Close to a hundred years ago, after having viewed the film "In the Land of the Headhunters", director Edward Curtis' cinematic portrayal of "full-blooded" Kwakiutl life on the North West coast of America, one film critic wrote in his column: "The Indian mind is, I believe, constitutionally incapable of acting; it cannot even grasp the meaning of acting as we understand it [..] They are natural in every move [..]"

Since then, the idea of constitutional sincerity of the native mind has stood the test of time. One more proof of the power of this idea over the mind of the general public was screened in the Polar Cinema theatre of the recently completed Oslo Science Conference (OSC), i.e., in the form of the feature film "Inuk" by filmmaker Mike Magidson.

Or rather, in the form of the reactions of the audience to the preview of the film that will officially open at the Inuit Circumpolar Council's upcoming General Assembly in Nuuk. According to the official weblog of the OSC, “powerful and authentic” was the response of a packed cinema.

During the audience questions session following the OSC Polar Cinema preview, director Mike Magidson, screenwriter and anthropologist Jean-Michel Huctin, and lead character Ole Hammeken played along with the commonly held belief in indigenous incapability of pretense, dissimulation, and acting anything other than what we are.

“We wanted to tell the real story”, Jean-Michel Huctin said to the audience. Paradoxically, this ambition of the filmmakers meant turning from documentary to the feature film format or to this particular format in which being what you are and acting it imperceptibly blend into each other. The result is a hybrid that at the same time is deemed authentic and real.

The real story, as it is, centers round a long dog sled trip on which Inuk, a 16 year old boy who is taken away from his alcoholic mother and placed in an orphanage, gets teamed up with seasoned bear hunter Ikuma. Ikuma helps him get to grips with the negligences of a low-life upbringing and get back in contact with his true origin in the indigenous hunting culture.

About the fact that there are no professional actors in the film, Mike Magidson told the audience in Oslo: “They are ordinary people playing roles close to their real lives: teenagers from a home for neglected Inuit children and local seal hunters. This illustrates just how authentic the film is.”

There is also something about the location of the film, Uummannaq and surrounding nature in North-West Greenland, something peculiar, authentic and yet fictitious. The story of Uummannaq and its inhabitants acting themselves goes back at least to 1933 when German director Arnold Fanck shot the search and rescue drama “S.O.S. Eisberg” in this area. Half a century later, in 1986, the Danish film “Tukuma” was also shot on this location.

Since then, a number of films, several of which features Ole Hammeken as a local hunter, have been set in Uummannaq and surroundings. Besides “Inuk”, a drama-documentary entitled “Silent Snow” directed by Jan van den Berg was also pre-released at the OSC Polar Cinema. Hammeken and one or two others play roles “close to their real lives” in both films.

Moreover, impacts of climate change are staged by both productions. In “Inuk” the discourse on climate change is suggested via a flashback scene from Inuk’s early childhood that shows him experience his own father fall through treacherously thin ice and drown. Later in the film, the same thing is about to  happen to Ikuma, however, now Inuk is big and strong enough to pull the unfortunate bear hunter back up on the ice and bring him to the shelter of a hunting cabin.

Yet, one of the really great merits of the film “Inuk” and its makers is that it puts climate change and aboriginal culture into perspective by linking both to the social challenges, the facts of child neglect and substance abuse, that make up the true story of many a modern day Arctic indigenous community.

As, moreover, it is beautifully shot and well edited, and as members of the non-professional cast, despite constitutional incapabilities, manage to pull off some pretty convincing performances and stand out fotogenically from the silver screen – in particular Hammeken and Gaaba Petersen as Inuk – this film appears as one of the grand clous of the OSC, not only with regard to indigenous imprints on the conference, but altogether.

This is all the more remarkable as indigenous people, to the extent that they appeared at all, did so as objects of social scientific scrutiny rather than as participants. Social science itself had barely managed to carve out a niche for itself at the natural science dominated conference. And whereas scientist of whatever sort have funding secured to go to conferences, the organizers had not managed to get space agency funding in place for indigenous participants.

