Arctic seas
6/7/2024
Major Indigenous Arctic Knowledge Hub Released Today
First-ever detection of microplastics in the Sámi rivers and lakes. Gwich’in knowledge reaching back to Myth Time unveiled. Local observations of marine species, fish and birds shows priorities for Western Greenland. Faroe Islands communities share their 20-year-long observations of pilot whales, marine pollution and sea birds. Russian Indigenous and Siberian communities pinpoint tundra fires, preservation of nomadic lifestyles and White Sea ecosystem changes. All of this and much more are unveiled today as a part of a unique Event Database of Indigenous Knowledge across the Arctic and boreal.
EU Horizon Project “Arctic Passion” and Snowchange have worked with hundreds of Indigenous and local knowledge holders since 2021 to prepare these Event Databases across the North. The communities want to share their knowledge of the changing Arctic. Additional support was received from Oceans Wide Small-Grants Programme of Snowchange.
(Arctic Passion -related communities are marked as RED on the LEFT hand side of the navigational window. If you click there, only AP communities become visible.)
Many past environmental events that Arctic societies have lived through remain largely unknown to contemporary scientific study. We have developed a living database that can be added to and expanded to cover the whole region.
With a respectful engagement with Arctic co-researchers community- embedded IK-LK has the potential to transform and provide a more complete view of the past environmental change, enhance present monitoring activities, and to build trust between local and scientific communities. Indigenous staff was positioned as key co-researchers who also own all their knowledge. Free, prior and informed consent was implemented in each action.
Released today, these Event Databases serve as unique repositories of climate and ecological change. They also translate observations from local languages into English and present contemporary weather and ecological monitoring and use of cultural indicators, visual and oral histories and other means to establish baselines of change. Event Databases also reconstruct key events and offer historic depth to many changes at present.
Central node for all Databases is the Arctic Seas portal. Below each community Database can be accessed directly. Some of the communities will join the wider whole during the summer so the Arctic Seas portal will be updated through the season.
The Skolt Sámi Event Database focuses on discovery of microplastics both in the Näätämö river basin, region’s lakes and the Neiden Fjord. Accompanying this are the first-ever Skolt Sámi ethnobotanical overviews and drone documentations of melting palsa permafrost sites. A science paper summarizes the key findings of the interplay between Indigenous knowledge and science.
Gwich’in knowledge has been curated over the past three years with knowledge holders and experts of oral history. Presenting accounts starting from the Myth Time all the way to 2000s the Gwich’in home area is highlighted both in photos and in oral history. Drawing on hundreds of hours of expert testimony from Gwich’in elders, the database is a vital effort to centre on-the-land, lived experiences of climatic change in efforts to tackle climate change.
Hunters, fishers and researchers from the PISUNA Project and the Snowchange Cooperative present a new database of Inuit observations of climate, ecological and cultural change in western Greenland. Drawing on oral histories, self-documented videos and photos, and a decades-long Indigenous observation programme, the database is a vital effort to centre on-the-land, lived experiences of climatic change in efforts to tackle climate change in Greenland and the Arctic more broadly. The site also contains important reflections on Greenlandic history and collaboration with scientists.
Faroese sheep farmers, fishers, bird hunters, researchers and the Snowchange Cooperative present a new database of observations of climate, ecological and cultural change in the Faroe Islands.
Drawing on oral histories gathered over a twenty-year periond (2003-2023), photos and detailed hunting and fishing data, the database is a vital effort to centre on-the-land, lived experiences of climatic change in efforts to tackle climate change in the Faroe Islands and the Arctic more broadly. Whilst Faroese people are not Indigenous there is a wealth of knowledge and a large cultural heritage on the islands that was an important component of the Arctic Passion.
Several Indigenous knowledge holders and nomadic communities were a part of the Arctic Passion and Snowchange partnership until the War of 2022. They managed to work for a bit less than a year. At the outset of the War we exchanged with all teams and the unifying decision was made that the people involved wanted to share their work, knowledge and findings. In order to achieve this aim we present these materials as instructed by the communities:
Khanty researchers and the Snowchange Cooperative present a new database of Khanty observations of climate, ecological and cultural change in the Siberian taiga and tundra spanning centuries. Drawing on 15 oral histories from Khanty elders, as well as self-documented videos and photos, the database is a vital effort to centre on-the-land, lived experiences of climatic change in efforts to tackle climate change in the Eurasian North.
