Where We Work

Sensory Acts is a project with many dynamic connections across the Circumpolar North. Initially we had prepared field sites in three countries: Mongolia, Russia, and Canada. Following international sanctions in response to the Russian Federation’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, much of our research landscape has had to change. We are now focusing on Mongolia and Canada, with potential sites in Scandinavia and Central Europe.

Canada

Sentient Acts has a Community Research Agreement with the Aklavik Hunters & Trappers Committee for co-lead research on diverse aspects of nonverbal communication in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR). The ISR is the vast homeland of Inuvialuit (and Gwitch’in First Nations), a place comprising the Mackenzie Delta with its countless tree-lined channels, the Beaufort Sea with its many marine mammals, and the Western Canadian Arctic Archipelago – home to caribou, musk-oxen, polar bears, and many other species of key importance to Inuvialuit. Human-animal and human-plant relations continue to play a central role in the lives of many contemporary Inuvialuit individuals.

Alex Oehler has worked with Inuvialuit Elders of the Northwest Territories to learn about the role of their ancestral language revitalization efforts in building strong ties to land and animals. This resulted in the project “Inuvialuit Language and Identity: Perspectives on the Symbolic Meaning of Inuvialuktun in the Western Canadian Arctic.” Inuvialuktun, which comprises three distinct Inuit language variants, has also played a vital role in regional self-determination for contemporary Inuvialuit.

Starting in 2023, members of the SACTS team will be working with hunters and trappers from the hamlet of Aklavik. This work is co-lead by the Aklavik Hunters & Trappers Committee, as well as the Inuvialuit Game Council.

Mongolia

Natasha Fijn’s field research in Mongolia has largely been located in the mountainous region of the Khangai, including Arkhangai and Bulgan Provinces. The region includes high-altitude mountain valleys with stands of black pine and birch on the slopes with rivers flowing through the valleys and multispecies herds of horses, cattle (including yak and yak-cattle hybrids), sheep and goats, making for idyllic scenes.

Over the next few years she is incorporating a new comparative field area, located in the Gobi Desert, where herding families reside amongst both domestic and wild animals, including camels, on the boundary of a protected area or reserve. Alongside Sensory Acts, Fijn is the recipient of a mid-career Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, enabling her to conduct research on ‘A Multi-species Anthropological Approach to Influenza‘ (2022-2026).

Charlotte Marchina has been working in both Mongolia and southern Siberia. Besides her work with Sentient Acts, Marchina is also involved in a project on “The Horse and the Emergence of Mobile Pastoralism in the Eastern Steppe – MOBISTEPPE.”

Victoria Peemot and Robert Beahrs have been working in a third Mongolian field site near the border to the Republic of Tyva. This site is ancestrally related to the Saian-Altai Mountains on the Russian side, where much of their previous work is based.

Siberia

Much of our planned research was to be situated in the southern Siberian republics of Tyva and Buriatia. These sites are located in the Saian-Altai Region, including in the Eastern Saian Mountains of Okinskii Rai’on (Oka), and they continue to inform our present research. The latter area comprises high altitude meadows with fast flowing mountain creeks, edged by Siberian larch, some birch, and cedars. Known as the Inner Asian cradle of reindeer domestication, today’s Indigenous Oka-Soiots raise predominantly cattle, yak, hybrid cattle, horses, and sheep. Alongside their herding activities, hunting and fishing remain essential subsistence strategies, while some find employment in local extractive industries.

Due to international sanctions, following the Russian Federation’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, we are currently unable to proceed with our planned research activities in this region of the world.