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Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA)
Volunteered - Oral Presentation Session
Michael O'Rourke
Postdoctoral Fellow
Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre
The Inuvialuit Place Names Project is a recent initiative of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC), which is being conducted to synthesize comprehensive map and spatial data resources from a diverse range of archival toponyms. Place names are critical components of cultural landscape designation and management processes, which are capable of illustrating the interconnectedness of people and places across centuries of occupation and use. The results of this project will inform Inuvialuit land management and impact assessment processes, as well as yield a baseline from which to develop further IRC-directed place name research initiatives. Staff of the IRC’s Shared Services Unit have identified dozens of archival toponym sources, compiling nearly 4000 place names which have been documented throughout the Inuvialuit Settlement Region over the last 50+ years. This presentation will outline the progress made in compiling such a substantial assemblage of place names, detailing the efforts made thus far to establish an effective tool for community-based lands management.