CMM11: Inuit & Qallunaat Concepts of Arctic Marine Space in Maritime Transport Policies
 

Wel­come to “Inuit & Qal­lu­naat Con­cepts of Arc­tic Marine Space in Mar­itime Trans­port Poli­cies” offered March 2012 by the Coastal & Marine Man­age­ment pro­gram, Uni­ver­sity Cen­tre of the West­fjords, Ísafjörður, West­fjord, Ice­land. This site pro­vides a course descrip­tion, course syl­labus and readings/research mate­ri­als. Join us as the course unfolds in Ísafjörður in the West­fjords, Ice­land! 

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Course Outline
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Course Instructor


Nadine Fabbi & one of Churchill, Manitoba’s sweet­est sled dogs!
 Nadine C. Fabbi is currently researching Canadian Inuit political mobilization in the Arctic region – both geopolitical self-determination and emerging strategies in educational policy. In 2010 she was awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship from University of the Arctic and the Government of Canada for her proposal, “Arctic Educational Policies and their Impact on Canada’s Leadership Role in the Circumpolar World.” In 2007 Nadine utilized a Government of Canada Faculty Research Grant, “Inuit Homelands in Canada” to design the first Task Force on the Arctic. In 2009 she was awarded a Program Enhancement Grant to take 13 University of Washington students to Ottawa as part of the first Task Force on Arctic Sovereignty co-taught with Professor Gallucci. Nadine has travelled to Alaska, the Yukon, Greenland, Iceland and Siberia and has taught two summer programs on Inuit homelands for the University of Alberta. In 2008 she was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the International Council for Canadian Studies in recognition of her contributions to Canadian Studies. She is currently enrolled in a doctoral program in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of British Columbia.

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Course Descrip­tion
Welcome to “Inuit & Qallunaat Concepts of Arctic Marine Space in Maritime Transport Policies” offered March 2012 by the Coastal & Marine Management program, University Centre of the Westfjords, Ísafjörður, Westfjord, Iceland. This site provides a course description, course syllabus and readings/research materials. Join us as the course unfolds in Ísafjörður in the Westfjords, Iceland! – Nadine

How do we under­stand the Arc­tic marine envi­ron­ment and how does this under­stand­ing trans­late into mar­itime trans­port poli­cies and ulti­mately into emerg­ing forms of gov­er­nance for the Arc­tic region?

For the Inuit, marine space – sea ice and open sea – is a source of food, skins for tra­di­tional cloth­ing, mate­ri­als for art, and serves as a plat­form for cul­tural and edu­ca­tional activ­i­ties. Inuit iden­tity, at its core, is based on free move­ment on nunan­gat (land, sea and ice). Qal­lu­naat (non-Inuit) have tra­di­tion­ally used the Arc­tic seas for eco­nomic gain to sup­port explo­ration or extrac­tion of nat­ural resources, tourism, future fish­eries and ship­ping routes. As a result, how Arc­tic marine space is con­ceived has con­sid­er­able vari­a­tion result­ing in devel­op­ing ten­sions and dis­putes over own­er­ship and use. These dif­fer­ing con­cepts shape the agenda of Arc­tic mar­itime trans­port policies.

Qal­lu­naat poli­cies focus on safety and envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion or short-term sus­tain­abil­ity pri­mar­ily to sup­port near future eco­nomic devel­op­ment. The pol­icy of the inter­na­tional Inuit asso­ci­a­tion, the Inuit Cir­cum­po­lar Coun­cil, “The Sea Ice is Our High­way: An Inuit Per­spec­tive on Trans­porta­tion in the Arc­tic” (2008), calls for a dif­fer­ent type of sus­tain­abil­ity. Inuit sus­tain­abil­ity is based on main­tain­ing the nat­ural order for hun­dreds and even thou­sands of years (p. 22). Given these dif­fer­ing con­cepts of Arc­tic marine space and the values/policies they gen­er­ate, how can we suc­cess­fully resolve mar­itime trans­port disputes?

