The Arctic Council will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2016. One of its unique and most important features is the presence of Indigenous Peoples (Permanent Participants) working directly with state representatives.

The role Indigenous Peoples have played over last 20 years has been decisive and has helped to determine the direction and evolution of the council. But it is not the beginning of the story. Indigenous Peoples have been responding to change for decades and sometimes centuries. The current era of globalization in the Arctic is simply the latest phase. In the next few years the role of Indigenous Peoples will likely increase – at the Arctic Council and in other international fora.

To expand knowledge about Indigenous Peoples in Arctic and mark the Arctic Council anniversary, IPS and GRID-Arendal are developing a new education platform about the role of the Permanent Participants at the Arctic Council, and the role Indigenous Peoples have played in Arctic environmental policy and politics. Using an interactive, Internet based story map format, this project will be targeted at a high-school age audience.

The project outputs – the story map, a publication and visually compelling poster – will be designed to educate Arctic audiences about the role Indigenous People have played, but also educate audiences outside the Arctic about how the massive environmental and globalization challenges are being met in the Arctic. The project will also reflect the significant role played by the Nordic Indigenous Peoples in the development of the Arctic Council.

As part of the project, IPS and GRID-Arendal developed an education platform about the role of the Permanent Participants at the Arctic Council, focusing in particular on the decisive role of Indigenous peoples in Arctic environmental politics. The results were presented in an interactive story map, targeted at a high-school-age audience.

Applicant: Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat

Countries: Greenland, Norway

Project start and expected to be finalized in 2016.

Copyright pictures: unsplash.com