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Toward Arctic Futures – A new video featuring insights from key leaders

August 31, 2016

Above: Rosemary Kuptana (center), former president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, discusses the importance of including Indigenous Knowledge in Arctic educational programs as well as training in the Inuit language. Posing with Rosemary are Willy Østreng, Norwegian Scientific Academy for Polar Research and Nadine Fabbi, Co-Chair of the workshop and Managing Director of the Canadian Studies Center.

Toward Arctic Futures is a 30-minute film featuring the insights of four of the participants from the Center’s One Arctic April workshop including the former head of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, current president of the Aleut association, and Canada’s former senior Arctic official. The video offers insights into what education in and about the Arctic means and the importance of Indigenous Knowledge and language training. More …

In April 2016 the Arctic and International Relations Initiative (supported by six U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Centers) and the International Policy Institute (funded by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York) – both housed in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington – hosted a two-day workshop at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. titled “One Arctic.” The event was held in collaboration with Trent University, Ontario and the World Policy Institute, New York.

Toward Arctic Futures is a 30-minute film featuring the insights of four of the workshop’s speakers. The video offers refreshing insights into the challenges that lay ahead for the people living in the Arctic, and what Arctic change means for the rest of the world. Rosemarie Kuptana, former president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, and Jim Gamble, executive director of Aleut International Association, offer indigenous perspectives. They are followed in conversation with Susan Harper, Canada’s Senior Arctic Official at the Arctic Council, and David Kennedy, Senior Arctic Advisor at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This film was made possible by funding from the Jackson School’s International Policy Institute.

At the workshop over 50 scholars, practitioners and government representatives, as well as seven International Policy Institute Arctic Fellows (UW students conducting policy research on the Arctic), discussed the 20-year anniversary of the founding of the Arctic Council, the current U.S. Chairmanship, and the considerable global attention afforded the the Arctic today. For a short report of the workshop see: http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2016/05/05/one-arctic-agenda

Watch Toward Arctic Futures here:

Sponsoring Programs
At Trent University, the School for the Study of Canada is the key sponsor of the workshop with funding provided by a grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Sponsors at the University of Washington include the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies; the U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Centers in the Jackson School: the Canadian Studies Center, the Center for Global Studies, the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, the Center for West European Studies, and the East Asia Center; the Jackson School’s International Policy Institute (funded by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York); the University of Washington’s Future of Ice initiative; and the Global Business Center in the Michael G. Foster School of Business. At the World Policy Institute, New York City, Arctic in Context is the key sponsor. The Polar Initiative at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is the host for the workshop. Trent University’s Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies and Western Washington University’s Canadian American Studies Centre has also contributed.