Internet Resources
Southeast Native Alaska radio station to begin broadcasts
(AP via Anchorage Daily News, 14 February 2010) -- JUNEAU - A new online radio station will give voice to the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures in Southeast Alaska. Tribal Voice Radio is scheduled to launch at 8 a.m. Monday at www.tribalvoiceradio.com. It was approved in December by Central Council Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. "The main goal is to capture the language, clan stories and ways of life of the Native people," said project coordinator Simon Roberts. "We're looking at being able to give back to the culture a new life and gather all the communities here in Southeast as well as the Tlingits and Haidas in Canada." Roberts has worked the last six months with the Tlingit and Haida's Employment and Training team and marketing coordinator Thomas Gallant. Roberts said the team sent out eight hand-held recorders to the council's cultural representatives to collect clan stories and interview Native elders, artists, dancers and drummers. "Anything that happens, any current events, they'll be able to be there to record what's going on and give voice to each one of the Native communities so we're all one voice under one roof," Roberts said. Content of community submissions may range from contemporary or traditional Native music to family recipes, such as how to smoke salmon or dry seaweed. Tlingit and Haida Central Council President Bill Martin said Tribal Voice will help bring Southeast Native culture 14,000 members living outside the region. "Being on the Web means we have a greater access to all of our constituents who are scattered throughout the country," Martin said. Other major contributors to the project include Juneau-based Sealaska Corp., which gave access to its online lecture series. SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium will contribute a 50-minute weekly program on anatomy and health.
Posted 14 February 2010; 10:12:12 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communities, Cultural Matters, February10, Indigenous Issues, Internet Resources, Language, North America
Arctic fiber-optic cable could benefit far-flung Alaskans
(Elizabeth Bluemink/Anchorage Daily News, 13 January 2010) -- Alaska Native corporations and a multinational firm are planning to build the first fiber-optic cable between Asia and Europe through the Arctic. The project, estimated to cost roughly $1 billion, involves laying 10,000 miles of undersea fiber-optic cable from Tokyo, along the Alaska coast, through the Northwest Passage, past the southern coast of Greenland to London, company officials said Wednesday. The cable would have two landing points in Alaska — Dutch Harbor and Prudhoe Bay. It would be a major gateway linking Alaska to the rest of the world, particularly to the Pacific Rim, said Walt Ebell, chief executive of the Kodiak Kenai Cable Co., one of the companies involved in the project. He said the project is in large part possible because the shrinking polar ice cap, which has spurred increased vessel traffic in the Arctic Ocean. Though the Asia to Europe project will rely on private financing, KKC has already requested $350 million in federal stimulus grants and loans to lay undersea fiber along the Alaska coast, from Kodiak to Prudhoe Bay. Most of that Alaska line — the portion from Dutch Harbor to Prudhoe — would be part of the larger Asia-to-Europe cable that the company also is pursuing, executives said. If the Alaska-cable portion is funded and built, it could provide high-speed, reliable Internet to Bethel, Kotzebue, Nome and other communities. In the future, the network could be expanded to bring broadband Internet to 142 villages, company executives say. For now, most rural Alaska communities rely on satellite-based Internet, which is expensive and sometimes transmits data to households and businesses even more slowly than a dial-up Internet connection. "It's really, really slow," said Denise Michels, the mayor of Nome, one of 14 rural communities that have written letters in favor of the Kodiak Kenai Cable project. She said high-speed Internet could create a lot of economic opportunities in her town and improved communication between local doctors and national medical experts. "It would be so great to be connected like the rest of the U.S.," she said.
Posted 13 January 2010; 11:42:28 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communications and media, Internet Resources, January10, North America
Web resource: New website a showcase for Nunavik
(Sarah Rogers/Nunatsiaq News, 6 January 2010) -- KANGIQSUJUAQ - Nunavik’s heritage is at your fingertips, with an eye-catching website, called “Nunavik: A Land, Its People,” the latest reference for newbies and residents alike. The newly launched site, produced by Montreal researcher and photographer Luc Bouvrette, is now one of over 500 virtual exhibits funded through the Virtual Museum of Canada. Bouvrette first came to Nunavik on business five years ago — then a place about which he knew little. Taken by its rich past and present, Bouvrette said he wanted to give the region the credit it deserves. “My first impressions were twofold; there were the people that I met,” he said. “Even having the smallest contacts by talking with people at the co-op, I felt very at home. And then there was the natural beauty.” That beauty is captured in Bouvrette’s many photographs, creating a rich visual display on the website at bit.ly/8piUAT. Limited by time and money, Bouvrette has spent his time in four villages, Tasiujaq, Kangiqsujuaq, Puvirnituq and Kuujjuaq. Based on these visits, Bouvrette offers a colourful introduction to Inuit culture that takes the visitor beyond the well-worn icons of igloos and dog sled teams. The website’s culture section provides a sensory experience, including audio of a trio of women from Kangiqsujuaq performing different styles of throat-singing. Viewers can also scroll through a gallery of drawings by students at Arsaniq school. In another section, readers can enjoy accounts from Nunavimmiut elders and youth.
