What concerns the Arctic Youth?

The first Arctic Circle since 2019 took place in Harpa Concert Hall on October 14-16. Around 2000 delegates from all over the world have attended the assembly. The topics and issues discussed were diverse and all-embracing, but it was specifically interesting to see a great representation of young people and listen to what they have to say. The current article is a summary of the points brought forward by youth representatives at several panels.

General issues

1.       Representation and involvement

The Arctic Youth has always been diversely represented at the Arctic Circle and other assemblies and panels within the Arctic region, on a local and an international level. However, the youth is always separated from the “adult” panels as Daria Makhotina, current chairperson of the Barents Regional Youth Council (BRYC), pointed out. It seems that the organizers always have a place for the youth delegates to discuss the issues that they have their hearts set on but forget to include them into a bigger dialogue and cooperation. The youth work is creative, but low in numbers and it is rather an impulsive and chaotic force that needs indiscriminate direction, mentoring, and acknowledgment from the professionals of the respective fields. The government should support existing youth organizations and encourage better participation.

2.       Depopulation, isolation, and brain drain

Young people in the Arctic region form the biggest group of immigrants. The youth is also the biggest group to suffer from isolation and lack of space for practicing a wide range of activities. This causes them to turn to alcohol and substance abuse, the suicide rates are increasing as well. The young are migrating to more attractive regions that provide better educational and vocational opportunities. The communities lose a huge number of young professionals and cultural communicators, the last thread connecting the old and the modern world. That’s why it is important to work on building up a sustainable Arctic infrastructure, necessary for healthy community and youth engagement, including initiatives on creating mental and crisis support centers, developing the rural areas more, focusing on co-creation and cohabitation rather than exhausting existing available human and natural resources.

 Issues specific for the Indigenous Arctic Youth

1.       Food security

Climate change is greatly affecting the food security and traditional ways of food conservation in the Arctic regions. Every year the winters are colder, and the Indigenous Peoples collect less harvest. Another danger is big industries buying the lands or expanding their business close to indigenous lands, putting them at risk of pollution. The issue also has a cultural context: food gathering is an integral part of many indigenous cultures, a way of communication between the elderly and young, and an important form of pastime. If one deprives Indigenous Peoples of their practices in food gathering and conservation, it potentially puts these peoples at risk of starvation and erases an important element of their culture. It often contributes to isolation, mental health problems, and alcohol and substance abuse, as the people, specifically the young, have no place to gather and nothing to do. That’s why a goal for the future Indigenous Arctic is to work towards preserving traditional forms of food conservation and securing the position of indigenous lands as no-go territories for big industries.

2.       Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC)

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) is “a specific right that pertains to indigenous peoples and is recognized in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). It allows them to give or withhold consent to a project that may affect them or their territories. Once they have given their consent, they can withdraw it at any stage. Furthermore, FPIC enables them to negotiate the conditions under which the project will be designed, implemented, monitored, and evaluated. This is also embedded within the universal right to self-determination.”

Currently, the Indigenous Peoples are the least responsible for the Arctic change but are suffering the most. The lands that have traditionally been hunting grounds, deer-herding pastures or fields for gathering food, are bought by huge industries to expand their manufacturing. It takes a toll on the Indigenous Peoples who are already losing their way of life due to climate change. That’s why the concept of FPIC has been introduced. It gives Indigenous Peoples the right to say no to projects on their lands, thus protecting their ways of life and preserving it for the next generations. The goal for the future Indigenous Arctic is to ensure that this concept is taken into consideration and implemented more often.

 

3.   Ethical and equitable engagement

ETHICAL AND EQUITABLE ENGAGEMENT SYNTHESIS REPORT: A collection of Inuit rules, guidelines, protocols, and values for the engagement of Inuit Communities and Indigenous Knowledge from Across Inuit Nunaat is a report on the combined effort and knowledge of Inuit living in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Chukotka (Russia). The information found here comes from materials previously developed by Inuit communities and organizations, who have pushed for impressive gains in Indigenous rights, sovereignty, cultural continuity, and recognition for the Inuit way of life. The report has been carried out by Victoria Qutuuq Buschman, a postdoctoral researcher at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The Indigenous Peoples are the oldest inhabitants of the Arctic region and possess a plethora of knowledge on nature and its resources. Currently, we tend to greatly disregard it favoring the agenda of non-Indigenous corporations and their goals, thus forgetting a huge interest group. The youth very often serve as cultural translators for elders – they are the ones who speak Indigenous language and can potentially pass it and valuable cultural information on to future generations. According to this act, one of the goals for the future of the Arctic is to give Indigenous Peoples an equally big platform: the Indigenous knowledge holders should be held in at least equal standing regardless of the formal qualifications of the researchers to share their experience, and the governments should support the youth serving as cultural translators for the elderly.

ViewpointVictoria Bakshina