Members of the Ran herders collective after the court decision.

What a great news! Happy about the Samis!

The Swedish Supreme Court has upheld the lower courts, in a landmark decision that recognizes the rights of Sweden’s indigenous population and their reindeer herding.

The following news story was posted on Alaska Dispatch as part of Eye on the Arctic, a collaborative partnership between public and private circumpolar media organizations.

The case has been before the courts here for 14 years. In 1997, 104 landowners in the northern province of Västerbotten sued three reindeer herding collectives owned by indigenous Sami, or Lapp, people in the area. They charged that reindeer grazing was causing major damage to their land and forests, and protested that the Samis’ traditional rights in the area were not legal.

The Samis argued that they had been herding there for countless generations, and before the Swedes had moved into the north. Both a district court and an appeals court agreed with the Samis, and the case finally ended up in the Swedish Supreme Court.

Olle Larsson, one of the reindeer herders, expressed his relief to Swedish Radio News:

“This feels incredibly good,” he says. “It’s a great relief to know that we can continue to graze our reindeer in the future.”

The court’s decision creates a precedent for indigenous rights, and will be studied closely. The Samis’ lawyer Camilla Wiklund:

“This sets the conditions for the future,” she tells Swedish Radio News. This will put a stop to similar cases farther north, and we hope it will also apply farther south, where we have had problems before.”

Photo credit: Ulrika Holmberg, Sveriges Radio.

A Siberian hunter silver sunglasses in the palaeontology museum of the Bötönkös village near Batagai in Verkhoyansky region, Yakutia, Siberia, Russia. Cool! An ancient snow-n-sun protection thing! A picture by Ajar Varlamov.

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 new video from Galya Morrell and Joel Spiegelman‘s Uummannaq Music project. Created and performed by Kevin Morrell.

The video information:

Uummannaq! is written and performed by Kevin Morrell is based on a true story, except for the parts that aren’t. Kevin, the NYC iliarsuk, lonely and hungry, heads to Uummannaq to meet Pipaluk, the beauty.

Glossary: Iliarsuk=”fatherless, orphan”. Koodlooktoo =”the famous Greenlandic orphan who used to live closer to the Pole than any other human being and who caught the white owl for Adm. Robert Peary”. Pipaluk=”the little small nothing”.

Needless to say, that in the country of understatements, which Greenland definitely is, “the little small nothing” means no less than “the great big something”. We also know that every great hunter and every great leader once used to be an orphan.

Galya Morrell, the co-founder of the Uummannaq Music project, says about the video:

“On New Year’s day some of our teenage Uummannaq Music fellows happened to be stranded in NYC. What can you do when all parties and fireworks are over and pretty much everything in your neighborhood is shut down? Have more champagne? More smoke? Or maybe do something better – maybe write and perform a song. A song about Uummannaq?”

“Uummannaq Music’s biggest New Year resolution was to fight the Perlerorneq worldwide. Perlerorneq, which can be literally translated as a “burden of weight of life”, makes us depressed, sad and unhappy. Like corrosion, it eats our souls and bodies from inside out. In 2011 we will do all what we can to fight this nasty disease that proves to be very contagious. The medicine may be light, art, music or even a smile. The smile does the same as Xanax, but has not side effects. And this is exactly what Uummannaq! song is about.”

Announcement from Joel Spiegelman:

“Our music festival in Uummannaq, Greenland will be hosting a Vivaldi Fest beginning next April 2011″

More about the Uummannaq Music project.

The Uummannaq Arctic glasses designed by Cool(E)motion to raise funds for Children Center in Greenland

This is really cool what Dutch artists, of the cool(E)motion Arctic Arts project, do for the sake of Children’s Center in Uummannaq, Greenland.

I’m following these cool(E)motion guys’ achievements. I wrote about them previously in the post Iceberg with Dutch Artist Ap Verheggen Artworks Breaks Loose.

It was them, who put a big sculpture on an iceberg and let them roaming from the Greenlandic settlement of Uummannaq across the Arctic waters and it was them, who cried out about the apparent climate change affect, when the iceberg got melted and collapsed just in a few months, faster than expected.

This time they are promoting the Uummannaq Arctic glasses they designed on the basis of traditional Inuit sunglasses. Their cool(E)motion glasses are mordern, high-tech and have all Inuit glasses ability to protect eyes from bright sunshine and snowstorms.

Do you remember Galya Morrell‘s video of the recent New York City blizzards? Sharing the video, she said, “I miss the Uummannaq glasses. They could protect my eyes here!” She didn’t really expect to experience snowstorms in NYC. Who could?! She regreted that she had left them in Greenland.

The Arctic glasses can be very demanded worldwide. Indeed, did you expect heavy snowfalls in Europe and even Las Vegas? No one. These glasses are good to protect your eyes from sudden nature disasters. It’s serious, no jokes.

