Melaina Sheldon will soon lead the Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship, which teaches young northern Canadians about public policy. The idea, she says, is to help empower the next generation to tackle issues that affect their communities.
Representatives from all eight Arctic countries recently gathered in Harstad, Norway, to reflect on the varying definitions and aims of Indigenous art in the North.
It’s hard to think of a better way to experience Canada Day than to drive along a highway that permanently etched the Canadian state into the northern wilderness, writes Mia Bennett at Cryopolitics.
The Canadian Museum of Nature’s new Arctic gallery features a space dedicated to showcasing Indigenous culture. Its kick-off exhibit offers insights into Inuit communities from the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut.
WORLD POLICY: Pavel Sulyandziga, an Indigenous rights activist who hails from Russia’s Far East, speaks about the cultural and conservation challenges faced by the Udege people.
With “Kiviuq Returns,” Nunavut’s Qaggiavuut Society brings to the stage an ancient story of a wandering hero in an effort to preserve a part of their culture that was nearly lost.
Revived plans to drill for oil at the calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd are prompting outcries from Indigenous people with ancient ties to the herd.
As the U.S. resumes its debate over whether to drill for oil at the calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd on Alaska’s north coast, photographer Peter Mather shares some shots and personal experiences with the herd and the Gwich’in, whose culture is tied to it.
The arrival of Chinese workers at a factory in Maniitsoq goes to show how balancing wage work with subsistence practices is a challenge across the Arctic, writes Mia Bennett at Cryopolitics.
Russia’s Arkhangelsk region hopes for an economic turnaround spurred by China’s investment in a new railway and deepwater port. But such plans have existed for decades in northern Russia and often fail to materialize, says Paul Josephson, a professor of Soviet history.
More than one-third of households in Canada’s eastern Arctic don’t have access to enough nutritious food. Social media campaigns against the territory’s sky-high food prices have prompted a variety of responses to help.
Without a high-speed fiber-optic link, Nunavut remains dependent on a sluggish, satellite-based internet service. That’s increasingly a problem for the territory’s economy and government, says Madeleine Redfern, the mayor of Nunavut’s capital, Iqaluit.
The Algu Fund aims to raise $30 million to help ensure that northern Indigenous groups are better able to participate in the Arctic Council’s workings, says Jim Gamble, the fund’s acting chair.
From internet speeds to graduation rates, Canada’s northern regions lag behind the rest of the country. In her new report, Mary Simon, the Canadian government’s special adviser on Arctic issues, presents some ideas about how to close those gaps.
Some residents along Alaska’s coast say it’s becoming tougher to obtain seal oil – not for lack of seals, but due to changing ice conditions and the fact that fewer young people are going hunting.
Russia’s northern Indigenous people have reason to view their national parks system with suspicion. Park boundaries are sometimes rolled back to make way for resource development, while protected areas often pose an impediment to traditional hunting and fishing activities.
HAKAI: A diving whale leaves glassy prints on the surface of the water. For the Iñupiaq hunter, these ‘flukeprints’ are an important clue as to where the animal may be headed next.
Siku, an online tool that recently won a $750,000 grant from Google, aims to pull together native knowledge about dangerously thin sea ice and other conditions in the Arctic’s fast-changing landscape.
The unexpected appearance of sinkholes or groundwater flooding is something to which residents of this Alaskan city have grown accustomed as they face up to the melting of the discontinuous permafrost on which their buildings stand.
HAKAI MAGAZINE: Polar bear viewing is fast becoming a cottage industry as tourists flock to the northern Alaskan city of Kaktovik. But at what cost – for the bears and the community?
A severe housing shortage in Canada’s Inuit communities underpins many complicated social problems, as a new Senate report testifies. The problem is so costly that policymakers are tempted to ignore the seemingly intractable issue.
Arctic nations should do more to ensure their northern communities are ready and able to respond to emergencies at sea, writes Andreas Osthagen for the High North News.
Building the ranks of bilingual teachers is key to improving Nunavut’s school system, says Eva Aariak, a longtime champion of Inuit culture and language.
Leaders of the sprawling territory in Canada’s Eastern Arctic view bilingual instruction as a key way of improving lackluster education outcomes. But a proposal to standardize the Inuit language in the process may be a tough sell to some.
Canada’s Winnipeg Art Gallery is already home to the world’s biggest collection of Inuit art. This spring, work gets started on providing this collection with a fitting home at the new Inuit Art Centre.
A research project is examining how the establishment of Russia’s Northern Sea Route has shaped the lives of residents along the country’s northern coast, amid the booms and busts of industrialization.
One of Canada’s more northerly communities reinvents its relationship with a thawing landscape, reports Hakai Magazine.
The state’s subsistence hunters report the biggest problem they face isn’t declining wildlife populations, but a growing number of obstacles created by climate change, from rotten ice and melting permafrost to fallen trees scorched by wildfires.
A First Nation in Canada’s fabled Klondike saw a golden opportunity in farming, overcoming a number of challenges to help feed its people and strengthen its community.
At 29, Jordan Peterson is the youngest-ever vice president of the Gwich’in Tribal Council in Canada’s Northwest Territories. We spoke to him as part of our “Emerging Leaders” series about how he wants Indigenous youths to embrace their culture while looking to the future.
Yellowknife’s Kyla Kakfwi Scott helped start Dene Nahjo, an organization aimed at advancing social and environmental justice for northern peoples and promoting Indigenous leadership.
Mia Bennett travels throughout the Arctic studying transportation infrastructure and natural resource development to understand which projects get approved, how they get done and who’s consulted. We spoke to her as part of our “Emerging Leaders” series.
Margaret Williams Managing Director, World Wildlife Fund’s U.S. Arctic Program
In Alaska, the fourth stop of a literary tour of the Arctic, World Wildlife Fund’s Margaret Williams finds an appreciation for nature, history and culture, and offers a reminder that when change is unseen, our sense of the wildness of a landscape is unknowingly clouded.
Jannie Staffansson became an environmental chemist so people would listen to her and to Saami elders about environmental issues. Now she’s a steady voice for Indigenous rights at international climate meetings. We spoke to her as part of our “Emerging Leaders” series.
Esau Sinnok cast a vote in the U.S. presidential election this year for the first time, but already this young Iñupiat leader – as well as being a U.S. Arctic Youth Ambassador – has traveled to Paris for climate change talks and has his eye on Alaska’s governorship.
A new report released by the Arctic Council finds that the pace at which changes in the Arctic are occurring make adaptation more difficult. If policymakers don’t listen, it could lead to a dramatic loss of land and life.
An epicenter for climate change, Greenland has caught the world’s attention. For decades, Danish photographer Carsten Egevang has photographed Greenlanders and their way of life as it is threatened by the changing climate.
How Nunavut singer and Björk collaborator Tanya Tagaq turned an Inuit tradition into a feminist battle cry.
As part of our “Arctic Agriculture” series, we visit Alaskan growers who have used a government program to turn the northernmost state into America’s high-tunnel farming capital.
As part of our “Arctic Agriculture” series, Milan Shipka, director of the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, talks about Alaska’s agricultural potential.
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