The 2011 Uummannaq Polar Institute Summer Expedition. To the North of Greenland.

Aaaaa, it’s my big honour to be one of Ole Jorgen Hammeken‘s many friends. He is the most recognizable Greenlandic man, who attracts the world’s attention to Greenland, its people and climate issues.

It were him and his wonderful wife, who run together Uummannaq Children’s Home in the settlement called Uummannaq.

It was them, who host Galya Morrell and Joel Spiegelman‘s Uummannaq Music project.

Certainly, they are those people, who share Uummannaq Polar Institute‘s vision, i.e. to conserve Greenland’s local culture and promote educational programs for young Inuit people.

UPI was founded in 2007 by Ann Andreasen and was inaugurated in 2008 by HSH the Prince Albert II of Monaco, Jean Malaurie, a distinguished French ethnographer, and by Arthur Chilingarov, polar explorer and Vice-President of the Russian Parliament.

Among other UPI’s programs is an hour and a half movie called Inuk (I wrote much about this amazing movie on this blog under the tag Inuk). The film which won the coveted Haskell Wexler Award for Cinematography at the Woodstock Film Festival during October 2010, is directed by Mike Magidson and the screenplay is co-written by him and Jean-Michel Huctin. More at http://blog.inuk-film.com/

Currently I’ve got two good news about UPI:

1. It launched its own facebook page called Uummannaq Polar Institute. Enjoy and support the authentic way of the Greenlandic life with UPI.

By the way, UPI online page is http://uummannaqmusic.com/upi/

2. UPI doesn’t have break even in summer. As you know, life never stops boiling in Uummannaq! UPI fb page’s last status says:

As soon as Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II and her husband H.R.H. Prince Henrik of Denmark departed from Uummannaq, a new expedition has left to the North. Ole Jorgen Hammeken along with Jaakuaraq, Aalibarti, Hivshu and children from UCH are heading to Qaanaaq in 4 small boats…

So far they reached the southernmost settlement in Avannersuaq (Thule district) : Savissivik. Tomorrow the crew will head to Qaanaaq, or maybe even further – to Greenland’s northernmost settlement : Siorapaluk.

Uummannaq Polar Institute is worth to follow!

Feel to share the info on Uummannaq Polar Institute

Sami men in Sweden. Photo by Bertil Ericson / SCANPIX

A very active Serge Weber, who is definitely not indifferent to the Sami people’s well-being, provided me with the link to today’s news story Lack of Sami translations in northern Sweden.

Its first abstract tells everything about the issue:

“A Swedish Radio News survey shows that despite the one-year old law making it a requirement for the local governments in northern Sweden to provide information and services to the indigenous, Sami, population, only 2 of 14 bother to do this – sparkling angry reactions from those safeguarding Sami rights and culture.”

Well, I need to say that it’s a pretty common problem in the circumpolar world.

A few months ago, the native cloth festival was held in the Siberian city of Yakutsk. Precisely, it took place in March 2010.

A friend of mine, Ajar Varlamov visited that event and brought fantastic pictures of so-called Siberian cold protection clothes, in other words, regular winter fur clothes of the nomadic Even people. Immediately, I posted them on my other blog eYakutia.com – English Yakutia.

Here I present a few of those gorgeous images dedicated solely to Even mittens. Beautiful, aren’t they?

See more Ajar Varlamov’s event photographs at eYakutia.com.

What a great man, this Jimmy Carter! In 1980, he established the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the Alaskan Interior, cutting off 19 million acres of prime boreal wilderness from the mitts of fur trappers, oil tycoons, and would-be lodge owners alike.

Only six families of white settlers were grandfathered in and allowed to keep cabins in the refuge—of them, only one still stays there year-round living off the land. His name is Heimo Korth, and he is basically the Omega Man of Americas Final Frontier.

More about this phenomenon in the “Heimo’s Arctic Refuge” VBS.tv documentary.

Produces by VBS.tv

Snow has already arrived in Lapland, Finland. In the photo: Kilpisjärvi, Lapland. Oct. 10, 2010.

What do you know about snow? The Saami do a lot. Their languages have a very rich terminology for snow. As Dr. Ole Henrik Magga noted, Saami’s knowledge of snow and ice conditions has been a necessity for subsistence and survival in the arctic and sub-arctic areas.