One pair cost 49 EUR. Cool(E)motion says, “Of every frame more than 10% is directly transferred to the Children’s home in Uummannaq, a project by Ann and Ole-Jorgen Hammeken.” Learn more about the Arctic glasses at NRGsociety.com.

With this new product, Dutch artists are appealing to the world’s attention for a social problem. They designed an object which is inspired by the problem itself.

Further, see celebrities wearing the Arctic sun glasses.

A British adventure TV show star, Bruce Parry, is wearing shades to promote Uummannaq Polar Institute. He was visiting Uummannaq to make an episode of the Arctic documentary that is on BBC2 on air now.

By the way, Bruce Parry was in my area with the same purpose too. Check exclusive photographs of his expedition to Siberia’s Arctic at eYakutia.com.

In the above video: Princess Maxima Zorreguieta and Crown Prince Willem Alexander experience Polar Glasses. They are very wondered about the effects of these magical way of looking to the Arctic.

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!”

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

Here I would like to share the current results of the Siberian part of the Snow Change International Research Project realization. It took me real efforts to find this information. The project I am about described has its own website, but its owner doesn’t have time to publish a very interesting research results info on its online resource. Therefore, I asked a regional coordinator, the Northern Forum Academy chairman, Vladimir Vasiliev, to present the text to me. He did, but it was totally written in Russian. So I have translated it into English and not sure yet if some terms sound correctly. If any, just let me know about mistakes.

About: SnowChange is a not-for-profit independent cooperative organisation with headquarters in Finland. Head of International Affairs: Tero Mustonen
Status: Active. Website: SnowChange.org.

Project Mission

The international community network of SnowChange spans all eight Arctic states. Most of the member communities and families are from the various Arctic Indigenous Nations and other subsistence communities.

The project involves working with the various Northern areas and peoples on the topics of ecological, especially climatic and weather changes from the scientific and traditional knowledge point of view. In addition to the community documentation Snowchange as well works to advance local Indigenous knowledge in the global context and advance decolonisation of the North in the face of rapid changes.

The scientific priority of Snowchange is currently in the following areas of the North:
- The Saami territories of Finland, Russia, Sweden and Norway
- Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Murmansk and Republic of Karelia in Russian Federation
- Savo, North Karelia and Kainuu, Finland
- Iceland and Faroe Islands
- British Columbia, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada
- Alaska, USA

In addition to the operations in all Arctic countries (United States / Alaska, Canada, Iceland, Greenland and Faroe Islands (Denmark), Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russian Federation) SnowChange has partners in Bolivia, Nepal, Ghana and New Zealand.

Report on the Snow Change project realization in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)
Information from its regional coordinator, Vladimir Vasiliev

SnowChange NGO (Finland), the Academy of the Northern Forum (headquarter in Yakutsk, Yakutia/Siberia) and the Northern Indigenous Peoples Research Institute of the Siberian Affiliate of the Russian Academy of Science work in cooperation on the implementation of the project “Snow Change: Northern Indigenous Peoples’ Views on Climate Change and Ecology” on the territory of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) for the last five years, since 2005.

The main objective of the regional project realization is the same. It is to research Northern-Siberian indigenous peoples’ cumulative knowledge on local climate change and ecology. As far as you know, the Northern peoples kept the traditional way of life and continue living in the tight interaction with nature, therefore any happening climate changes affect their lives. Traditional knowledge is still not so much demanded by scientists, but it remains to be of great value and able to contribute greatly to the mankind development.

As mentioned above, the project embraces the whole Arctic zone. In Siberia’s Yakutia field studies were done and still going on in two places – in Nizhne-Kolymsky region (North-East Yakutia) and around the Evenk settlement of Iengra in Nerungrinsky region (South Yakutia).

Local snow reports confirm climate changes taking place in their areas

Proofs are the changes of snow cover, water levels & fauna on rivers and lakes (in terms of freezing-over & ice-drifting periods, food fishes courses dates), permafrost conditions (accelerating river banks erosion, small lakes disappearance in tundra, destruction of mammoth fauna & exuviae), forest growth expansion to the North (forest-related plants and animals started appearing in tundra), altered birds migration dates, increased atmospheric precipitation quantity (deeper snow hampers reindeer wintering, partial territories waterlogging), etc.

More problems are taking ground in reindeer herding

Wild reindeer migration routes are changed, the same happens to domestic reindeer herding tracks. Both routes cross each other. As a result, wild reindeer trample down pastures and take home animals away. Everything is accompanied by fast-growing wolves population, intensive snowstorms with immediate ice/snow melting afterward, unexpected & unwanted rains in the early winter. All these factors make difficulties for nomad herders to choose the suitable route for pasturing reindeer in November and December. This period is essential. It is the very time to define places for keeping animals for the whole winter period.