Posted 6 January 2010; 11:48:02 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Internet Resources, January10, North America, Nunavik
The electronification of Russian regions
(BarentsObserver, 4 January 2010) -- All state services in the Russian regions are to be made available electronically by 2015, President Dmitry Medvedev underlined in a recent State Council session. The meeting, which was devoted to the development of information technologies, was attended by the governors and a number of cabinet ministers and high-ranking officials. It took place on 23 December. The governors who do not cope with the mission will be dismissed, the president threatened in his speech, newspaper Kommersant reports. According to Minister of Communication Igor Shchegolev, Russian small businesses today spend ten percent of their turnover on overcoming red tape and the Russian population altogether spend up to 25 million days per year on getting public services. There are a total of about 1,500 public services which will be made electronic by 2015, newspaper Kommersant writes.
Posted 3 January 2010; 10:13:00 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communications and media, Internet Resources, January10, Russia, Social Issues
Web resource: Environmental Atlas of Europe
(GISUser, 15 December 2009) -- Microsoft is working with the European Environmental Agency (EEA) to
use its Bing Maps, Silverlight multimedia technology and Azure cloud
platform to show how climate change is affecting certain regions in
Europe. The Web site, called the Environmental Atlas of Europe,
will inform people about climate-change stories and interesting
projects, such as wine farmers in the Tuscany region of Italy who run a
carbon-negative farm to a city in Denmark that uses 100 percent
renewable energy, said Bert Jansen, technology lead for the EEA. [Of interest to Circumpolar Musings readers, one of the places to explore is Lapland.]
Posted 20 December 2009; 7:12:50 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Environment and Landscape, Europe, Internet Resources
On getting the Internet: Having the internet for Christmas
(Rick Steele/Tech@Work, Yukon News, 11 December 2009) -- Earlier this week, I spent an hour or so tipping some cold ones with two computer techies, and sharing reminiscences about the early days of internet in the Yukon. It was 15 years ago this month that the first internet connection in the territory sparked to life—a 56 Kbps link to BCNet in Vancouver, with a bank of 20 14.4 Kbps dial up modems on line for testing purposes. In those days, my two drinking companions were still fresh, sparkly eyed little Unix munchkins, in their late teens and early 20s. Now in their mid-30s, they are well-heeled, professionally comfortable, and more or less domesticated. They have inherited and fulfilled the future opened to them by that feeble, unstable little connection made in December, 1994. The difference between them and me is that they saw that future coming; and I, though I was an active player in making it come, did not. I thought I was doing a short-term volunteer job, so that the schools and Yukon College and some government departments could get some of this internet stuff. Then I would go back to my day job as a writer and desk top publisher—an occupation I thoroughly enjoyed, even as it slowly starved me to death.
Posted 19 December 2009; 10:35:38 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, December09, Internet Resources, People, Yukon
Web resource: DiscoveringTheArctic.org.uk
The site is operated by the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) in partnership with the British Antarctic Survey, Scottish Association for Marine Science and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. You can contact us by email at education@rgs.org. The site was developed by the Royal Geographical Society with IBG in partnership with the British Antarctic Survey, Scottish Association for Marine Science and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. All content available from this site is subjected to copyright and may be downloaded and used for educational purposes only. Images may be downloaded from the Resources/Image Library section only. The use of any other imagery throughout this site is not permitted.
