polar bear safe areas on the settlement map

The city map of Longyearbyen is colored according to the secure areas without polar bear protection – the darker the color, the safer is to walk around. The house where I am located is one of the last houses, between the Sukkertoppen hill (371 m) and the shore (last dark brownish house in the middle row on the map). It is an area, colored in light pink, between intensive ‘secure’ pink (down town, around 1 km) and almost white, ‘unsecure’ color.

I picked up some horror stories already before my travel about some accidents with the polar bears happened here. This light pink color on the map is a reason for my some kind of light fear, although I am surrounded here by the images of very friendly looking polar bear. It is here everywhere – welcoming people in the airport, standing on the main road in the front of the tourist shop, advertising a local supermarket or looking at you even inside of the church and hospital.

Polar bear spends most of its time on the ice, but as far as I cannot see any ice floating in the Adventfjord of Longyearbyen, I can imagine that these marine mammals (as some define them) or not mammals (as others would say) may be trapped on the land at this time of the year. Polar bears don’t have any enemies and have very pointed teeth and claws, which are ideal for catching and eating for example seals, as it is written on the information poster in the museum. Without ice, a polar bear cannot hunt seals the way that it normally does, say experienced people.

Seals are most important source of food for the bear, but still, I am looking around walking in the not ‘pinky’ area. However, almost all of the ‘locals’ (actually, they all are outsiders) to whom I talked in these days did the same when they arrived to Svalbard for the first time. Still, there are more polar bears as inhabitants of Svalbard – around 3 500 bears compared to around 2.753 people.

‘Never look polar bear in the eye’, reminds me the title of the book that I found in the local library. A tourist guide warns: ‘The polar bears are very curious and very fast. You know that if one chases you, there will be only one winner’. Svalbard Rules of Common Sense printed on the city map appeal: ‘Do not leave the settlements without suitable weapons and experience in how to use them’.

Both of the last points do not apply to me.

Maybe, this potentially risky surrounding is one of the strong identity markers for the community of ‘Svalbardianers’? To balance all my fears, but in a deep respect to the polar bear, I bought a sweetest baby polar bear soft toy. With its big eyes and fluffy fur it looks very familiar to me.

Anna Stammler-Gossmann

(my fieldwork in Svalbard is supported by ACCESS project, Arctic Climate Change Economies and Societies, ‘European Project supported within the Ocean of Tomorrow call of the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme’ and Norwegian Embassy in Helsinki)

From North to the Arctic through the South

It is a bit chilly here in Longyearbyen, especially if you come from the South, I mean from the Arctic Circle, where it was +24 when I left Rovaniemi. Some snowflakes were falling down during the day and there are still some snow islands in

the town. It is my solo expedition to the almost top of the world – Svalbard, between the North Pole and Norway mainland. To come up here I made a loop from the Arctic Circle (Rovaniemi, Lapland) to the South – first to Helsinki, then to Oslo. From Oslo – back to the North (Tromso) and then finally to Svalbard.

Anyway, every place from here is in the very South.  The distance between Oslo and Svalbard is approximately the same like between Oslo and Tunisia in Africa. Great opportunity to do my community research on the anthropology of sea water is supported by Norwegian embassy in Helsinki and EU ACCESS project.

Here are first picture impressions from flying in to this: beautiful landscape.

Arctic Snowscape in June

landing soon

Anna Stammler-Gossmann

My activities in the Far North were supported by the University of Arctic and EU FP 7 ACCESS project (Arctic Climate Change Economies and Society)

Anna Stammler-Gossmann

Interviewed for the newspiece “Critics are wrong […]” was director for SveMin Per Ahl, and professor in geology at Luleå University of Technology, Pär Weihed.

In the article Weihed lists arguments that can be called pro mining ones: critics claim that the mining expansions take up too much grounds even if they are not according to Weihed, the recycling of metals is said to be sufficient even if it is not and therefore is mining for ore necessary, and the criticism that foreign mining companies will take mining money abroad is not a threat means Wihed since just a few mining companies are foreign. Since this is a blog text and therefore should not be too long, I think, this text will circle more closely around one of the three contested arguments; that only a few mining companies in Sweden are foreign ones.

