Arctic Peoples

The Arctic Athabaskan Council advocates strongly for action to mitigate the human induced Climate Change the world in general and the Arctic in particular is experiencing. To contribute to public awareness of the evidence of change in the Arctic region, Arctic Athabaskan Council ">AAC has produced a film called “Through Arctic Eyes”. This is now made available online.
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by Clive Tesar

The United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is an important milestone in the recognition of the rights of Indigenous Peoples. The United Nations has been working on this draft of the document for more than twenty years.

Only three of the Arctic Council nations have a seat on the Human Rights Council; Canada, Finland, and Russia. Thirty countries voted in favour of the declaration, including Finland, and twelve abstained. Canada and Russia were the only countries on the Council to vote against the declaration.

The adoption of the declaration by the Human Rights Council is a significant move, but it is not the end of the process. The document will now go to the United Nations General Assembly, where all of the states will have a vote.

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by Bobbie Jo Greenland 

There are a number of issues facing young indigenous people wherever they live in the world. In November 2005 I attended a forum in Copenhagen, Denmark, hosted by the International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA). I was invited to make a presentation on the youth issues in my home region of Northwestern Canada. There were also presentations made by youth from other parts of the world, including South America. I learned that indigenous peoples, especially indigenous youth, are facing the same struggles and experiencing similar triumphs no matter how far apart they live. This is because our peoples have gone through similar situations in history.

One of the biggest concerns among young people today is the loss of language and culture. We are living with the results of what happened to our people over generations, as people from other places tried to take away our culture and make us like them. Young people today are living in between two worlds. Many of us are educated in both the Western world and in our traditional way of life as well. It is a great challenge to keep a balance between the two.
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by Bobbie Jo Greenland

I attended the Coastal Zone Canada 2006 Youth Forum in [GP:Tuktoyaktuk], Northwest Territories, Canada, from August 11-14, 2006. This conference was about the impacts of climate change on coastal communities. Tuktoyaktuk was a good place to hold it. The community has spent millions of dollars in the past few years on putting rocks on the shoreline to try stop erosion. The warming climate is raising the sea level, and warming the permafrost that holds the shoreline together. Read the rest of this entry »

by Clive Tesar

The recent conference of the Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region wrapped up with a strong statement on climate change. The representatives of parliaments from seven Arctic countries, and representatives from the European Union parliament were meeting in [GP:Kiruna], Sweden. The parliamentarians meet every two years to discuss issues that are important to people in Arctic countries. Read the rest of this entry »

by Clive Tesar

Inuit from Russia, the United States, Canada and Greenland met in [GP:Barrow], Alaska, in July for the Inuit Circumpolar Conference Assembly. The Assembly is held every four

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years. It is an opportunity for Inuit to set policy for the international organization, and to elect a new Chair of the organization.

Alaska’s Patricia Cochran was acclaimed as the new Chair, replacing Canada’s Sheila Watt-Cloutier. In a release, Ms. Cochran spoke of the challenge facing her and the organization.

“Inuit have had success beyond our numbers when it comes to influencing many of the global processes that impact on our lives,” she said. “However, it is clear that we must become even more influential if we are to have any control over the pace of globalization and its impacts on our communities.”

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