Posted 15 December 2009; 9:54:29 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Education and Civil Society, Internet Resources
Web resource: WWF's The Circle
The Circle is a magazine produced by the WWF International
Arctic Programme since January 2009, replacing the Arctic Bulletin. The Circle is
published four times a year, and each issue focusses on one specific
Arctic-related topic. The Circle is distributed free to around 3,000 arctic stakeholders
worldwide, including government officials and elected
representatives, indigenous organisations, conservationists,
scientists, NGOs, libraries, and business executives. The goal is to
inform decision-makers, scientists and the interested public about
arctic environmental and development issues. The new name is an obvious reference to the Arctic Circle, but it also suggests all the systemic linkages and circular
self-perpetuating processes that keep the Arctic in balance. Many of
these systems are now being destabilized by threats such as climate
change. This publication aims to bring forward ideas on how
to address the threats, and keep the Arctic in balance. For further information about The Circle, or to contribute an article, please contact Lena Eskeland, leskeland at wwf.no or
Posted 12 December 2009; 4:39:45 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Books, Blogs and Publications, Circumpolar News, December09, Internet Resources
Web resource: The Arctic Governance Project
Welcome to the Arctic Governance Project. This is a dynamic website providing several opportunities for visitors to offer insights and opinions on Arctic Governance. The Project invites all interested parties to contribute to the dialogue through the website.Climate change – coupled with globalization—has triggered a rapidly accelerating cascade of events leading to profound environmental and socioeconomic changes in the Arctic—both on land and at sea. In response, demand is growing for science-based innovation in the conservation, management and governance of Arctic resources. This demand, in turn, has generated an outpouring of new ways of thinking about governance in the Arctic—resulting in a range of concrete proposals and policy alternatives for sustaining arctic communities, ecosystems and biodiversity.The project draws on the insights from traditional ecological knowledge and cutting edge scientific knowledge.The Project has assembled an array of global perpectives and proposals on governance solutions in its Arctic Governance Compendium. The Project's leadership and a diverse cross-section of researchers and stakeholders will subject these proposals to careful scrutiny at the the Tromsø Summit in January 2010.
Posted 7 December 2009; 10:29:15 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar cooperation, Circumpolar News, Governance, Indigenous Issues, International, Internet Resources, Laws and legal
New website to help First Nations work together
(Chris Oke/Yukon News, 7 December 2009) -- Setting up a modern government doesn’t come cheap. Since the Umbrella Final Agreement was signed in 1992, 11 of the territory’s 14 First Nations have signed a self-government agreement and had to create agreements, policies and legislation from scratch. And they were often doing it alone. A new resource aims to put an end to that isolation. Last week, the Yukon First Nation Self-Government Secretariat launched a new website and resource centre. Working in tandem, they will help Yukon First Nations share information, strengthen partnerships and build on past successes. “We were finding that the cost of establishing a government is just astronomical,” said secretariat director Pauline Frost. “And then you’ve got someone down the highway having to draft and write the same piece of legislation and policies.” A couple years ago, the self-government secretariat received requests from First Nation leaders that it look into some sort of central agency to house the resources necessary for land claims implementation, said Frost. “To be thriving, successful governments, we need to share this information,” she said. “There’s a lot of really good information and best practices out there, and we have a number of First Nations in the Yukon that have the years of experience in terms of setting up a government. “They’ve got a lot to teach, but there is also a lot to be learned.” The resource centre will contain a wide range of land-claims and related self-government documents, legislative templates, human resources documents, policies, and so on. All of this will be available for public use. There will also be two workstations with computers, printers and scanners. The companion website will provide electronic versions of much of the information to be found in the resource centre, as well as links to related organizations and research areas.
Posted 7 December 2009; 2:46:09 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, December09, Indigenous Issues, Internet Resources, North America
TV: Arctic Meltdown: Three-part series by David Suzuki
(CBC) -- Arctic Meltdown is a three-part series on CBC News Network, 3, 10 and 17 December 2009. Narrated by David Suzuki, the three-part series Arctic Meltdown documents the drastic changes the Arctic has seen over the last few years. From new companies rushing to claim the Arctic's plentiful resources to the effect climate change has had on animals as well as plant life, the documentary, directed by Kristina Von Hlatky, asks the big question: as the Arctic meltdown continues at an ever-accelerating pace, who will protect it? Streaming video available online (follow the title link).
