain language] saves people from the unnecessary scientific jargon, and it also makes translation so much more straightforward, because there is not always an accurate Inuktut translation for scientific words or phrases,” Lutes said. “It makes it easier for community members. It makes it easier for us. And then it also creates a shared language to minimize miscommunication. There’s no power imbalance because I decided to use some extravagant word that doesn’t make sense to anyone but me.” Importantly, Lutes notes, putting something into plain language doesn’t mean dumbing it down. It’s about making it well-organized, engaging, interesting, and clearly showing the importance of the work. Maddy Lutes (left) and Alexis Beltrano (right) present at Indigenous Research Day in fall 2025. Putting together a report that appears simple and straightforward takes months, but the outcomes are extremely rewarding, Lutes said. “We can give it to anyone in community and just feel good in knowing that they’re going to be able to put this to use the way that they wanted in the first place.” The SUN team is always working with northern partners to find ways to improve, including trying new communication tools and ways to apply the research findings. Last summer, Lutes worked with Ljubicic on the weather, water, ice and climate project. The project came about because the SUN Team had heard for years that there were a lot of environmental information products that provided weather, marine, sea ice, and climate conditions for Nunavut, but they were all on different sites, and not always easy to interpret or use. The SUN team did a survey with 360 Nunavummiut across eight communities to learn which information systems would be the most valuable for them to access. They took what they’d learned and turned it into a report with lots of graphics to help visualize results. They also created a poster that community members could use to easily access the weather, water, or ice information that was most important to them. “Maintaining good relationships is never-ending,” Lutes said. “Even after the completion of the reports and outputs, it’s important that community members can access, use, and build on the work that we have done with them.” Engaged in the research process In their work with the NRI, the SUN Team is working on new ways to share their results, responding to requests that came from community license review organizations. This involves co-developing guidelines for both researchers and review organizations to support the research licensing process. Long term goals to make research work for Nunavummiut would be amending the Nunavut Scientist’s Act to recognize the importance of community consultation and decision-making. “We won’t see that change overnight,” Beltrano said. “It’s a long process, but good to know that our work helps compile evidence that could inform changes to science policy in the future.” Nunavut communities have shown a strong desire to be more engaged in the research process. Beltrano remembers, early in her PhD, being asked by the NRI to present on their work together for the Nunavut Climate Change Adaptation Committee in Iqaluit. The committee included government officials, Inuit organization representatives, people from different hamlets, hunters and trappers’ organizations, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. “A lot of important people,” Beltrano recalls. The director of the NRI gave Beltrano the slides and told her, “’I trust you, you’ll do great.’” It was supposed to be a 15-minute presentation on research trends. But the committee had a lot of questions. It turned into a two-hour conversation on trends, the importance of research, and what we can do to improve research conduct. “To know that people cared so much and showed so much interest to allocate that much time of their meeting to what I was talking about was so rewarding,” Beltrano said. “Reflecting on it after, I was almost in tears, and it definitely gives me goosebumps talking about it today.” “Just having that experience and knowing that my research is being valued and the work that I’m doing with my partners is valued across various different organizations and levels of government is something that I will always cherish deeply.” It all comes down to communication. Sharing results in plain language is just one of the ways that Beltrano, Lutes, Ljubicic, and all the SUN Team, contribute to making research work for Nunavummiut. The post Clear language, big ideas: Communicating research in Nunavut appeared first on McMaster News .

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