Children of the Arctic Festival. Photo By Galya Morrell.

Children of the Arctic Festival. Photo By Galya Morrell.

It is already a big event and a big tradition. This year The Children of the Arctic International Festival is arranged by Shparo‘s Adventure Club under the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for the third time. It started at the Youth Almaz Center in the town of Ruza on Aug. 20th and ended in Korelia on Sep. 02.

More than 100 children from the Arctic regions participated in the festival. They were from 11 Russian ones (Arkhangelskaia Oblast, Vologodaskaia Oblast, Moscow, Murmanskaia Oblast, Nenetzky Autonomous District, Karelia Republic, Komi Republic, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetzky Municipal District, Chukotsky autonomous district, Yamalo-Nenetzky autonomous district as well as from Greenland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden.

The mission remains the same and, probably, won’t be changed ever, as it is the key stone of the mordern Arctic youth. It’s to unite children of the Arctic region to settle the common problems under the slogan “Our Arctic – Our Future.”

The Festival is carried out by the Organizing Committee, including prominent official authorities of Russia such as Dr. Arthur Chilingarov, Special Representative for Arctic and Antarctic Issues to the President Russian Federation, Vasily Zhukov, academician, Rector of the Russian State Social University, Dr. Dmitry Shparo, General Director of the Adventure Club.

And you know what? There was our friend Galya Morrell, co-leader of Uummannaq Music Project.

(more…)

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

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.

(more…)

Can you imagine? When the rest of the world is suffering the heat and the temperature much above +40C and even +50C, people of Greenland’s Uummannaq settlement are enjoying “the sight and light and smell of the salty seawater and fresh glacier air” daily.

That’s the way Hivshu Ua described the Uummannaq life among Arctic icebergs in July 2011.

Uummannaq dwellers are very lucky to have such honor… Unfortunately, it might not last forever. In 30 years, scientists predict the ice-free(!) Arctic… :(

Who is Hivshu Ua?

He is one of great men participated in the Uummannaq Music project. Be sure to visit UM’s website, facebook page and Flickr sets to learn more and see Greenland in its currently-existing glory.

Hope, you will like this and below-published photographs and say thanks with me to Hivshu Ua, their author, for letting us to see such an Arctic summer beauty online.

(more…)


Text, photo, video (c) Galya Morrell

The second season of the Uummannaq Music project (www.uummannaqmusic.com) curated and done by Galya Morrel and Joel Spiegelman in Uummannaq, Greenland, has been finished.

It’s really hard to describe what they have completed this year. So many activities! Too many! That was the reason why the post was delayed.

Praise god, Galya created the video presentation of the Uummannaq Music project for The International Arctic Social Sciences Association (IASSA) Conference in Akureyri, Iceland :)

Galya Morell & Joel Spiegelman’s project “Uummaannaq Music”
The most unusual Music Festival at the Ice School for Orphaned Eskimo Children in Uummaannaq, Greenland, 590 kilometers north of the Artic Circle
Blog, RSS, Facebook, YouTube.

Uummannaq Music is included in Cold United’s list of Cold-Related People & Projects.

Iluliaq - Iceberg in the area of Uummannaaq, Greenland. Photo by Galya Morrell.

Iluliaq - Iceberg in the area of Uummannaaq, Greenland. Photo by Galya Morrell.

Apr. 27, 2011 – The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released the report that identifies 13 of the richest and most vulnerable places in the Arctic Ocean that should be considered for protection as summer sea ice melts and industrial activity expands into newly accessible areas.

The Bering Strait, Chukchi Beaufort Coast, Barents Sea Coast and Great Siberian Polynya are among the hotspots. Here is the full list of the 13 top priority areas featured in the report:

(more…)

Tagged with:
 

What a great video! This is the preview of the BBC documentary “Arctic with Bruce Parry.” It’s coming up soon on BBC 1. Don’t miss this unique chance and spectacular insight into the life of Uummannaq, Greenland. Check the schedule on BBC.

Follow also the amazing project Uummannaq Music run by Galya Morrell and Joel Spiegelman in Uummannaq. All project’s news updates might be found on its Facebook page as well.

This post is dedicated to my friends in Uummannaq. Greetings from the Siberian city of Yakutsk! :)

It was said to hear from Ole Jorgen about the absence of sea ice and snow in your area this winter. Hope it would be possible to backward nature processes :(

Tagged with:
 

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: (more…)

A melting iceberg is about to collapse. Photo by Galya Morrell.

A melting iceberg is about to collapse. Photo by Galya Morrell.

Galya Morrell (the Uummaannaq Music project) reports from Greenland,

“Big Blasts keep shattering the air and window glasses in Uummannaq. Those of you who’ve seen “SOS Eisberg “ – a 1933 German-U.S. coproduction starring Leni Riefenstahl in Uummannaq in her pre-filmmaking days may remember phantasmagoric collapses of skyscraper-size icebergs in Uummannaq fjord. Most of those blasts were induced by dynamite which made “SOS Eisberg” one of the most expensive films of its time. Today icebergs in Uummannaq break up inexpensively: it just happens, naturally.”

In short, thanks to climate changes, iceberg collapses happen daily. Greenland is melting.

Heroes of the Silent Snow documentary

I am really thankful to the destiny for giving me opportunity to get acquanted with Galya Morell, a New York based educator, who appeared eventually to be my best channel to many Arctic environment alert projects. Today, with her help, I learned about another fantastic Greenland project called “Silent Snow.”

“This morning Silent Snow – a must see documentary featuring the Uummannaq Music protagonists – was introduced to a forum of distinguished delegates and ambassadors at the UN. Thank you to Moki Kokoris who made it possible. Hopefully, this will lead to some concrete results,” wrote Galya Morell in her last status update on the Uummannaq Music facebook fan page on April 23, 2010.

So what is this project about? Before clicking the link “More”, please, know that I am very open-minded and extremely interested in any inspiring helpful Arctic-related projects. If you run some of them or are aware of some great initiatives, I beg you to share such info with me via our Cold United FB fan page or directly via the contact form.

(more…)


2009 - 2011 (c) ColdUnited.com
The project is powered by AskYakutia.com & eYakutia.com