Posted 5 December 2009; 6:48:03 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Internet Resources, Movies, video and TV
Webzine: Online cultural magazine will unite the North
(Chris Oke/Yukon News, 4 December 2009) -- There’s a new circumpolar arts and culture magazine in town. Other northern literary magazines have popped up in the past, but they haven’t had much staying power. Out of Service, for instance, only published three issues before given in to the irony of its name. Lily Gontard was the fiction editor for Out of Service. She’s also worked at a number of literary magazines Outside, including the Malahat Review and Geist magazine. Gontard continues to be a regular contributor to the endnotes section of Geist. Now she is the senior editor of Arctica. “I’ve worked in magazines from the bottom, doing the schlepping around, to doing the editing and managing,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to start a magazine up here. “Magazines are a lot of work, but it’s fun—it’s fun to create something and the people that are working on Arctica are all really enthusiastic.” You won’t find the magazine in the book store’s periodical section though. There won’t be a print edition. Instead, issues will be published online with new additions added monthly. “The way publishing is going, everything is going online—even books are now being published online,” said Gontard. “I think we’re seeing the end of paper publications.” ... Arctica already has an editorial board member from Iceland and another in Alaska. For Canadians, the North is very much about rural existence, but in Scandinavia it’s not rural at all - its where most people live, said Gontard. “To see what people are doing in Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Norway will be very interesting for us and our readers.” Arctica isn’t just about writing. The editors hope to post exciting work in visual art, photography, video and audio. But everything will have to be about the North. “It’s the niche of this magazine,” Gontard explained. “Each magazine has to have a focus and the more narrow that focus is the easier it is to attract readers.” Readers will know that they can come to Arctica for that cultural and artistic taste of the North. Arctica already has the content selected for the first issue, which will be launched sometime in mid-December. ... For more information contact arctica@arcticamag.ca
Posted 5 December 2009; 5:03:58 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Arts and Artists, Books, Blogs and Publications, Canada, Circumpolar News, Communications and media, December09, Internet Resources, Yukon / Canada
Discover Nunavik through a virtual exhibit
(Université de Montréal Nouvelles (alerted by The Circumpolar Blog), 1 December 2009) -- Luc Bouvrette, a Université de Montréal professor, has created something unique to enable people from around the world to discover Nunavik – a virtual exhibit called A Land, Its People. The exhibit is available in French, English and Inuktitut and features magnificent photographs, stories and legends. The virtual show also includes Inuktitut throat-singing recordings that audiences can perform along with thanks to a karaoke application. A Land, Its People is financed by The Virtual Museum of Canada. On the Web: A Land, Its People; About the Forum en clips report; About the Forum.
Posted 2 December 2009; 1:23:21 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, December09, Internet Resources, North America, Nunavik
Issue 16: Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears online magazine
(Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears via Circumpolar Blog, 22 November 2009) -- Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears is an online professional development magazine for elementary teachers which focuses on preparing teachers to teach polar science concepts in an already congested curriculum by integrating inquiry-based science with literacy teaching. Such an integrated approach can increase students' science knowledge, academic language, reading comprehension, and written and oral discourse abilities. ... Twenty thematic issues of the online magazine are planned, each of which will include standards-based science and content-rich literacy learning across five departments (In the Field: Scientists at Work, Professional Learning, Science and Literacy, Across the Curriculum, and Polar News and Notes). Engaging science activities, compelling images, rich text, and multimedia resources such as podcasts and videos will capture the interest of both students and teachers. Strategies for integrating technology, addressing misconceptions, and ensuring equity in the classroom are topics of emphasis.
Posted 22 November 2009; 9:31:56 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Antarctica, Books, Blogs and Publications, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Communications and media, Education and Civil Society, Internet Resources, November09, Youth
Free syllabics fonts downloads (MAC & PC) plus keyboards
(George Lessard/The MediaMentor, 20 November 2009) -- Euphemia covers most languages that use the Canadian syllabic script including various Cree orthographies, Inuktitut and the historical Carrier/Dakelh script (dulkw'ahke). Three fonts are available with free end-user licences in TrueType-OpenType format (.ttf). Pigiarniq, Uqammaq and the Inuktitut Keyboard Driver Macintosh keyboards for Inuktitut are available with Mac OSX 10.3 or later. They are compatible with both the version of Euphemia available here as well as the version of Euphemia that comes with OSX, as well as any other Unicode-encoded Inuktitut fonts or UCAS fonts. If you wish to have the latest version, and/or a version of Euphemia that has the extra features (smallcaps, old-style figures etc.) you can download the version from this site. http://www.tiro.com/syllabics/resources/index.html
Posted 20 November 2009; 10:01:15 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Cultural Matters, Indigenous Issues, Internet Resources, North America, November09
A photographer's polar obsession
(NPR, 13 November 2009) --Today on All Things Considered, host Melissa Block speaks with National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen about his new book, Polar Obsession. Listen here. How many people can say with nonchalance, "I've had good friends of mine ... eaten by grizzly bears"? Paul Nicklen can, for one. He's a National Geographic photographer who was raised in Canada's Arctic and has spent the past 20 years documenting extreme polar regions. Nicklen had a unique childhood. He grew up in a small and remote Inuit community on Baffin Island with no radio, no TV and no telephone. His idea of fun included lying in blizzards until his body went numb, building sleds and tending pet seals. It was a secluded youth -- and to anyone else, a bit extreme. But to Nicklen, it was as idyllic as childhood gets. "I was taking care of dog teams by the time I was 5," he tells NPR's Melissa Block. "It's just a completely different world, and ... I fell in love with it." So it makes sense that his idea of fun today includes many of the same things: extreme temperatures, exploration and animal friendships. After a brief stint at the University of Victoria to earn a biology degree, Nicklen made a prompt return to Canada's Arctic, where he began a career as a nature photojournalist. "As I got to be older, as a biologist and photojournalist," he says, "I realized that these are the tools I can now use to protect the place that I fell in love with as a kid."