This course will pro­vide a crit­i­cal foun­da­tion for under­stand­ing marine trans­port in the Arc­tic region – a region com­pris­ing much of Inuit tra­di­tional home­land. Lec­tures will include an overview of the geog­ra­phy of the Arc­tic Ocean includ­ing major ports, tra­di­tional travel and ship­ping routes; the his­tory of Arc­tic marine trans­port for Inuit and Qal­lu­naat; dif­fer­ing con­cepts of Arc­tic marine regions; actors/stakeholders in the Arc­tic; Arc­tic mar­itime orga­ni­za­tions, think tanks and key schol­ars; cur­rent marine trans­port dis­putes; and, the poli­cies and laws that gov­ern the region.

Stu­dents will select a cur­rent Arc­tic marine trans­port issue (indi­vid­u­ally or in teams) and write a pol­icy report tak­ing into account Arc­tic indige­nous and nation-state poli­cies, per­spec­tives, val­ues and world­views in report rec­om­men­da­tions. Pol­icy reports will be eval­u­ated on their abil­ity to suc­cess­fully inte­grate Inuit and Qal­lu­naat con­cepts of marine space and to trans­late those con­cepts into effec­tive pol­icy for­ma­tion. Where appro­pri­ate, pol­icy reports will be pro­vided to Arc­tic stakeholders.

Par­tic­u­lar atten­tion will be given to the treat­ment of marine trans­port in the for­eign and domes­tic poli­cies of the eight Arc­tic nations, the Euro­pean Union, in the dec­la­ra­tions and reports of the Inuit Cir­cum­po­lar Coun­cil, and reports of the Arc­tic Coun­cil. The course will also draw on artis­tic ren­der­ings of the Arc­tic marine region in Inuit prints and Qal­lu­naat paint­ings to assist stu­dents in under­stand­ing the philo­soph­i­cal and cul­tural rela­tion­ships to the region.

This course will hope­fully engage soon-to-be lead­ers in marine man­age­ment in the com­plex and excit­ing new decision-making mod­els emerg­ing in the Arc­tic region – mod­els that are increas­ing and suc­cess­fully inte­grat­ing Arc­tic indige­nous diplo­ma­cies in inter­na­tional relations.

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Course Out­line
Wednes­day, 21 March 2012
Intro­duc­tions
Pri­mary Course Read­ings – The Sea Ice is Our High­way, Arc­tic Marine Ship­ping Assess­ment 2009 Report & For­eign, Domes­tic & Indige­nous Marine Poli­cies
Slide Show of Arc­tic Marine Space in Inuit & Qal­lu­naat Art

Thurs­day, 22 March 2012
How to Write a Pol­icy Rec­om­men­da­tion
Intro­duc­tion to Pol­icy & Spa­tial Activism
Intro­duc­tion to Indige­nous Diplomacies

Fri­day, 23 March 2012
Overview of Cur­rent Issues in Marine Travel & Ship­ping
The North­west Pas­sage – Inter­nal Waters? Inter­na­tional Strait? Inuit Nunan­gat?

Mon­day, 26 March 2012
Geog­ra­phy of the Arc­tic Marine Region
His­tory of Tra­di­tional Travel, Explo­ration & Ship­ping in the Arc­tic

Tues­day, 27 March 2012
Overview of Polit­i­cal Mobi­liza­tion by Arc­tic Indige­nous Peo­ples
Intro­duc­tion to the Arc­tic Coun­cil

Wednes­day, 28 March 2012
Gov­er­nance Mod­els & Legal Tools in the Arc­tic
Key Actors, Stake­hold­ers, Orga­ni­za­tions & Schol­ars in Marine Management

Thurs­day, 29 March 2012
Overview of Arc­tic Marine Ship­ping in Inuit, For­eign & Domes­tic Pol­icy
Class Feed­back on Pol­icy Reports

Fri­day, 20 March 2012
Stu­dent Pre­sen­ta­tions

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