It says in article that there are 15 metal mines in Sweden and that two-three more are planned. Eight are Swedish, four are listed on the Stockholm share market and the other three are listed abroad.

After a scrutiny of both exploration permits and concession licences just for the county of Norrbotten in northernmost Sweden, and where LKAB has its mines, can that picture be slightly expanded, if not altered. But first a short explanation what the two permits are all about. An exploration permit gives a mining- and/or prospecting company the right to look for minerals and stones on a specific ground; a permit which often includes digging test-drenches and/or drilling test-holes. Such a permit is sometimes called prospecting permit. A concession licence is the step after the exploration permit, and it gives its holder right to open a full-scale mine whether it is an underground or an open-cast one. Every mine active in Sweden is running because the company has a valid concession licence for each and every mine. Concession licences are given for 25 years at a time. After that are the concession licences automatically renewed for ten years at a time, if the company that has the permit does not apply for a shorter period of time to run the mine at hand.

On the list over existing numbers of concession licences for the county of Norrbotten are there three foreign mines: Avalon Minerals Viscaria, Northland Resources and Norrliden Mining. Here is the number the same as the one Weihed presented. But the three companies hold together six concession licences. Since a, as in one, concession licence often is given for a, as in one, mine can that mean that three companies together hold licences to open six mines. And all concession licences are not a question of automatically renewals of old ones, since mining companies such as Northland Resources is new within the mining industry in Sweden. Northland holds three concession licences out of the six. The two Swedish based mining companies LKAB and Boliden have 14 plus 11 concession licences. So there are 31 valid licences that give the holders permission to mine in Norrbotten. The oldest one for the county of Norrbotten dates back to 1995 for a Boliden owned mine. A main part of those mines are on reindeer herding grounds with free-grazing reindeers.

To the numbers of concession licences can the exploration permits be added. For the county Norrbotten there are 269. Approximate one third of those permits are in the hands of foreign prospecting- and/or mining companies. For the county of Västerbotten, the county south of Norrbotten, is the number of exploration permits 273 and concessions licences 69 – the latter ones mainly held by the Swedish mining company Boliden. Still; six plus 69 licences is 75. There are 75 concession licences for the north of Sweden. Even though some of them might be renewal of old ones, is that number remarkable high. According to Weihed are there 15 metal mines running in Sweden, without him specifying where those mines are located. Ahl, the director for SveMin, says that the Swedish mine production will most likely be tripled within 2025 and create 50.000 new jobs. This leads back to the question on how large areas mining is occupying – or an even more interesting question: how large areas will a mining industry that can produce 50.000 jobs occupy? Even if those 50.000 jobs will not all be within the direct mining, but also includes desk-work, must the areas for mines be larger than the ones today. But how much larger than today?

As a ‘footnote’ to the issue of foreign mines is it worth mentioning that the owner-structure can sometimes be difficult to figure out when verifying whether there are Swedish based or foreign based companies operating in Sweden. Norrliden Mining can for instance be found on the webpage of Kopparberg Minerals that is a Swedish based company, but is to 50% owned by Gold Ore Resources Ltd. that in May 2012 merged with Elgin Mining Inc. which is a Canadian based mining company. Eling Mining Inc. has also interests in Björkdal Gold Mine in Sweden as well as Lupin gold mine that is located in Nunavut in north-eastern Canada.

Weihed’s standpoint and arguments was later on reproduced by the newspaper Norrländska Socialdemokraten that is published in and with most of its readers in the county of Norrbotten.