Posted 15 November 2009; 7:12:37 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Books, Blogs and Publications, Circumpolar News, Internet Resources, November09, Tourism / Perspectives
Native Leader Byron Mallott speaks about ANCSA
(Morgan Howard/NativeCo, 5 November 2009) -- Alaska Native leader Byron Mallott talks about the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and the Native corporations founded under the act. Mr. Mallott is speaking from the board room of the Sealaska building in downtown Juneau, Alaska. NativeCo.com is proud to have Mr. Mallott on our Board of Advisors. This lecture/discussion (58:02) is part of a series of talks sponsored by Sealaska Heritage Institute to celebration Native Awareness Month. Video is provided courtesy of Kathy Dye and the Sealaska Heritage Institute.
Posted 6 November 2009; 12:11:08 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Indigenous Issues, Internet Resources, North America, November09, United States
Arctic Portal and University of the Arctic: Virtual learning tools survey for students and teachers
(UArctic News, 2 November 2009) -- This project will develop a virtual classroom,
a platform for excellence in distance education giving enhanced and
content rich opportunities for on-line discussion and alternative forms
of interactive teaching.The Arctic virtual learning tools project joins together the University of Arctic, which educates northern people in both rural areas and in cities in all eight Arctic countries and Arctic Portal,
which is the website that hosts among others IPY, the Arctic council
and its working groups, the Association of Polar Early Career
Scientists (APECS) and the International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry
(ICR). This project will develop a virtual classroom, a platform for
excellence in distance education giving enhanced and content rich
opportunities for on-line discussion and alternative forms of
interactive teaching. The classroom will be managed and distributed
through the Arctic Portal and it will be open for on-line teaching conducted at the University of Arctic members and other partners. In
order to find out what are the needs of the potential users, the survey
on virtual learning tools will be conducted during the October-November
2009. The survey is open for those who have taken part in on-line
teaching or conferences and for those who are just planning or thinking
of doing the on-line teaching in the near future. You can fill in the online survey:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFVQQnVjMWtMQVFKS2lOZVlISDhfZXc6MA
Please read instructions before filling out the survey. The
survey will be available until November 13th, 2009. After completions
of survey, please feel free to forward this link to your colleagues,
thanks!
Posted 2 November 2009; 7:41:16 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Education and Civil Society, Internet Resources, November09, UArctic News
New online circumpolar art and culture magazine
Arctica Magazine (www.ArcticaMag.ca) is a new monthly online circumpolar art and culture magazine set to launch in December 2009 and it needs your content. The magazine will publish literary fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, short video and photo essays about the circumpolar region, but created by anyone. Deadline for submissions for the first issue is October 26, 2009. Send your short stories, creative non-fiction or poetry pasted into your email, or attached as a Word or RTF file to submissions@arcticamag.ca Prose up to 3,500 words will be considered; five poems or three pages of poetry (single spaced). To submit a video (3 minute limit) or photo essay, email a link for viewing. For more information, send an email to arctica@arcticamag.ca. Arctica Magazine is published by the Arctica Cultural Society, based in Whitehorse, Yukon. -- Lily Gontard, www.gontard.ca, 1-867-332-4919
Posted 25 October 2009; 12:21:38 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Arts and Artists, Books, Blogs and Publications, Canada, Circumpolar News, Communications and media, Internet Resources, October09
Projected reduction in snow 2080-2100
(Random Graphic of the Day/Maps and Graphics at UNEP/GRID-Arendal, 17 October 2009) -- Using one specific climate change model (ECHAM5) and the SRES A2 emission scenario (run 2) the projected loss of snow amounts to decreases of 60–80 per cent in monthly maximum snow water equivalent over most middle latitudes by the end of this century. The largest decreases are projected over Europe, while the model projects increases are in the Canadian Arctic and Siberia. Snow presents an important factor for ecosystems, water and human activities, and future changes in snow cover and snow extent will have important effects.
