Perhaps the most lasting product of the scientific output from the 1st International Polar Year (IPY) are the encyclopaedic ethnological reports resulting from expeditions to Pt. Barrow, Alaska and Fort Chimo in the Ungava District (now northern Quebec). These publications are likely the only research results from the original IPY which still are consulted routinely by researchers Both books are highly regarded by contemporary native community members across Alaska’s North Slope and throughout the Eastern Canadian Arctic.

We will be undertakng a modern version of these ethnological collecting projects. Using the categories developed by Murdoch and Turner, with a few additions (e.g. communications equipment, navigation devices), the project will document modern equivalents of the items Murdoch collected, how they are manufactured or obtained, and their uses. Photographic (digital) and written documentation will be used.

Collections will be made in all Northern communities that wish to participate in the project, with technical assistance, formats and data archiving being facilitated more centrally. This process will begin during the IPY (in 2007) but may continue beyond 2008. We hope the end products will be used by communities well into the future, as the Murdoch and Turner books are nearly 125 years after that information was collected.

Much of the documentation can be accomplished as part of the school curriculum, involving students with Elders, or as part of a summer/after school program or in other ways, depending on the needs and wishes of individual participating communities. A number of K-12 educators are interested in incorporating the data collection process into broader educational endeavours.