Women’s participation in decision making - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 223

specific responsibility, one that respects the strengths of its practice. Under
this model, public meetings would be a time when consultation intent is
introduced and explained to the community. Not only would an overview be
provided, but there would also be a discussion on the possible scope such dis-
cussions may yield. Also, if consultation is being done to provide direction on
bureaucratic technicalities, such as legislation or budgeting allocation, public
meetings provide the opportunities for community members to learn about
these technicalities, thereby providing a public and collective forum where
their limitations can be articulated. Providing this technical information
early in the process would alleviate the continual need to hint at logistical
constraints, ideally leaving more time and energy to talk about the topic at
hand. This can occur quickly, as communities in Nunavut already have a vari-
ety of public infrastructure and collective experience to support community
dialogue. Public meetings currently occur in existing community halls, and
the majority of communities have community radio stations.
This model also respects the complexity of community dialogue, and
respects the responsibility of accurately portraying the dimensions of a com-
munity's perspective by requiring appropriate and in-depth support and
securing the opportunity for various perspectives to be heard. Under this new
consultation model, public meetings would be supplemented with individ-
ual and group meetings. Such meetings will allow different perspectives to
interact at different scales, as they would include various meetings of a small
group of people knowledgeable on a particular subject or representative of a
particular demographic. These meetings could happen once or a number of
times. Alongside these meetings would be individual meetings or interviews.
Again, the strength of these meetings is to provide an additional dimension
in the community's understanding of a particular topic. Once these meetings
were completed, another public meeting may occur to provide the commu-
nity with an update, allow a general approval/disapproval to be given, allow
for further recommendations to be brought forward or provide a general dis-
cussion for closure.
To ensure continual movement in this process, a team of community
supports are required. Facilitators would be responsible for supporting com-
munity dialogue by facilitating community interaction. In order to encourage
different perspectives, more than one facilitator may be required. Facilitators
would be responsible for ensuring that the consultation process is executed
in a way that respects the form and function of the community, and would
work with translators to respect the various language responsibilities in the
community level (Inuktitut and English) and the requirements of political
institutions (largely English). Methods of recording would also reflect these
ongoing dialogues, and make them accessible in different languages.
Although this model represents a territory-wide vision, the autonomy
of the community will be respected . 24 Therefore, the success of the Kitchen
Consultation Model will develop as communities gain experience in