Posted 19 October 2009; 2:35:17 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Internet Resources, October09
Website takes show-and-tell approach to history
(Jane George/Nunatsiaq News, 19 October 2009) -- Learning about the history of Inuit contact with whalers, First Nations and explorers is as easy as emptying out a backpack, thanks to an interactive trilingual website launched Oct. 16 in Iqaluit. The website, Takurngaqtaq (encountering something for the first time) or, in English, Inuit Contact and Colonization, traces the history of contact between Inuit and other peoples from about 4,000 B.C. to the 1920s. The site uses the metaphor of the “container” to present and organize information. “The idea is to chronicle the evolution of the Inuit peoples as they passed through the decades leading up to and including contact with non-natives” said Erica Chemko of the Inuit Heritage Trust, the project manager for Takurngaqtaq. The goal is to see students critically look at the impacts of contact on Inuit society by looking at historical change as it is presented in the containers, she said. Each container has its own set of items related to sewing, cultural knowledge, tools, weapons, food and implements, trade. For example, the Inuit container used to describe the era of contact with whalers includes an image of a package of tea. When a student clicks on it, a link opens up to a section with photos and information about food and implements used during that period. ... The Takurngaqtaq website is designed to support the Nunavut social studies curriculum for Grades Seven. Teachers can access instructional modules on the website to help them learn how to use it with their students. The website’s English and French versions are completely translated, but its Inukitut text still needs more work due to a lack of funding earmarked for Inuktitut translation, Chemko said.
Posted 19 October 2009; 11:47:10 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Books, Blogs and Publications, Canada, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Cultural Matters, Education and Civil Society, Indigenous Issues, Internet Resources, North America, Nunavut, October09, Youth
1MB broadband access becomes legal right
(YLE, 14 October 2009) -- Starting next July, every person in Finland will have the right to a one-megabyte broadband connection, says the Ministry of Transport and Communications. Finland is the world's first country to create laws guaranteeing broadband access. The government had already decided to make a 100 MB broadband connection a legal right by the end of 2015. On Wednesday, the Ministry announced the new goal as an intermediary step. Some variation will be allowed, if connectivity can be arranged through mobile phone networks.
Posted 16 October 2009; 3:55:49 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communications and media, Communities, Finland, Internet Resources
Video Essay: Games Inuvialuit play
(Rick Bowmer/AP, 16 September 2009) -- Bowmer captured the 40th Annual Circumpolar Northern Games that celebrate the traditions of Tuktoyaktuk, a small native community on the northern shores of Canada.
Posted 17 September 2009; 10:10:09 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Cultural Matters, Indigenous Issues, Internet Resources, North America, NWT / Canada, Sports and Games, Tourism / Perspectives
(IceNews, 12 September 2009) -- More than 150,000 Icelanders are logging in to the popular social networking website Facebook, according to the market research company Buzzpoint. With exactly 46.89 percent of Icelanders owning a Facebook account, the country now holds claim to a new world record in Facebook activity. Norway ranks not far behind in second place with exactly 40 percent of the population registered on Facebook. According to similar research, Facebook has over 250 million users worldwide despite being blocked intermittently in several countries including Syria and China. Only three countries in the world have a larger population than the total amount of registered Facebook users: China, India and the USA. The USA does however claim the highest number of registered Facebook users, with 70 million citizens logging in on a daily basis. However, due to Iceland´s per capita ratio the country still holds the world record.
Posted 12 September 2009; 11:31:08 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Iceland, Internet Resources, North Atlantic
tusaalanga.ca brings Inuktitut learning to the world
(tusaalanga.ca via The Circumpolar Blog, 24 August 2009) -- Tusaalanga is a dynamic website that brings Inuktitut learning to the world wide web. It was created by the Pirurvik Centre, an Iqaluit-based company dedicated to enhancing Inuit language, culture and well-being. Thanks to the support of the Nunavut Department of Culture, Language Elders and Youth and the Department of Canadian Heritage, Tusaalanga is now available in French.
Posted 27 August 2009; 4:28:20 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Cultural Matters, Education and Civil Society, Internet Resources, North America, Nunavut / Canada
tusaalanga.ca brings Inuktitut learning to the world
(tusaalanga.ca via The Circumpolar Blog, 24 August 2009) -- Tusaalanga is a dynamic website that brings Inuktitut learning to the world wide web. It was created by the Pirurvik Centre, an Iqaluit-based company dedicated to enhancing Inuit language, culture and well-being. Thanks to the support of the Nunavut Department of Culture, Language Elders and Youth and the Department of Canadian Heritage, Tusaalanga is now available in French.