On the same page in LKAB Framtid Luleå as the article “Critics are wrong […]” is there also a small piece about that Luleå University of Technology has been commissioned by the Nordic Council of Ministers to co-ordinate the research on mining in the Nordic countries, a project that has been given a budget of 35 million SEK (approximate just under 4.1 million EUR). Weihed is a spokesman for the project. And as such his standpoint is clear when reading the very beginning of the article “Critics are wrong [...]” since it starts: “Critics want to limit the mining industry’s exploitation of Sweden. A misdirected critic means professor Pär Weihed at Luleå University of Technology. –About 20.000 hectares is claimed by concession licenses, that is less than the total area of 28.200 hectares that is claimed by golf-courses in Sweden.”

Conclusively, it can be said that each side of a matter usually has its perspectives, but as many as possible is benefiting from being discussed.

// Karin Granqvist, Ph.D.

[This blog-text is both a small part and an extension of a part of "Effects of Mining on Reindeer/Caribou Populations and Indigenous Livelihoods: Community-based monitoring by Sámi Reindeer Herders in Northern Sweden and First Nations in Northern Quebec", T. Herrmann, K. Granqvist, H. Asselin, P. Sandström et al., The Polar Journal, forthcoming 2013.]

Sources

The Geological Survey of Sweden (SGU):

List of exploration permits, county of Norrbotten, Sweden

List of concession licenses, county of Norrbotten, Sweden

List of exploration permits, county of Västerbotten, Sweden

List of concession licenses, county of Västerbotten, Sweden

Map:

copyright: Svenska Resebokhandeln

Other:

http://www.elginmining.com/s/Home.asp 2013-06-05

http://www.kopparbergmineral.se/ 2013-06-05

Printed sources and other used material

LKAB Framtid Luleå 2013, no. 1, 2013, p. 5. Note: NOT available on-line. Just LKAB Framtid can be downloaded from the Internet.

http://www.nsd.se/opinion/ledare/artikel.aspx?ArticleId=7652459#fank7653132 2013-06-05

Children from several northern Indigenous Peoples attending the Northern Peoples university studies preparation faculty at the Herzen Pedagogical University in Leningrad (1955)

Soviet Union” has been recently translated into English and published on the internet within the publication series of the Centre for Sámi Studies at the University of Tromsø. Using extensive biographical interviews as a primary source, this oral history study steps into an important research gap and explores the forced resettlements which most of the Sámi in in the Russian part of Lapland had to undergo during the 1930s till 1970s.

You can download and read the book here: http://septentrio.uit.no/samskrift

I would like to thank the Centre for Sámi Studies of the University of Tromsø (Norway) for suggesting to publish an English version of my book within this series, and the programme “Focal Point North” (Tromsø Forskningstiftelse, University of Tromsø) for providing funding for the translation of the German manuscript into English.

Here’s a short description of the book:

Lukas Allemann focuses on the period between the end of the war in 1945 and beginning of perestroika. Using a thorough oral history interview analysis method, he opens up the inner world and structural relationships of this minority ethnic group and contrasts the information retrieved from his interviews with the existing literature on the subject.

For all the differences, contradictions and diverging assessments of the Soviet era, what emerges from this study is that – contrary to the widespread view expressed in the secondary literature – it was not reindeer collectivization or Stalinist terror, but the forced relocations between the 1930s and 70s that represented the deepest rupture in the life of most of today’s elder Sámi. Most of them have been resettled at least once, many of them even twice and more, without being asked. The needs of Soviet large-scale industrialisation and militarisation stood above those of the indigenous population. This resulted in massive social problems which last until today.

The author, however, following his informants, avoids a categorical demonization of the USSR. The widespread opinion that it was only Soviet rule that initiated the destruction of Sámi culture is also qualified by this book.

The book also offers a well arranged introduction into techniques of oral history interviewing and interview analysis.

Lukas Allemann’s book was originally written in German and published in 2010. It has been an important precursor to the large-scale oral history project ORHELIA at the Arctic Centre, into which the Eastern Sámi are included, too.

The book was originally and published under the following title:

Allemann Lukas, Die Samen der Kola-Halbinsel. Über das Leben einer ethnischen Minderheit in der Sowjetunion, Series ‘Menschen und Strukturen. Historisch-sozialwissenschaftliche Studien’, Ed. by Heiko Haumann, Vol.  18, Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Brussels, New York, Oxford, Vienna, 2010, ISBN-978-3-631-61201-9.

