The voices of Indigenous people and leaders are more present in discussions about the future of the Arctic than in any other international conversation.
This is Trahant Reports.
At last week’s Arctic Circle forum in Reykjavik, Iceland, the prime minister of Greenland, Kim Kielsen, spoke in an Inuit language. And Indigenous leaders were prominently on stage, addressing the hundreds of leaders from governments, businesses, and nonprofits, from some 50 countries who attended the annual event.
The conference ended with Inuit Night, a celebration of performers ranging from throat singers to Yupik rap.
There could be so much more.
Participants were standing room only in the conference hall when famous speakers represented current discourse, ranging from those calling for stronger action on global warming to those wanting energy development and increased shipping lanes because of global warming.
That range of discussion is a good thing.
But when the panels were on Indigenous knowledge, youth, or governance, suddenly there was plenty of seats. The opening plenary included the wisdom of Inuit Circumpolar Chair Dalee Sambo Dorough so late in the rotation that her prepared marks had to be trimmed in order to keep to the schedule.
So what does the indigenous thinking add to the conversation?. It’s a story about land, culture and a sense of place as more than a third of the earth — over 80 percent of the planet’s biodiversity — are from territories of Indigenous peoples.
Former Alaska Lt. Gov. Valerie Davidson, Yupik, said Native people want what every other family wants. “We want our children and our families to be healthy. We want them to be safe, we want them to be well educated and that’s universal. We all want that. And we all serve that for our children and our families.”
However “because of where we live and because of the resources we do and most often don’t have, we have to do things in a different way.”
What happens in the Arctic will define the future of the planet.
“The Arctic is critical to the entire globe,” said Inuit Chair Sambo Dorough. Science shows this with ocean currents, atmospheric currents, many other elements, “But there is a connection (and) but it also is important to recognize, as I said, in relation to human rights, that they’re interrelated, interdependent and invisible..
Dorough said the Inuit occupy 40 percent of the Arctic both in terms of land and the marine environment. “So whenever we talk about this dynamic of the Arctic and against the backdrop of the global geopolitical dimensions, we have to have a seat at the table. We have to have a role.”
Or as one Arctic Circle panel stated flatly: “Nothing about us without us.”
I am Mark Trahant.