True, a sizeable Saami delegation had pitched laavu tents in front of the conference venue and organized panel debates and food tasting events. Professor Ole Henrik Magga of the Saami University College and Mr. Sergei Kharyuchi of the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON) both adressed the 2500 conference attendants during one of the morning plenaries. And, rounding of indigenous contributions in Oslo, the Association of World Reindeer Herders as well intervened, they too with a film that got presented by the association’s chair, Mr. Mikhail Pogodaev.

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.

James Stotts has been selected Chair of Inuit Circumpolar Council. In a press release of 18 June ICC announced the immediately effective appointment of Mr. Stotts as its Chair. Mr. Stotts is an Alaskan Iñupiaq from Barrow with extensive experience in circumpolar and international matters. He replaces Ms. Patricia Cochran, who resigned as Chair after having lead ICC since 2006. In a recently circulated message the Danish Chairmanship of the Arctic Council announced the appointment of Ms. Sheila Riordon as Canada's new Senior Arctic Official effective 4 August. Ms. Riordon is Director General, Environment, Energy and Sustainable Development Bureau, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. She replaces Ms. Adèle Dion, Canada's SAO for the previous three years.

At a meeting on July 27, the Council of the European Union approved a ban on selling of sealskin products within its member states. The ban will come into force in 2010. Canada and Norway find that the ban violates the World Trade Organization's guidelines, and intends to challenge it at the WTO. Greenland's Premier Kuupik Kleist and other Inuit leaders like ICC vice-president Violet Ford have criticised the ban for being incompatible with international agreements and human rights, whereas Mary Simon, President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, spoke of a cynical and unjustified decision:

The seal ban is an abomination because it directly attacks cultures, communities, and livelihoods that represent a basic means of living for many here in Canada, using groundless accusations influenced by animal rights propaganda campaigns. And today we are witnessing the EU’s willingness to ignore its own trade rules and relations to please certain myopic self-interests while trying to claim some moral high ground—it doesn’t add up.

The disagreement between sealskin producing countries, subsistence hunting peoples and an EU influenced by animal rights opinions has been building up for a while. Earlier this year, at the Arctic Council Ministerial meeting in late April, the EU was denied status as Permanent Observer as the Arctic Council decided to continue discussing the role of its observers. EU reacted to this by sending only officials and no commissioners to the meeting in Tromsø, Norway. The Arctic Council decision also affected other applicants for permanent observer status - China, Italy and South Korea - and prevented them from becoming permanent observers.

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by Clive Tesar Canadian Inuit are opposing vigorous lobbying efforts to get the polar bear listed as “threatened” under the American Endangered Species Act. The US government has been considering the action since 2006. Now three conservation groups, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace are threatening to sue the US government to get it to proceed with the listing. Canadian Inuit say the environmentalists are taking aim at the wrong target. Two organizations that represent Inuit in Canada are disagreeing with the tactic of using the polar bear to try to force the American government to take action on climate change. Duane Smith, the president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (Canada) says,

“I don’t see how listing it as threatened will complement the sustainability of the population. It is climate change that is the problem, not the sustainable hunting of polar bears.”

Some polar bears in Canada are currently hunted by American hunters, who pay well for the experience. The hunt brings more than one and half million dollars a year into small Inuit communities in the territory of Nunavut. The listing of polar bears would likely threaten that hunt, and the money it brings into the communities.

“Even with the sport hunts we use dog teams, a portion of tags also go toward subsistence harvesting, and we ensure that all the meat and other parts of the Polar Bear are fully utilized,”

says Smith.

“Our hunters and guides benefit economically and we are able to continue with our culture, enjoy the benefits of what we use, and ensure that this is done in a responsible and sustainable manner.”

At the moment, Inuit are convinced that polar bears are being hunted at sustainable levels. Whether or not that level of hunting will still be sustainable in the future, after the effects of climate change become more severe, remains to be seen. The bottom line is that stopping people from hunting polar bears now will not protect populations of polar bears in the future. Taking action on climate change now, on the other hand, will protect populations of polar bears in the future