Posted 24 August 2009; 12:35:27 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Cultural Matters, Education and Civil Society, Internet Resources, North America, Nunavut / Canada
Relaunching OOKPIK.ORG: Building a community for circumpolar youth
(IISD announcement, 19 August 2009) -- We are proud to announce that the community website for circumpolar youth has had a total makeover. It’s a completely new Ookpik! The site is designed for circumpolar youth, with contributions from circumpolar youth. Over the past two years, Ookpik has been managed by a series of young northerners and this practice will continue. OOKPIK is your gateway to Arctic networks, knowledge, opinions and events.
Posted 19 August 2009; 1:56:50 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Internet Resources, Social Issues, Youth
(Reuters, 28 July 2009) -- Reuters features Inside Greenland, a gallery of interesting images from photographer Bob Strong.
Posted 30 July 2009; 12:00:44 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, Flora and Fauna, Greenland / Denmark, Internet Resources, Movies, video and TV, North Atlantic
Talk about technology… Web site out to preserve, spread area’s Native dialect
(Patrice Kohl/The Redoubt Reporter, 29 July 2009) -- People have spoken Dena’ina on the Kenai Peninsula longer than any other language, but the chances of hearing anyone speak Dena’ina on the peninsula today are slim to none. Fewer than 50 Dena’ina speakers remain, and the last speaker of the Kenai dialect of Dena’ina, Fred Mamaloff, died in 2006. Of the few remaining Dena’ina speakers, most live west of Cook Inlet in the Nondalton area. All but one are over 60 years old. Having lost its last speaker, the Kenai dialect of Dena’ina — Kahtnuht’ana Qenaga — faces the threat of being forgotten, but Kenai Peninsula College, Kenaitze Tribe and Cook Inlet Tribal Council have launched a project to help preserve Kahtnuht’ana Qenaga. The project has opened access to Kahtnuht’ana Qenaga study guides and archived audio files on a newly created Web site, http://qenaga.org/kq Audio files include pronunciation samples, vocabulary and stories. For words that may appear daunting, such as nilqun qegh’utda (meaning, day after tomorrow), audio samples help open Kahtnuht’ana Qenaga up to peninsula residents and others wanting to learn more about the area’s Native tongue. ... or Kenaitze tribal members, studying Kahtnuht’ana Qenaga is an important part of understanding the tribe’s history and connection to the peninsula, said Sasha Lindgren, cultural and educational program director for the Kenaitze Tribe. “The language ties directly to place,” she said. “Place names are not named after people. They’re named after distinguishing characteristics of the land. … So by learning our language we become even more connected to the land and our history, and it explains things to us.” Kahtnuht’ana Qenaga Web site helps reveal this connection in a series of interactive maps of the peninsula on which places are labeled by their Kahtnuht’ana Qenaga names. By clicking on a place name on one of the maps, visitors can see a photo of the place, listen to an audio clip pronouncing the Kahtnuht’ana Qenaga name, read an English translation of the place name and see the name commonly used for the place today.
Posted 29 July 2009; 10:58:40 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Books, Blogs and Publications, Circumpolar News, Communities, Cultural Matters, Indigenous Issues, Internet Resources, United States
Protected areas in the terrestrial priority ecoregions in the Arctic
Using the graphics and referring to them is encouraged, and please use them in presentations, web pages, newspapers, blogs and reports. For any form of publication, please include this link: http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/protected-areas-in-the-terres trial-priority-ecoregions-in-the-arctic
Please give the cartographer/designer/author credit (in this case Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal) and give full recognition to the data sources used in the graphic.
Posted 27 July 2009; 12:10:56 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Books, Blogs and Publications, Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, Environment and Landscape, Internet Resources
Web site is watchdog for environmental change in rural Alaska
(The Arctic Sounder, 9 June 2009) -- Fish with strange spots. Sinkholes in the tundra. Crumbling river banks. The scenes appear in a handful of photos posted at www.nunat.net, a fledgling Web site created to provide a record of changes linked to global warming, subsistence resources and village life. The site’s database is a year old. It was designed to give rural Alaskans a way to share information and document the changes around them, especially those who spend a lot of time outdoors, said its creator, Brad Garness. “People who live a subsistence hunting and fishing lifestyle generally have a unique view regarding climate change and why animals behave the way they do,” Garness said. Garness is acting executive director of the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, which owns the site. It’s been said that Alaska is on the front lines of climate change, but there doesn’t appear to be another site where rural Alaskans can go to document the changes around them, he said. AITC contracted with biologists and other experts to help develop reporting forms included on the site. With the forms, people can provide detailed accounts of what they’ve seen. The Nunat Web site is named after a Yup’ik word that means “lands” in central Yup’ik.
