Bringing Inuit Knowledge into Health and Safety on the Ice

For generations, Inuit have developed extensive knowledge of how to work, travel and remain safe on sea ice. Yet much of this knowledge has been shared through oral traditions and lived experience rather than incorporated into formal occupational health and safety documents.

Saila Ipirq-Procyk wants to help address that gap.

Saila is an independent researcher and the founder of Northern Health and Safety, a participatory project exploring health and safety for communities working on sea ice. The project is rooted in her own connections to the ice and her belief that Inuit knowledge must be recognized as an essential part of creating safer working practices.

The project grew from Saila’s research for SmartICE Monitoring and Information Inc., a social enterprise that combines community knowledge with sea-ice monitoring technology and supports community-led monitoring and training. While helping develop a document to strengthen the organization’s health and safety program, she identified a need to better reflect the knowledge of Inuit who have extensive experience working and travelling on the ice.

Creating space for community knowledge

On June 6, 2026, Saila held the project’s first in-person workshop in Iqaluit as part of the GLOCAL Foundation of Canada’s Nunavut Regional Showcase.

The workshop brought community members together to discuss the challenges of working on sea ice. With a focus on young adults, the session was designed both to share safety information and to gather knowledge from people with direct experience on the ice.

One focus of the workshop was the relationship between conventional safety guidance and Inuit knowledge. Conventional guidance offers standardized precautions, such as measuring ice thickness and stability, monitoring weather and visibility, and avoiding recently refrozen ice or areas near moving water. Inuit knowledge contributes generations of lived, place-specific understanding of changing ice, weather, routes and hazards. Rather than treating these as competing approaches, the workshop highlighted the importance of learning from both.

The discussion also considered how climate change and shifting environmental conditions are affecting the risks faced by people on the ice. Panelists from SmartICE, the Government of Nunavut’s Climate Change Secretariat and Nunavut Emergency Management contributed their perspectives alongside the knowledge and experiences shared by participants.

The Iqaluit workshop was a pilot, but Saila hopes it will lead to further conversations and workshops in the future. By creating spaces where Inuit knowledge can be shared across generations and reflected in formal safety practices, her work is helping build a more inclusive and community-grounded approach to safety on the ice.

A report summarizing the findings and key discussions from the pilot workshop is being developed to help inform future work on health and safety practices for people working and travelling on sea ice. Once completed, the report will be made publicly available. For those interested in learning more, a recording of the workshop is available.

The workshop was supported by SmartICE and the GLOCAL Foundation, with financial support from Clear Seas and Cuso International Microgrants.

Learn more about Clear Seas’ Indigenous Internship Program and the Indigenous-led research it supports.

Feature picture: Sea Ice breakup in Iqaluit. Credit: Saila Ipirq-Procyk.