As Sithuni Mimasha showed pictures of Indigenous Sri Lankan people to a group of Inuit youth in a small village in northern Canada, she could see that she was making an impact. They looked at images of people living in the tropics on the other side of the world and they quickly saw themselves in others’ lives.
When the presentation was over, the projector turned off, and the chairs arranged in a circle, the questions came quickly, revealing that people face similar problems and challenges no matter the area that they call home.
“What stood out to me most is exactly what we hope for; knowledge should be shared,†Mimasha said. “We should share what we know, learn from one another, and grow together. That is truly what happened through this experience.â€
Mimasha, a doctoral student in the College of Natural Resources and Environment, and Eranga Galappiththi, assistant professor in the Department of Geography, trekked to the Arctic to continue long-standing studies on the Inuit communities living on the tundra and hunting on the ice packs of far northern Canada, and how shifts in global climate patterns are affecting their hunting, fishing, and overall health.
In the Arctic, shifting sea ice and changing weather patterns are altering wildlife movement, including caribou migration, making traditional hunting more difficult. These changes directly affect food security and community health.
For Mimasha, it was her first trip to Pangnirtung, Nunavut, a fly-in Inuit community on Baffin Island where Galappiththi has visited nine times since 2016, part of a decade-long commitment to community-engaged research.
While there, she made a strong connection with the Indigenous Inuit population. She also presented her work with the Vedda people of Sri Lanka, where Mimasha, Galappiththi and other researchers have been working for several years.
Two Indigenous communities that are 7,000 miles apart, inhabiting regions that are as different as any environments on Earth, face remarkably similar issues regarding health, food security, rural isolation, and cultural identity.