More information:

Lukas Allemann, M.A.
Researcher
Anthropology Research Team, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland
Rovaniemi, Finland
lukas.allemann (at) ulapland.fi

My name is Lukas Allemann, I am new at the ORHELIA Project, and I’ll begin to write my PhD thesis here. I did my Master’s in Eastern European History and Russian Language and Literature at the University of Basel (Switzerland), and I could join the ORHELIA team of social anthropologists thanks to my knowledge of Oral History from a historian’s point of view. My thesis was about the life of the Kola Sami during the Soviet Time, for which I did some fieldwork on the Kola Peninsula. I hope that the interdisciplinary exchange between Social Anthropology and History will be fruitful for the project.

My wife Julia comes from Russia, and our son Leo is ten months old. He’s is soon going to visit a Finnish kindergarten, and we’re looking forward to it. He was born in Moscow where we have lived during the past three years. There I worked as a translator and interpreter at the Embassy of Austria. It was an interesting time during which I gained insights into diplomacy and politics, but it was always my plan to return to academia. I am truly honoured that this happened to be at the Arctic Centre.

Roza and Anna Laptander in the field, Yamal peninsula, Western Siberia, 2005.
We had to walk 15 km from the village to the tundra. Anna was too small and weak to walk by herself, therefore she was just sitting in her mum’s shoulders

Such behavior is part of their psychological development and it reflexes their evaluation of the environment where they live.

How does it work in the situation when it is necessary for several reasons to take a child with you to your work place in the tundra? It works quite interesting. I saw this after our field trip to the tundra in the Yamal peninsula in 2009. We were migrating there one month with a reindeer herders’ family. Children were playing together and there was no problem for them to speak different languages, but they used a lot their body language and laughed a lot.

Anna with her friends. Photo Ellen-Inga Turi. Yamal Peninsula, 2009.

Later I found nice pictures from tundra and drawings made by my 6 years old daughter Anna (2003).

For her our field work place is quite familiar. It is good to see that sometimes Anna does her own research in the tundra.

Thursday, 18 April at 16:30 in the Arctic Centre in Rovaniemi, in the POLARIUM room.

Kultajoki, Vesa & Volker working with the Dredge, see http://www.arctic-heartbeat.fi/finnish/Trailers/Kultajoki/Kultajoki.htm

Kultajoki – Gold River is a careful portrait of several individual characters who found their dedication in small scale private gold washing in Finnish Lapland. Most of the mining publicity is usually about big projects, multinational companies and enourmous social and environmental impacts. But in fact worldwide there is also a lot of small scale resource development. I remember that from earlier anthropological talks about gold diggers in West Africa , and of course Julie Cruikshank’s formidable work on the Klondike Gold Rush narratives, which is chapter four in “The Social Life of Stories” .

The film Kultajoki has not unlike Julie’s work a life history approach for exploring the relations of particular people to gold and the river, as resources in northern Finland. We find out how the relation between people and their environment among small scale gold washers is so intimate that the resource and its occurance in nature determines not only a particular way of life and engaging with the environment, but also shapes these people’s personalities profoundly. The film was shot during long term field trips with the main

characters on a zero-budget basis, and therefore does not have to conform to the usual commercial cinema or TV adventure requirements that media companies nowadays have. Everybody is welcome to joint if you happen to be in or want to come to Rovaniemi at that time. Bernd Bartusevics, the director of the film, will be present himself and be happy to answer your questions as well.

Her talk centred on stories about glaciers that challenge the nature versus culture dichotomy science is so preoccupied with. Why did she invite us to dismiss this divide? Does it not serve us well at least to keep the humanities and social sciences distinct from the natural sciences?

Informal get-together with Julie Cruikshank after the meeting and ice swimming and barbecue at the Kemijoki river.

