Originally posted: December 2012
As part of the 92nd Annual National Council for Social Studies Conference, “Windows to the World,” held in Seattle, November 16-18, Nadine Fabbi, Canadian Studies Center, offered a presentation on the effective involvement of the Inuit in domestic and international affairs and how that involvement is altering how we understanding international relations. The presentation covered some of the recent activities of the Inuit Circumpolar Council representing the Inuit in Russia, Greenland, Canada and the United States, and the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Inuit association in Canada.
The presentation had ten participants each with a strong interest in international affairs. The participants gained an understanding of how global interdependence is shaping political institutions in the Arctic. The Arctic is an ideal lens via which to understand the broader issues of indigenous involvement in international affairs, social justice and environmental sustainability.
One participant noted that it was critical students understand what is occurring in the Arctic in order that they become more civically engaged particularly understanding the “cooperation among nations and indigenous peoples.”
This event was co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Centers on Canada including the Pacific Northwest National Resource Center on Canada (Canadian Studies Center, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies (JSIS), University of Washington and the Center for Canadian-American Studies, Western Washington University), the Northeast National Resource Centers on Canada (Center for the Study of Canada, State University of New York College at Plattsburgh and the Canadian-American Center, University of Maine); the eight U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Centers in JSIS (including Canadian Studies Center, Center for Global Studies, Center for West European Studies, East Asia Center, Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, Middle East Center, South Asia Center, and Southeast Asia Center); and, the East Asia Resource Center, JSIS.