Herders, fishers and researchers from the Kola Peninsula and the Snowchange Cooperative present a new database of observations of climate, ecological and cultural change in southern Kola and the Ponoi River.
Chukchi and Yukaghir researchers and the Snowchange Cooperative showcase observations of climate, ecological and cultural change in the Kolyma River bain, NE Siberia.
Unalakleet, Alaska and Dease Lake in Canada will report their findings during the Summer 2024.
They will be made available at Arctic Seas Portal.
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Arctic seas
12/13/2023
2023 ends with a Snowchange collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOAA’s 2023 Arctic Report Card documents new records showing that human-caused warming of the air, ocean and land is affecting people, ecosystems and communities across the Arctic region, which is heating up faster than any other part of the world. Snowchange contributed to the report.
Summer surface air temperatures during 2023 were the warmest ever observed in the Arctic, while the highest point on Greenland’s ice sheet experienced melting for only the fifth time in the 34-year record.
Overall, it was the Arctic’s sixth-warmest year on record. Sea ice extent continued to decline, with the last 17 Septembers now registering as the lowest on record. These records followed two years when unprecedented high abundance of sockeye salmon in western Alaska’s Bristol Bay contrasted with record-low Chinook and chum salmon that led to fishery closures on the Yukon River and other Bering Sea tributaries.
“The overriding message from this year’s report card is that the time for action is now,” said Rick Spinrad, Ph.D., NOAA administrator. “NOAA and our federal partners have ramped up our support and collaboration with state, tribal and local communities to help build climate resilience. At the same time, we as a nation and global community must dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are driving these changes.”
Over the last two decades, the Finnish nonprofit Snowchange Cooperative has restored dozens of sites, positively influencing 128,000 acres (52,000 hectares) of peatlands and forest damaged by decades of industrial harvesting and forest management.
The restoration demonstrates a globally relevant climate solution that increases carbon storage, preventing greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere. The restored peatlands are also restoring water quality and bringing back fish and birds, a vital food source and draw for ecotourism.
The annual Arctic Report Card, now in its 18th year, is the work of 82 authors from 13 countries. It includes a section titled Vital Signs, that updates eight measures of physical and biological changes, four chapters on emerging issues and a special report on the 2023 summer of extreme wildfires.
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Arctic seas
7/18/2023
SKOLT SÁMI REWILDING WORK FEATURED IN A SCIENCE ARTICLE
Snowchange work with the Skolt Sámi is featured in a new peer-reviewed science article. The article discusses species on the move because of climate change and the human responses to this phenomena.
Global understanding of climate change has developed strongly in the last decades, particularly (and unfortunately) as observable impacts of climate change have increased. However, climate mitigation and adaptation efforts have not progressed at the level or scale that one might expect given this growing knowledge of climate change. A major obstacle to mitigation and adaptation is getting people to understand and relate to climate change – and be able to develop the attitudes and behaviours to take action. Our paper highlights that more effective approaches to engage people on climate change effects are urgently needed. We show that human values, trust networks, and place attachment are critical elements in developing effective and inclusive engagement on climate change.
We place our focus on ‘species-on-the-move’. Plant and animal species around the world are already shifting their distributions in response to climate change. These species-on-the-move impact ecosystem structure and function, food security, human health, livelihoods, culture and even the climate itself through feedbacks to the climate system.
In our paper, we outline how species-on-the-move also present an opportunity to engage people with climate change – specifically, by linking to human values, and connections with the places in which we live, in locally relevant yet globally coherent ways. We highlight how species-on-the-move offer emotional pathways for people to connect with the complex issue of climate change in profound ways that have the potential to engender interest and climate action.
