A new publication on Arctic Indigenous Peoples from The Sámi Council and German Arctic Office (at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research) was just recently launched. While shortly browsing through it, I found that it is written very shortly and concisively and for a broad lay audience including decision makers. It is a publication written mostly by indigenous representatives (mostly Sámi) who are active politically in promoting Arctic indigenous rights. I particularly liked the illustrations.

“This collaborative project between the Sámi Council and the German Arctic Office depicts the ways of life Indigenous Peoples lead in the Arctic. As resilient cultures, Arctic Indigenous Peoples hold distinct knowledge on how to respectfully use the environment to co-exist within the ecosystems. Even though resilience is enclosed within these cultures, the challenge of coping with both environmental changes and domestic regulations affects the practice and development of Indigenous Knowledge. This text describes how Arctic Indigenous Peoples use Indigenous Knowledge as a generationally refined way of knowing to ensure the vivid development of cultures and livelihoods. It further illustrates how Indigenous Peoples have traditionally developed circular governance systems that sustainably care for the environment instead of dominating it. Indigenous Knowledge, as the foundation of these ways of life, is therefore central for Arctic Indigenous Peoples cultures and how they collectively preserve the stability of Arctic and sub-Arctic environments.”

From an anthropological point of view, it catches our eyes that the publication does not really have identifiable authors. It bears the name of the two organisations – the Saami Council and the German Arctic Office. Then there is an editorial team consisting mostly of interns. Not sure was the editorial team actually responsible for the content and wrote the text? Was it reviewed by someone? I found it slightly irritating that the sources they cite are actually not part of the pdf of the publication, but you need to click on their website on a separate link. Looking at the sources, it caught my eye that most of them is literature intended for a general or professional audience. Of over 40 sources, less than 10 were scholarly publications, including from the IPCC or the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. A lot of the sources are published by indigenous peoples organisations, the Arctic Council, the Nordic Council of ministers etc. So this piece is a good source for us to make sense of the view of indigenous peoples and decision makers.