We know from our own fieldwork experiences that people that live in close connection with the local environment don’t draw a clear line between nature and culture. They interact with natural phenomena in a very social way and they know very well that the beings we call nature display the ability to communicate and to interact with humans and human society.

Julie said she expected that the elders she wanted to record life stories with would talk about historical events like the gold rush and the construction of the Alaska Highway that had such a huge impact on the life of their communities. Surprisingly they insisted on telling different stories about encounters with phenomena we consider to be part of nature like glaciers and animals. The stories were about establishing relationships with different beings and about knowledge transfer and Julie could understand them as related to her own work that is based exactly on these things – the relationship with her partners in the field and the knowledge shared across social and cultural differences. These stories provided the basis for interpretation and as Claude Lévi-Strauss would say are “good to think with”.

If we skip our objectifying perception of nature we become able to listen to the message contained in stories about glaciers that hear and smell and take revenge. It will be easy then to link these stories of the risk of inappropriate behaviour in the face of powerful beings to stories about colonial encounters in life histories but a purely metaphorical interpretation of these encounters with speaking animals and listening glaciers would get the elders that tell these stories wrong.

The idea of Amerindian perspectivism developed by the anthropologist Eduardo Vivieros de Castro invites us to take the perception of non-human actors seriously. It suggests that different beings perceive the world in similar ways but from different angles and that indigenous stories reveal a sensibility to see and acknowledge these different perspectives. The idea that parts of what we call nature like animals and plants, mountains, rivers and glaciers but also invisible beings like spirits, gods and the deceased and non-animated objects like cars or oil companies have the same abilities as humans to comprehend the world but have their own perspectives, sometimes diametrically opposed to ours, is something we all experience in ethnographic fieldwork in the Arctic.

There are some important consequences of this idea we can learn from the stories that tell about the interaction of different categories of beings in a social way.

First: Humans are able to imagine the different perspectives. We can interact with different beings and visit their worlds. We are not fixed to a standpoint in accordance to our place in the world. Interaction and mobility allow for epistemological moves that enable us to understand others. That is an idea developed in an article by Terhi Vuojala-Magga in “Knowing, training, learning: the importance of reindeer character and temperament for individuals and communities of humans and animals.” It is a question of respectful behaviour to be able to avoid conflict, violence and failure in the process of interaction. We have to develop ways to deal respectfully with different perspectives, appropriate ways to keep distance and to transgress boundaries.

Second: Important are the differences in agency allocated to different beings but agency is not a property to possess. Different places and contexts reveal different power relationships. There are situations when the powerless can become powerful and vice versa. Stories tell about these encounters, failures in the perception of power, and the inversions of power relations. They tell about the possibility of respectful acknowledgement of difference and about the possibilities and inabilities to learn from each other without erasing these differences.

Third: The knowledge that beings develop out of their diverse perspectives possess different power. People we collaborate with in the Arctic experience the hegemony of certain forms of knowledge brought in by colonial institutions like science, religions and the state. Hegemonic knowledge is opposed to the ideas of perspectivism and claims it would be normal to have only one moral, one god, one identity, one truth, and one language for every human and only for humans. Forms of interaction like languages and value systems informed by traditional religion and ethics are delegitimised and sometimes even lost in the process of loss of access to land and social capital and the enforcement of capitalist economy, scientific positivism and the implementation of Christian universalism.

The difference between knowledge production in the academic world and in local communities can give us a first hint on the power differences and the process of hegemony of one and deligitimization of the other knowledge but if we get stuck in the dichotomy between scientific and indigenous knowledge we will end up in a vicious circle. With careful ethnographic work we reveal that there is more than one form of indigenous knowledge and digging in our own scientific traditions will reveal that there are strands in European scientific thought that differ from the hegemonic naturalist or objectifying perspective.

If we’ll link local and scientific traditions of perspectivism, we will become able to see how stories – oral as well as written – can contain a polyphony of voices that have agency in our society and in our interactions with different beings as well. They have the power to transform the listener, to make him/her wonder, to call the authoritative discourse into question and to facilitate understanding.