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Inuit Nunangat Spill Map

    Mapping energy out of place.

    For the research-creation conference, Energy In/Out of Place in June 2020, I collaborated with micky renders to create work about energy issues in Nunavut. For my piece, I created these maps of petrochemical spills in Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit land claims areas and Inuit homeland. GIS maps were created using spill data from the NWT Department of Environment and Natural Resources to animate the shocking frequency of oil spills. The occurrence of toxic spills varies directly with increased shipping (as the Arctic melts) and with the escalation of resource development as an economic generator. In some ways, this data raises more questions than it answers. The data used for these maps can be found here.

    These lands were annexed by the Canadian government in pursuit of the mineral and resource potential, and while Inuit have regained many rights to the land through these Land Claims Agreements, Inuit Nunangat is still seeing increased exploration and extraction of natural resources. Inuit have been forced to negotiate for their rights in a context where minerals and resources are always a key issue.