Snow

The word for snow in the general sense in North Saami is muohta. Corresponding forms of this word are found widely distributed through the other Saami languages. The general word for snow in South Saami, however, is lopme (related to the Finnish word lumi), and in the easternmost Saami languages forms that are related to the North Saami word vahca cold powder snow . The noun muohta is a derived from the verb muohtit to snow , and phonetically exact counterparts are found in Estonian matta to bury, cover and mate a cover(ing); a weight placed on soaking flax The common meaning that links the Estonian and Saami words is to cover with snow (e.g. Estonian: lumi matab jäljed (kinni) the snow covers the tracks ).

According to a recent explanation, this word family was borrowed from a Baltic-Slavic root *mat-, which is represented in the modern Russian motat´ to shake, beat . The original meaning of this word like that of the etymologically related root met´ was to throw . The latter root is widely distributed in the Slavic languages in the sense of to snow ; for example, the Russian metel´ blizzard is a derivative of it. Nature in the North.

Snow vocabulary

There are hundreds if not thousands of exact terms and descriptive epithets for snow, ice and similar natural phenomena in the Saami languages and their dialects. Israel Ruong classifies them as follows: a) amounts of snow, b) the composition of snow c) the bearing capacity of snow, d) the surface, level and slide quality of snow, e) expressions for being covered with snow, f) unmarked snow and tracks in the snow, g) hoarfrost and other coverings of ice and snow on plants ad trees, h) the melting and disappearance of snow, i) ice, j) the appearance of (patches of) unfrozen land, k) places where the snow remains in the summer, l) different kinds of winter pasture, incl. expressions for the surface quality of the snow.
Some examples of terms:
a) – b) – c) oppas: thickly-packed snow, still allows tolerable grazing conditions
c*earga: a hard-packed snow which one can t sink one s staff into, formed by strong wind packing the snow into hollows and depressions
d) jod*ádat: smooth skiing conditions
doavdnji: so much snow that skis, sleighs and sledges don t reach down to the ground; snow which falls on hard snow.
f) doalli, doali: winter road or track covered by snow but still distinguishable
márahat, -haga: large, beaten winter track
l) sean*as: the dry, large-grained and water-holding snow at the deepest layers, closest to the ground surface, found in late winter and spring. It is easy for reindeer to dig through sean*as.
Sarti: a layer of frozen snow on the ground below the snow layers, acting as an ice sheet. This snow formation causes poor grazing conditions.

Bibliography:
- Jernsletten Nils, 1997: pages (86-108)
- Kjellström, Rolf, 2001: page (65)
- Gaski, H. Davvi Girji Os. Kárás*johka, 1997: pages (101-108)

Via University of Helsinki’s Encyclopedia of Saami Culture.

One more interesting link

If you wish to know more Saami words for snow quality, you might also check out Dr. Ole Henrik Magga’s article Diversity in Saami terminology for reindeer and snow (the text in English, pdf).

Here are some of the terms that describe the condition and layers of snow:

?ahki “hard lump of snow… hard snowball”
geardni “thin crust of snow”
gaska-geardi “layer of crust”
gaska-skárta “hard layer of crust”
goahpálat “the kind of snow-storm in which the snow falls thickly and sticks to things”
guoldu “cloud of snow which blows up from the ground when there is a hard frost without very much wind”
luotkku “loose snow”
moarri “brittle crust of snow, thin frozen surface of snow (thicker than geardni; also of frozen crust of driven snow, ?earga, which does not quite bear; and cuo?u which begins to soften becomes moarri), thin crust of ice”
njáhcu “thaw”
ruok?a “thin hard crust of ice on snow”
sea?aš “granular snow at the bottom of the layer of snow”
skárta “thin (more or less ice-like) layer of snow frozen on to the ground”
skáva “very thin layer of frozen snow”
skávvi “crust of ice on snow, formed in the evening after the sun has thawed the top of the snow during the day”
soavli “very wet, slushy snow, snow-slush”
skoavdi “empty space between snow and the ground”
vahca “loose snow (especially new snow on the top of a layer of older snow or on a road with snow on it)”

PS. Saying a lot of thanks to Fredrik Forsberg for letting know about the existence of such interesing facts.

Photo credit the Finnish TV Yle news.

Dear fans of the coldest Siberian region of Yakutia, especially Swedish friends!

If by any chance you are or will be in the city of Orsa, Sweden, please, visit Yegor Makarov’s photo exhibition dedicated to people of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and its culture. The event will last till November 22, 2010. Further, please find more information and photographs.

