Independent filmmaker Bertrand Lozay have made a video performance alone on the Greenlandic sea-ice.

As a video-artist mr. Lozay got his movie screened in several places in Europe and Greenland. This shows you a clip of the 30 minutes DVD. The DVD is available in French, English, Greenlandic and Danish and can be purchased by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Canada has announced that it will host a high-level meeting to discuss the future of economic development and environmental protection in nations bordering the Arctic Ocean in Chelsea, Quebec on March 29, 2010.

Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Laurence Cannon described the upcoming gathering as a means to "provide an opportunity for Arctic Ocean coastal states to prepare for and encourage development that has positive benefits, including economical and environmental. It will reinforce ongoing collaboration in the region, including in the Arctic Council."

Minister Cannon has invited his counterparts from the five countries bordering the Arctic Ocean to the summit, but has received harsh criticism for excluding representatives from Arctic Indigenous organizations, particularly the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) and the Arctic Athabaskan Council (AAC).

AAC International Chair Bill Erasmus responded to Minister Cannon's exclusion saying: "We don't see how the minister can discuss 'responsible development' in the Arctic with his counterparts from the United States, Russia, Denmark/Greenland and Norway without representatives of northern Canada."

Pointing out that AAC and five other Arctic Indigenous Peoples organizations are permanent participants to the eight nation Arctic Council Mr. Erasmus said "It makes no sense for us to be included in the Arctic Council but excluded in meetings of the five Arctic Ocean states".

Erasmus commented that Minister Cannon has billed the summit as a chance to "reinforce ongoing collaboration in the region, including in the Arctic Council," to which Erasmus added: "We invite the Minister to tell us how this will be achieved when we are not even in the room."

 

ICC Canada president Duane Smith also released a statement urging Cannon to include indigenous representatives at the summit "because Inuit are a coastal people, because the summit is about the Arctic Ocean coast, because Mr. Cannon underlined the importance of our involvement in multilateral meetings outside the Arctic Council."

Some have raised concerns that this so-called A-5 meeting, paired with the May, 2008 Illulissat meeting signals a disturbing trend that could weaken the Arctic Council as a high-level forum dealing with Circumpolar issues.

Gunn-Britt Retter of the Saami Parliament in Norway said: "It's our concern that we see some of the states involved in the Arctic Council now ... move the discussions out of the Arctic Council and to create kind of separate bodies."

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Link: Canadian Chair's summary

The IPY Oslo Science Conference will be the largest polar science event to date! It will demonstrate, strengthen, and extend the International Polar Year's accomplishments in science and outreach. The conference is an essential opportunity to display and explore the full breadth and implications of IPY activities. The international and interdisciplinary science conference will in particular highlight the global impact of the changes that have been observed in the Polar Regions. The IPY-OSC steering committee received more than 2200 abstracts from 58 countries on deadline, however, as a courtesy to some partners, in particular Antarctic scientists returning from the field, the committee has decided to slightly extend the deadline until January 25, 2010. Submit your abstract now!

PLEASE NOTE: PolarTEACHERS can still apply, and PolarCINEMA receives entries until 15th of February.

Over 100 conveners are being brought together to review the submitted abstracts, which are categorized into 6 overarching conference themes including: Theme 1. Linkages between Polar Regions and global systems Theme 2. Past, present and future changes in Polar Regions Theme 3. Polar ecosystems and biodiversity Theme 4. Human dimensions of change: Health, society and resources Theme 5. New frontiers, data practices and directions in polar research Theme 6. Polar science education, outreach and communication Limited travel support is available for researchers through the International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Priority will be given to young researchers and educators. These travel grants are available for US researchers, teachers and foreign scientists working at US institutions. More information can be found here. The International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) also provide travel grants for early career scientists to attend the IPY Oslo Science Conference. A special committee appointed by the conference organizers will coordinate the selection procedure. Further announcements regarding the stipend and travel support for early career scientists and an overview of conference activities especially focused on early career scientists can be found on the APECS website.

Discovering the Arctic is the name of a web learning facility developed and recently launched by the Royal Geographical Society. It is aimed at the secondary school level (14-16 year olds) in the United Kingdom. According to the Royal Geographical Society, it is intended to be a resource to be dipped into depending on specific curriculum needs and priorities.
The Discovering the Arctic website seems biased toward what, according to a widespread view, constitutes the quintessential Arctic, viz. the high North of Greenland and Canada, and thus gives preference to the Inuit whereas peoples and places of Arctic Russian Federation get comparatively less coverage.

While tending to over-expose the Inuit, at the same time the information rendered about Inuit is rather superficial and sometimes incorrect. For instance, the website makes no attempt to correct the common misunderstanding that Inuit is a noun in the singular that becomes Inuits in the plural, whereas Inuit is in fact plural of the singular Inuk. 

Bearing in mind that the main target group is non-Arctic secondary school children and that, consequently, the knowledge presented should not be too specialised or complex, even so, or even more so, the Royal Geographical Society's learning facility should correct rather than reproduce common misrepresentations of this sort. Hopefully, it will do so in its future versions. Otherwise, this resource appears well conceived pedagogically and deserves the chance to evolve, perhaps by incorporating in its updated versions mechanisms that allow interactive feedback from advancing pupils or from expert circumpolar youth. Such feedback could help the website improve itself and eventually become truly state of the Arctic.

The Riddu Riddu Festival presents an Indigenous performance in the lavvu (traditional Saami tent) that has been set up on the North Atlantic Quay starring Inger Biret Gaup and Kristian Mølgaard.

Experience a magnificent performance combining Joik, the traditional chanting song of the Sami people, and mask dancing from Greenland. The performance exposes two genuine indigenous expressions and is a unique meeting between two indigenous people of the North.

Inger Biret Gaup and Kristian Mølgaard will perform on:

MONDAY 14th of december at 4 pm

TUESDAY 15th of december at 4 pm

WEDNESDAY 16th of december at 12:15 pm