Arctic Circle Assembly 2019
Þingvellir National Park, Iceland - May 2019
October 2019 - Wrapping up my second year of attending the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik, Iceland. This time around, I traveled from my home in Nuuk to contribute a short presentation on the Arctic Wetlands and Indigenous Peoples Study (AWIPS) report that I have been working on for the last 12 months during a session on wetlands research. I was extremely flattered to have the head of the Inuit Circumpolar Council and the former Lieutenant Governor of Alaska, both strong Inuit women, at my presentation. I was even more flattered that one of them used a quote from my presentation in their plenary discussion, saying “consultation is what we call it when it’s going badly.”
Other presentations during the wetlands session focused on a variety of wetlands-related topics. One focused on Iceland’s push to address carbon emissions through wetlands restoration and donations that people purchasing gasoline at certain gas stations can choose to give as a way of offsetting their personal carbon budget. Another presentation focused on the application of socio-ecological systems theory to understand human attitudes towards wetlands and create positive solutions towards change. People seemed interested and attentive which was such an unexpected surprise, as most people think of wetlands as a nuisance that should be filled in. I really appreciate the positive change in attitudes we’re seeing in society.
I was also asked to give a short presentation on Indigenous connections to changing freshwater resources as a tangential note to my wetlands research. I primarily spoke about the consequences of climate change on freshwater dependent species and peoples, such as a case of river piracy in the Yukon in 2016 (read here), temporal mismatches in the migration of salmon species and salmon-dependent species such as bears in Alaska (read here), and how climate change impacts threaten Indigenous food security in ways we have yet had to deal with such as wildlife population declines across many species simultaneously. I was happy to offer more perspective on this topic.
The Indigenous representation at Arctic Circle this year was phenomenal. The organizers gave us two opportunities to celebrate together, including the addition of two banquet celebrations called “Inuit Night” and “Greenland Night,” both of which were hugely successful. I have never been around so many other Inuit during a scientific or business conference and had the most productive and intensely fun discussions. Representation is important, and I was quite pleased with this year’s conference.
As for AWIPS, the content is all finished but it hasn’t gone to publication yet. I was so honored to be invited to share the results anyways!
