ICC Barrow - July 2006

This past July, Paul had the opportunity to travel to Barrow, Alaska and participate in the 10th annual Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC).

Upon his return, he wrote about his experience.

The ICC represents a large multinational non-government organization, representing 150,000 Inuit peoples from Alaska, Russia ( Chukotka), Canada and Greenland. Although we have traveled for 15 years in the Arctic, meeting numerous elders and youth throughout the Inuit domain, I had never had a chance to attend the prestigious meeting.

To thrive in their circumpolar homeland, Inuit had the vision to realize they must speak with a united voice on issues of common concern and combine their energies and talents towards protecting and promoting their way of life.

The principal goals of ICC are to

* strengthen unity among Inuit of the circumpolar region;

* promote Inuit rights and interests on an international level;

* develop and encourage long-term policies that safeguard the Arctic environment; and

* seek full and active partnership in the political, economic, and social development of circumpolar regions.

After a flight to Anchorage and a chance to meet up with Henry Huntington who traveled with us last year during the GoNorth! ANWR 2006 program, it was off for a quick flight to Barrow, the top of the world, at least for the USA!

Upon arrival I was met by Inuit women who took me over to the main office building to register for the event, I was classified as an observer/guest. Since I was a little early, I agreed to help with the preparations. This meant I was stuffing name badges and helping to place the correct image with names. I also had a chance to help set up the exhibit of the former Mayor of Barrow and the visionary person who created the ICC, Ebson Hopson.

The event was a marvel to watch and as the thousand of people descended upon Barrow, you really appreciated the difficulty of bringing people from remote corners of the world to another remote corner of the world. This however is where one can learn and appreciate the Inuit's abilities to take things as they come and also share in the tremendous generosity they display. Each and every person attending the conference was given a free place to stay and also free meals. A couple thousand people attended this conference so this was an enormous expense.

The conference started with a barbeque outside. When you are near the Arctic Ocean in July that can mean a cold stiff wind, but that did not deter the people who I really wanted to meet, the Chukotkans. While everyone was sitting down to eat, they were playing a game, something like musical chairs, where all were gathered in a circle and it seemed that one person was "it" and had to chase the other person before they got back to their original spot.

The reason that I was really hoping to meet with the Russians is I was in the midst of planning the logistics for this year 2007 program.  The first order of business was to establish a contact. I do not speak Russian so I had to track down an interpreter in order to explain what I was looking for. The interpreters, as it turned out, were not part of the delegations, just hired to do the translations. After a couple days, I kept seeing a small man, who I could hear spoke English. So one day during lunch break I spotted him and presented my papers which I had translated into Russian. After a few minutes, Nikolai introduced himself and said, "Yes I can help you ".  This was the beginning of what has become a great partnership and will continue on during the program this winter.It turns out that Nikolai is a native Chukchi from the village Neshkan along the coast and we will actually visit his community. He is General director of noncommercial partnership "Bering Bridge", he has mushed in the Iditarod, and he agreed to become a team member. This is important because we must have a Russian travel with us in Chukotka, as it is a closed area.

The ICC conference lasted about 5 days and during the day it was basically one continuous meeting, where the delegates discussed, and voted on various issues that the Inuit felt were important for them as a group to focus on. They also elected new members to represent them at various meetings at the UN etc. I could go on for days about all that was discussed and debated, but maybe it would be better to have you go to the website for a more accurate report. Learn more >>

The evenings were filled with entertainment provided by the various groups. From Greenland there was an incredible Choir, dancers from Chukotka, drummers from Barrow and everything else you can image including traditional foods of Muktuk, seal, caribou and fish.

One of the highlights was one afternoon when the Whaling Captains in Barrow reenacted whalers heading out in their boats to chase a Whale.

The other highlight was watching a traditional blanket toss called Nalukataq. Blanket toss was traditionally used to spot for whales! But also as a game. Traditionally the winner was the person who went the highest. The toss was incredible to watch. A group of Men would pull on the skin, while a person would jump up on to it. The men could hurl the person Higher and higher into the sky. It obviously takes a great deal of skill to match the people pulling and keeping your balance when you land. Some local young women could be tossed, what seemed like, 30 feet into the air. Onlookers marveled as one man performed very impressive back flips.

I also had a chance to go and look for birds with the people I was staying with in Ames.  We would drive outside town and within minutes see numerous ducks, geese, snowy owls, cranes, Jaegers, gulls and thousands of birds I didn't know.

After what seemed like only a couple days, the conference was coming to a close. I felt fortunate to meet many new Inuit friends and look forward to seeing Nikolai this winter while we travel through his homeland Chukotka, Russia.