About the event in short:

On the 22nd of June we had the honor of opening an exciting photo exhibition in our Art hall in Carnivore Center Gronklitt, Orsa, Sweden: Native People of Sakha.

Photographer Yegor Makrov from Yakutia presents in 39 images (50×70 cm) and 32 postcards (15×21) a fascinating wilderness, native groups, handicraft, traditions – from the ”Amazonas of north” – Yakutia.

The exhibition will after the period in Gronklitt continue on a world tour to other museums and art halls.

More info and photos at eYakutia.com – English Yakutia.

Bruce Parry (with a tripod) and his team in Yakutsk, Yakutia/Siberia

Hurray! Bruce Parry with his IndusFilm crew is in the Siberian town of Yakutsk! What’s he doing here?

Bruce Parry (born 17 March 1969, in Hythe, Hampshire, England) is a former Royal Marine instructor who is now a TV presenter and adventurer, known particularly for the documentary programme series Tribe (known as Going Tribal in the United States), co-produced by the BBC and the Discovery Channel. Resource: Wiki.

I met Bruce Parry two days ago on Lenin Avenue in Yakutsk. Actually he and his team arrived early, on June 17th. They have already visited a village near the town, went for two celebrations of Ysyakh, Yakut national holiday. One was held in Gorny ulus (three hours by a car from Yakutsk) and Megino-Kangalassky region (just in the front of Yakutsk on the opposite bank of the Lena River). On the day of the meeting, they visited Epl Diamonds’ diamonds-cutting and jewelry’s factories and drove around the downtown shooting general views of the city.

First, I would love to tell the story of how his arrival happened to be possible.

This is the picture the man with a camera (a program director) asked me to do additionally. He let Bruce Parry stand in the middle. I asked, What is the difference? He explained, Because he is the boss, and we are monkeys. But I and, perhaps, Mr. Parry think, the first one is better.

A month ago, I received a message via Facebook saying like that, “Please, get in touch with David, a IndusFilms producer.” I said, “Why not?” I wrote to David, “I was asked to get in touch with you, and that’s all what I know.” After I found out that he and his assistants tried to get in touch with me via my websites YakutiaToday.com and AskYakutia.com, but for some reasons they failed. I’ve got feeling that the mail service considered their messages as spams, but Facebook not

So… What is the famous Brit explorer and TV presenter doing in Siberia’s Yakutia?

David (the 3rd in the photo) explained:

“We’re doing a 5 part documentary series for the BBC with our presenter Bruce Parry in Greenland, Canada, Alaska, Norway and Yakutia. It’s looking at the Arctic region and discussing climate change, social change and culture from the perspective of the Arctic region as a whole. It is similar to the Amazon series we did last year.”

“It is the Yakutia episode we are working on. The main part of our shoot will be in Sakkyryr for the Ysyakh horse racing festival there and with the Evens, where we will stay for 2 weeks at an Even summer reindeer camp.”

I am really looking forward to seeing all five episodes of the Arctic documentary. Follow BBC’s announcements for the new season attentively. All what I can say is “This is fantastic!”

Director: Nicolas Vanier
Location: Topolinoe, the Verkhoyansk Range, Yakutia/Siberia.

An episode with a wolf-cub:

Synopsis by American Film Market:
Sixteen year old Sergei is the son of Boris, the head of the Batagi family of reindeer breeders. Awarded the title of herdsman, with the clan’s largest herd, he joins the Even tribe for the first time as they begin their summer cattle drive across the pastures of the Siberian mountains. As the tribe’s only source of income, these reindeer are their pride and joy and they will stop at nothing to protect them from their most bitter enemy, the Wolf.

Yeah… Nature of Yakutia is awesome!

Resource development has only led to more misery for northern Russia's indigenous peoples, Larissa Abryutina from the Russian Association of the Indigenous People of the North, tells a Laval university conference on the challenges of sustainable development and sovereignty in the Arctic on May 18.

Pollution, alcoholism, poor health care reduce life expectancy to between 40 to 45 years.

QUEBEC CITY — Many of the 280,000 indigenous peoples of Russia’s north are watching their communities and cultures teeter on the brink of extinction as economic hardships force them to leave their homelands and migrate in droves to the city.

Many of those who remain behind have abandoned traditional values and become “profit-driven in their search for compensation for their traditional lands,” Larissa Abryutina of the Russian Association of the Indigenous People of the North said May 18 in a presentation to a conference at Laval University on sustainable development and sovereignty in the Arctic.