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Arctic seas
6/12/2023
Large Marine Use and Occupancy and Traditional Knowledge Book About Oura Released
Oura Archipelago is a biocultural landscape in the Northern Baltic Sea. It is a home to a unique small-scale marine fishing community and seal hunting. Oura lifeways have been shaped by accepting innovations in fisheries, economic incentives and opportunities and limits provided by the northern marine ecosystem. Until the 1940s, the community was able to order relatively autonomously its own governance in Oura. Starting from the mid-1900s, modernization of fisheries in Finland combined with environmental pollution altered the two iconic practices – drift netting and seal hunting in Oura. A new book documents these efforts, released by Snowchange in June 2023
The book explores the ecology and notions of the self-capacity of the fishers to order their landscapes and respond to the shifting realities on the islands.
In the 2010s, strict nature protection increased external governance to the islands. The book concludes with the latest solution spaces for revitalization of this unique biocultural landscape.
Authors include Juhani Mellanoura, a biologist and TEK expert as well as Tero and Kaisu Mustonen from Snowchange.
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Arctic seas
3/16/2023
'Our oceans: a deep dive': A collection of insights and perspectives on the state of our oceans, building on a major Institute for Policy Research (IPR) events series
The oceans are vital to life on this planet. They cover 71% of our planet’s surface and host 95% of the biosphere. We rely on them to support human life and our economic, cultural, social, and environmental wellbeing. But our oceans are under threat from climate change, overfishing, and many other human-caused stressors.
Following invited talks at the IPR last year, a final report featuring several Snowchange issues and knowledge holders, such as Elder Stanton Katchatag from Unalakleet and Indigenous Alaskan author Herbert O. Anungazuk as well as several other keynote statements is now available.
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Arctic seas
12/11/2022
Messages from Unalakleet
A new Snowchange science article discusses changes in the Bering Sea and Unalakleet from the Indigenous viewpoint.
Widely recognized environmental changes have been negatively impacting communities in the Arctic for decades. The increased prevalence of open water in the Bering Sea during winter months, also known as sea ice loss, has uprooted annual traditional subsistence activities across the Bering Sea region. This article investigates the consequences of sea ice loss on traditional subsistence activities in Unalakleet, Alaska. In conjunction with the loss of sea ice over the past 30 years, the winter season in Unalakleet has shifted from cold and dry weather regimes to warmer and wetter winters. The change in winter weather and the increased prevalence of open water in winter has deeply impacted the people of Unalakleet by affecting environmental conditions and the availability of subsistence of resources, notably influencing winter and spring marine mammals hunts that people in the Unalakleet area have relied on for thousands of years. This article is guided by the perspectives, knowledge, and intuition of people from Unalakleet, and looks specifically at how the increased prevalence of open water in the Bering Sea during wintertime has impacted traditional subsistence rounds (the succession of food resources through the seasons) in Unalakleet, Alaska, in 2022.
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Arctic seas
9/18/2022
New Small Grants Cycle Opens for 2022-23
Oceans Wide Relief supported dozens of initiatives in 2021-22 across the Arctic and Pacific communities. Now the call is open for 2022 applications.
All in all the 2021-22 support programme enabled community-led responses and actions across the Arctic coasts in Greenland, Siberia, Finland and Norway, Aleuts, Chile, Aoteoroa, Taiwan and many other locations.
For the 2022-2023 season, Snowchange opens the next call of support for the Arctic and Pacific Indigenous communities.
Indigenous and local communities in the Pacific and Arctic are eligible to apply. The guiding principles of the small grants programme will aim to
Restore the collective coastal lands and access and resource rights where applicable
Support community-based protocols for maintaining biocultural systems, food security and gendered ways of knowing the Pacific
Support the sharing-gifting traditions of the region
Support inter-community cohesion and exchanges
Restore and directly reserve a portion of the small grants to support revitalization of traditional navigation and Starlore of the Pacific peoples
Proliferation of technology and solutions to make Indigenous governance and coastal tenure more visible
Implementation of Indigenous/tribal rights through traditional institutions
Knowledge holder from Kosisi.
Knowledge holder from Kosisi.
Ultimately the grants are however assessed as articulated by the community needs.
Grants will be available for 2022-23 as long as funds remain.
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Arctic seas
3/2/2022
Snowchange Documentary on Arctic Indigenous Sea Change
Co-funded by LUKE/ACAF, Snowchange-associated Skolt Sámi Pauliina Feodoroff has directed a full documentary of Arctic Indigenous Peoples and the context of climate change.
