Built for Indigenous Knowledge systems, because nothing like it existed
At the Arctic Eider Society we are land users and project managers who needed tools for documenting Indigenous knowledge, land‑use activities, and working with our neighbours. Nothing existed that meaningfully included Indigenous knowledge frameworks and fully respected Indigenous self‑determination and data sovereignty, so we had to create something unique ourselves.
As an Inuit‑led charity based in the heart of Hudson Bay, we created SIKU to work with our neighbours to transcend colonial jurisdictional boundaries. Now, SIKU is used daily by Indigenous people as individual harvesters or as a part of projects and the greater SIKU community — across Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and beyond.
Most platforms were designed to extract knowledge and deliver it to industry or researchers, not to serve knowledge holders.
Instead, we built SIKU to respect Indigenous knowledge frameworks as the rigorous, quantitative, living record it has always been and ensure it was owned by the knowledge holders.
The idea behind siku
“It’s time for the computer and the harpoon to work together.”
Piita Kattuk — Elder, Sanikiluaq
SIKU was inspired by our late great elder Piita Kattuk, who realized the importance of engaging the next generation of Inuit youth through technology. He knew that if the knowledge behind oral history was documented — systematically and quantitatively — it would strengthen Indigenous rights.
Piita spent his career advocating for Indigenous rights in the face of large development projects, where Indigenous knowledge was often written off as anecdotal. He wanted to build SIKU to help his community and others in similar positions record and mobilize the data that has always been a part of Indigenous knowledge and observations, in a format that decision makers understand.
Working with our neighbours
SIKU for connecting communities
Sanikiluaq and our neighbouring communities have been facing major challenges and cumulative impacts from large‑scale developments and climate change. We want to document baseline conditions, track changes in sea‑ice ecosystems and climate, conduct surveys and interviews and monitor our food for contaminants.
Our Community‑Driven Research Network created the prototype for SIKU so the communities of Sanikiluaq, Inukjuak, Kuujjuaraapik and Umiujaq (they spell SIKU!) could bring together our local pieces of the puzzle to document the big‑picture changes for the region. Joined later by Chisasibi, we use SIKU together to coordinate research and monitoring efforts.
It worked really well — so we made it available for any Indigenous community or project to use.
Knowledge is power
“We built SIKU in a way that southerners could understand what we know — in a way that we can no longer be ignored.”
Lucassie Arragutainaq — AES Chair & Co‑founder
Lucassie spent his career bringing Inuit knowledge and science together for impact assessment and wildlife management — and struggled to get southerners to listen, even to work as groundbreaking as Voices from the Bay.
He helped design SIKU so it could be a tool to address this struggle: a new way for Sanikiluarmiut, nearby communities, and other Inuit, First Nations, and Métis to bring their data to the table with government, academics, and industry, and have it understood and acted upon.
But the data can’t be separated from its Indigenous context. That’s why SIKU is Indigenous‑designed, with Indigenous priorities like stewardship built in from the start, using Indigenous environmental terminology as the backbone for its classification system.
We built SIKU to support subsistence, safety, and knowledge transfer, with full ownership, access, and control built in from the start. Now we’re growing a community of knowledgeable users contributing high‑quality data to Indigenous‑led projects on their own terms. They decide what they share, how they share it through informed consent, and they always keep access to their own data.
Practice, not just product
We don’t just make SIKU — we use it every day
SIKU is developed in‑house and through ongoing guidance and rigorous testing by over 150 people in Sanikiluaq throughout the year. Documenting community knowledge and observations with SIKU has allowed Sanikiluarmiut to create an up‑to‑date and growing inventory of resources, that acts as baseline data and informs decision making. This record is stewarded by Sanikiluarmiut as a SIKU Project — the Qikiqtait Project.
We’re using SIKU for:
Harvesting & Land Use
Guardians & Monitoring
Fisheries & Safety
Your guidance matters
SIKU is guided by conversations with Indigenous communities, organizations and regions, through one‑on‑one meetings and regional forums. We now serve over 100 active projects on SIKU that provide ongoing guidance and feedback. Together we are making SIKU into a tool that works for Indigenous individuals, communities, and Nations to use on their own terms.
Start a consultation with us. Your ideas help us make SIKU better for everyone.
Innovation through Indigenous Languages
“It is especially important for hunters to be able to use SIKU in their own language.”
Lisi Kavik — Inuit Nunangat Coordinator and Language Specialist, Sanikiluaq
As the lead translator who helped make SIKU available in Inuktitut, Lisi helps the SIKU team implement features for dialects, environmental terminology and languages, which are central to Indigenous knowledge systems.
The Numbers Behind SIKU
2014
First Prototype
2019
SIKU Public Launch
2026
45K+ Users and Growing
Total SIKU User accounts, 2018–2026, increasing to over 45,000
From Piita’s original vision to over 100 active projects, SIKU keeps growing and getting better. Each person and group who joins contributes their strengths, helping shape SIKU’s community and design.
A program of the Arctic Eider Society
The Arctic Eider Society is an Inuit‑led, Canadian registered charity based in Sanikiluaq, Nunavut, at the heart of Hudson Bay.
Eider down, the warmest feather in the world, represents the best of nature’s technology and Indigenous innovation, and gives our organization its name and inspiration for SIKU: The Indigenous Knowledge App.
To learn more about our community, our unique relationship with eiders, our other programs, and the history of our organization, visit arcticeider.com, or watch our 16× award‑winning film People of a Feather.
