Anthropology alumna Letitia Pokiak wins prestigious academic award

January 19, 2022

Anthropology alumna Letitia Pokiak recently won a prestigious academic award for her thesis, "Meaningful Consultation, Meaningful Participants and Meaning Making: Inuvialuit Perspectives on the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline and the Climate Crisis."

The  Distinguished Master's Award in Humanities, Social Sciences, Education and Business is from the Western Association of Graduate Schools that represents all the graduate schools in western Canada, 14 U.S. states and western Mexico.

Pokiak's master's thesis examined the history and land claim journey of the Inuvialuit people. 

In a recent interview with CBC news, said she thought industry and governments were trying to develop on Indigenous lands "without really meaningfully consulting with those Indigenous groups."

"Pokiak said her traditional upbringing in Tuktoyaktuk informed her research. Adding that she wrote her master's thesis as a story that respected Indigenous practices of storytelling."

Her graduate supervisor at UVic, anthropology professor Brian Thom, said Pokiak "understands how knowledge can be mobilized in the world and what kinds of questions that we need to ask to be able to move our communities forward."