This documentary film focuses on communities and Indigenous knowledge holders in the Arctic and positions the knowledge from the communities into an international frame.
Containing never-before-seen footage from the communities and produced in part using participatory video methods the documentary highlights critically important, direct observations and messages from the changing North.
The film is based on the Arctic Traditional Knowledge Compendium released in 2013, of the same name.
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Arctic seas
1/7/2022
A century of knowledge: Kwakwaka’wakw Elders and environmental change
A bit south from the Arctic seas, a major Snowchange science paper released now that documents Kwakwaka’wakw Elders and their knowledge for over a century in Western British Columbia and adjacent sea areas.
This paper reviews a century of Kwakwaka’wakw knowledge on ecological, climate, and social change. We trace the era of Indigenous governance (about the precolonial period), especially from about 1910 to the devastation of the flood in Dzawada’enuxw First Nation territory in Kingcome, British Columbia, in 2010. This time period has been chosen as the assessment period as this is the lifetime of the 10 Elders that we collaborated with to understand and position change during this tumultuous era. We call the results of this process “a century of knowledge”. Ecological, social, and climate change are positioned with scientific literature for potential divergence/convergence. Almost all aspects of the Kwakwaka’wakw home area have undergone large-scale changes including clear-cut forestry, salmon farms, climate change affecting species ranges, cultural impositions, and colonial processes working to destroy Indigenous governance. Despite these imposed changes, the communities emerge as survivors on their own terms, including using the traditional feast system known as the Potlatch to come to terms with the devastation of the 2010 flood and beyond.
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Arctic seas
11/28/2021
Pribilof Islands Footage Added
From Alaska Archives: The tiny Pribilof Islands of St. Paul and St. George, located in the Bering Sea off the southwest coast of mainland Alaska, have a rich yet troubling history. During the 1780s, Russian fur traders forcibly relocated native Aleut (Unangax̂) peoples from Siberia, Atka and Unalaska to the Pribilof Islands to hunt fur seals.
When control of the islands transferred from Russia to the United States during the 1867 Alaska Purchase, these Unangax̂ peoples were made wards of the government by the United States, a situation that continued even past the era of WWII. As wards, most aspects of their daily lives were tightly controlled by government authorities. Nonetheless, the spirit and culture of the Unangax̂ people endured.*
These clips come from films shot on the Pribilof Islands during the late 1930s and early 1940s by L.C. McMillin. McMillin is generally regarded as having been sympathetic to the plight of the Unangax̂, despite being employed by the U.S. government to manage the islands and its peoples and to oversee seal harvests. His films reveal the rugged beauty of the islands and the resilience and tenacity of the people who lived there.**
Scenes of Unangax̂ activities include men portaging a boat and digging out a snow-drifted road, a community celebration with foot races and bobbing for apples, men moving rocks for road construction, a wedding ceremony, men and women carrying drinking water, a baseball game, a Russian Orthodox church processional, boys rock-climbing to hunt for eggs, and fur seals on a rocky beach.
To learn more about Unangax̂ culture today, please visit the website of the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island - https://tanamawaa.com/
The Clarence McMillin Collection of 16mm films, totaling over three-and-a-half hours of footage, was preserved through a grant in 2020 from the National Film Preservation Foundation (B&W/Color/Silent/16mm film).
This film sequence contains excerpts from AAF-14548 -- AAF-14562 from the Clarence McMillin Collection held by the Alaska Film Archives, a unit of the Alaska & Polar Regions Collections & Archives Department in the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
*Source: "Unangax̂: Coastal People of Far Southwestern Alaska," by Douglas W. Veltre, who may be contacted at dwveltre "at" alaska.edu. For additional references and other sources of information, please contact Film Archivist Angela Schmidt of the Alaska Film Archives at University of Alaska Fairbanks: ajschmidt *at* alaska.edu
** McMillin’s first and middle names were Lee Clarence or possibly Lee Carroll. For additional references and other sources of information, please contact Film Archivist Angela Schmidt of the Alaska Film Archives at University of Alaska Fairbanks: ajschmidt *at* alaska.edu
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