Late freezing-over of rivers affects hunters’ work

They get unable to reach their field stations on time, as their ways become unexpectedly longer due to additional lakes-around riding/trekking. As a result, they miss furry animals’ autumn crossing. Besides, late deep snow appeared to cause the early deterioration of hunters’ snowmobiles. With constant animals migration routes changes, many hunters stay eventually without preys.

Fishermen endure troubles as well

Waterways alteration has an influence on fishes, their summer-autumn courses, quantity, and types. Permafrost melting partly results in the disappearance of fishery lakes, late river freezing-over in the omission of ice-fishing opportunity.

Affects on the Northern peoples’ beliefs

With climate changes, Siberian indigenous peoples’ world view and beliefs happened to be also endangered, as they are tightly related to the environment.

Additional research

Special studies were done on women roles in traditional societies, precisely on their social status, property responsibility, participation in the decision-making process at families, relationships in community, village administration, role in child upbringing, language, culture & traditions maintaining, and other aspects.

Separate studies were dedicated to the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples’ arts – their sewing national technology, ornament, processing, wood carving, bone souvenirs production.

Much attention was paid to environmental issues. Over the years of using lands in traditional ways, indigenous peoples have created an unique system of interaction with nature, have developed the traditional environmental ethics, which is becoming under threat since the start of industrial and free market relations development.

Research results presentation

The first results of climate change observations on the basis of Siberian indigenous peoples’ knowledge (permafrost melting, floods and erratic weather conditions) were presented at the North and Technology International Seminar at EXPO-2005 in Nagoya (Japan) in August 2005 and at the Indigenous Peoples Conference in Anchorage (Alaska/USA) in September of the same year.

A preliminary presentation of project results was held at the international conference “Snow Cover: Traditions of the North” in the Siberian/Yakutian city of Nerungri and the Iengra settlement in April 2007.

On Dec. 3-7, 2008, in the framework of the International Polar Year there was held the project’s conference in New Zealand with representatives of the world’s indigenous peoples.

P.S. The indigenous peoples’ lives in Arctic is tough. Climate changes according to the last locals’ snow reports make their lives more difficult. They do not state about any global warming facts and effects. However, what northern nomads noted and compared in the terms of long and current history is not good. Apparently, Arctic is not ski resort with glamor blue ice snow in the background and nice snow songs tuning in the air. It is the place of big concern.

However, I and my relativies use some of the listed tips only:

• We check the seams around doors and windows before the start of the winter.
• We prefer not to use a dishwasher.
• My relatives, who have private houses, check attic insulation regularly.

Eliminate drafts: Check the seams around doors and windows. If you can see light or feel a cool breeze, apply caulk or weatherstripping to seal the area. A thermal leak detector is a handheld device that also can help identify leaks as well as areas where insulation can be improved.

Check attic insulation: Help prevent heat from escaping through your ceilings by having a proper amount of insulation in your attic. Access doors to attics and crawl spaces often have gaps between their frames and their openings. Adding weatherstripping and insulation to these areas will produce a tighter and more energy-efficient living area.

Maintain your heating and cooling system: Keep your home’s HVAC filter clean and change it at least every other month. Trim brush and clean leaves from around the outdoor unit, and move furniture and rugs off of floor vents.

This is good time to have a licensed contractor give your HVAC system an inspection and tune-up. Leaky ducts can waste up to one-third or more of the hot or cool air your system produces. If your system is old, consider upgrading to a more energy-efficient unit.

Get a programmable thermostat: Programmable thermostats are another easy way to conserve energy without sacrificing comfort. Pre-programmable settings allow you to set room temperatures that minimize HVAC use when you are away from the house while maintaining comfortable room temperatures when you are at home.

Use your ceiling fan year round: Most ceiling fans have a switch that reverses the direction of the fan blades so that in the cool winter months, a gentle updraft can force the warm air near the ceiling down to the occupied parts of the room.

Smart cooking and cleaning: Use the lid to cover pots and pans when you are cooking. This reduces the amount of time it takes to bring pots to temperature and the amount of heat necessary to keep dishes at the desired temperature while cooking.

A dishwasher can use half of the energy and one-sixth of the water as hand washing. Remember to only run your dishwasher when it’s fully loaded and then let your dishes air dry.

Landscape your yard: In addition to looking great, landscaping can have a profound impact on your summer and winter heating bills. Plant trees that shade your home from summer heat then lose their leaves in the fall so the winter sun warms your home during the day. If your home receives direct wind, consider installing thick trees or shrubs like evergreens as a wind break.

Implementing these simply, energy conservation techniques will help you save money while providing your family with a warm, comfortable home throughout the cold winter months.

Via TheCitizen.com

Here are what he came out with.

via oka2 Photography