Like other speakers, Abryutina revealed a striking irony: that it’s much easier to find bad examples of development and self-determination in the Arctic than good ones.

Abryutina, a Chukchi, is herself a casualty of the desperate choices facing northern Russian indigenous people: a doctor of radiology, she left her home region of Chukotka due to its declining standard of living.

Since the 1990s, and the fall of the Soviet Union’s Communist government, things have gone from bad to worse for northern indigenous people in Russia, Abryutina said.

And their life expectancy has fallen to between 40 and 45 years due to the environmental pollution, alcoholism and poor health care.

Russia was “naïve” to think indigenous peoples would be able to deal with the new capitalist economy, she told the gathering.

Under the Czars, who ruled Russia until 1917, they were left on their own, and only had to pay an annual tithe to their rulers.

Then, the Soviet era brought many changes, including improvements in education and health care, to northern Russia’s indigenous people, Abryutina said.

But Communism also threatened traditional activities, because nomadic peoples were collectivized into farms and communities where Russian was the language of daily life.

Many ended up dispossessed and depressed, with no land or culture.

Then, the economic reforms of the 1990s wiped out all positive achievements by decentralizing administration to the regions left in what became the Russian federation.

These regions lacked the resources to provide even the most basic services in health or education, so many villages ended up deserted and were finally closed down by the government, she said, leaving industry as the leading player.

The Nenets, the most numerous indigenous group in northern Russia, numbering 42,000, have seen gas and oil developers plunder their reindeer grazing territories, damaging the land without providing any compensation or mitigation measures, Abryutina said.

Packs of wild dogs — the descendents of pets left behind by transient workers from the South — now roam the Yamal, terrorizing the Nenets and their reindeer.

Development has also produced contaminated water, and even when industries offered compensation for the damage, locals have “never seen their clean water again,” she said.

Abryutina’s conclusion? Resource development can’t co-exist with traditional activities because “traditional lands become a wasteland of garbage.”

Even among a non-indigenous Arctic people, Icelanders, the bleak economic situation shows the disastrous result of unsustainable economic development.

In Iceland, where banks went belly-up last year because they lacked the assets to cover their debts, many families and businesses now faces bankruptcy and unemployment has tripled.

Ivor Jonsson, a former business professor at the University of Greenland, told the Laval conference that business interests controlled Iceland’s media and educational institutions, leading to a lack of criticism, corruption and today’s economic chaos.

These have been compounded by the recent volcanic eruptions in Eyjafjallajökull, he said.

Greenland’s decision to use resource development as its financial springboard to independence may also backfire if it lacks the social capacity to benefit from the bonanza, other speakers said at the conference, which took place May 17 and 18.

A recent circumpolar study and comparison of six key economic factors in the Arctic highlights the possible negative and positive impacts of resource development, said Gerard Duhaime, a sociology professor at Laval who holds a Canada research chair on comparative aboriginal conditions.

In Russia, resource development led to lower standards of living, but in Alaska, where there has been more redistribution of the money from resource development, the situation is the opposite.

Alaska shows many more positive signs of development, such as higher educational levels, a longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality, Duhaime said.

BY JANE GEORGE, NunatsiaqOnline.ca

Satellite images show that the iceberg on which Verheggen placed his sculptures in March have started to move.

ArtDaily.com reports that the big moment for the sculptures of Dutch artist Ap Verheggen has come. The iceberg in Greenland on which he placed his artwork “Dog Sled Riders” back in March has broken loose. The uncertain journey can be followed on the website www.coolemotion.org, via GPS, photos, and video.

Satellite images show that the iceberg on which Verheggen placed his art sculptures in March have started to move. It drifts away from the island of Uummannaq with an unknown destination. In the end, the iceberg melts and the metal sculptures will go down. When this will happen, no one knows.

The sculptures are a symbol for the forced changes in culture of the Inuit as a result of extreme climate change. The inhabitants are looking for a new way of living to maintain their ‘own’ identity. Verheggen wants to draw attention to the cultural consequences of the fast changing climate in the Arctic. “Climate change=Culture change” is his motto.

P.S. Just as an idea. Why not Arctic Monkeys join this project? They can play a composition on this floating iceberg with the rock-look art metal sculptures. Sounds like a joke, but it could be pretty interesting.