Arctic Peoples

by Paul Kaludjak
What should the Canadian federal government do in the face of the continued American rejection of Canada’s assertion of sovereignty over the Northwest Passage? Inuit occupy and travel throughout the area that Washington claims to be international waters. We will be most affected if the passage is opened to shipping as a result of climate change.

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Arctic Council Ministerial meeting" id="image75" title="Indigenous Leaders at the Arctic Council Ministerial meeting" src="http://www.arcticpeoples.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/pp_salekhard.jpg" />

At the Arctic Council Ministerial meeting in [GP:Salekhard], Russia, Indigenous Leaders from the circumpolar Arctic region delivered strong messages to the Arctic Council .

Watch the statements here in their original languages. Russian/English transcripts will be added later.

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Arctic Indigenous Leaders will be in [GP:Salekhard], Russia near the end of October for meetings of the Arctic Council . This is the highest level meeting of the council, held once every two years, in which many of the Arctic states are represented by their Foreign Ministers. These “Ministerial” meetings give direction for the work of the Council for the next two years.

The Indigenous Leaders are hopeful that this meeting will produce a plan that results in real action on climate change by the Council. Following the release of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment during the last Ministerial meeting, Indigenous Peoples expected that the Council would follow up on the obvious needs for both mitigation and adaptation as responses to the present and coming levels of climate change. In a statement delivered during the last Arctic Council meeting in Syktyvkar, the Indigenous Leaders made a statement on the Council’s climate change action to date, calling it “deeply disappointing”.

The Leaders made some suggestions on how to improve the Council’s climate change response, including the involvement of more experts and the development of “an impacts and adaptation program that includes community-based pilot projects on adaptation, and stresses comparative work on education, outreach and communications, and capacity building.”

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AIA has published a newsletter. The focus in this edition of the newsletter is:

Special Interest, Articles:

• Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning Project (PSP)
• Bering Sea Sub-Network (BSSN)

Individual Highlights:

• AIA Staff and Board
• AIA Projects
• Industry Acronyms
• Calendar of Events

The Aleut International Association (AIA) is an Alaska Native not-for-profit corporation registered in the State of Alaska, United States, in 1998.

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