Posted 15 June 2009; 11:53:06 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communications and media, Communities, Contaminants and Pollution, Environment and Landscape, Internet Resources, Natural disasters and other problems, North America, Social Issues, United States
(Barents Indigenous People, 9 June 2009) -- The Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and far East has launched its new and improved website. You will find the new RAIPON website at http://www.raipon.info/ and in English: http://raipon.info/en/
Posted 14 June 2009; 2:00:41 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Indigenous Issues, Internet Resources, Russia
Ha Kus Teyea website ready! www.teslintlingitheritage.com/celebration
Teslin Tlingit Council announces the launch of its new web site: Please check out the website; it is now fully ready. Thanks are tendered to Heritage staff, our committee, The Elders Council, Sue Greetham, PR Services, TRTFN, CTFN and Doug Hogan.
Posted 30 May 2009; 3:15:37 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Communications and media, Communities, Cultural Matters, Internet Resources, Yukon / Canada
New website: BarentsIndigenous.org
(Jonas Sjøkvist Karlsbakk/Norwegian Barents Secretariat, 20 May 2009) -- The BarentsIndigenous.org website will provide news and further information about the indigenous peoples of the Barents Euro-Arctic Region. Activities and projects involving indigenous peoples of the Barents Euro-Arctic Region are key items of the website, as well as promotion of the activities of the Working Group of Indigenous Peoples of the Barents Euro-Arctic Region. A Russian version will hopefully be ready soon, as the website has a particular eye on the Russian side. Information across the state borders is crucial for extended cooperation, and the Norwegian Barents Secretariat has a pronounced focus on indigenous peoples and aims for increased activity and border-crossing cooperation between the Nenets, Saami and Veps of the region. The website is administrated by the Norwegian Barents Secretariat, in cooperation with the Barents Indigenous Peoples' Office (BIPO) in Lovozero, Russian Federation.
Posted 29 May 2009; 3:09:10 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar News, Communications and media, Indigenous Issues, Internet Resources, Nordic Region, Northwest / Russia, Norway, Russia
Greenlanders flock to the Internet
(IceNews, 24 May 2009) -- Greenlanders are hooking up to the Internet in droves since the Greenland Connect sea cable was connected to the island on 24 March. Within the first month of its operation, Internet use jumped 25 percent. Sermitsiaq reports Tele Greenland’s new ADSL Premium service is particularly popular, luring hundreds of customers with its faster speed and larger capacity for downloading at a single set rate. In anticipation of a big increase in their Internet customers, Tele Greenland has already approached the government and asked it to lower rates by 35 million kroner. If the government agrees to help make Internet access more affordable, the lower rates will take effect on 1 June. Tele Greenland wants to use 30 million kroner to reduce its rate per megabyte, and the remaining five million kroner to reduce installation and subscription prices. Greenland currently has 12,300 Internet users, a small number in most countries. But the rapid increase in Internet use is causing Greenland’s postal service, Tele Post, to lose out. SIKUnews reports that between 2001 and 2008 the sale of postage stamps fell by up to 38 percent and the overall amount of post delivered dropped by the same percentage. The decline in traditional postal services is slowly eroding Tele Post’s profitability, suggesting that one day Greenland’s snail mail may be forced into extinction. But for now, the island is enjoying its new connectivity to the World Wide Web.
Posted 24 May 2009; 12:48:32 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Greenland / Denmark, Internet Resources, North Atlantic, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
World digital library offers cultural treasures from around globe
(Louise Fenner/America.govCompList@STATE.GOV, 21 April 2009) -- Washington - The World Digital Library (WDL) offers free online access to important, rare and interesting cultural treasures from around the planet. Starting April 21, a vast multilingual collection of manuscripts, maps, rare books, sound recordings, films, prints, photographs and other cultural and historical materials can be viewed with the click of a computer mouse - and this is only the beginning of an ambitious project to share the contents of the world's libraries and cultural institutions. The WDL's Web site functions in seven major languages, permitting users to conduct searches and read descriptions of the content in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish (the official languages of the United Nations) and Portuguese. All materials are presented in their original languages. For selected items, there are videos featuring discussions by expert curators. More than two dozen libraries around the globe contributed the 1,200 digitized items from different eras and places that are now available for viewing. Among the treasures are calligraphic works in Arabic, Persian, Chinese and Japanese from the eight to the 19th centuries; early films, by the Lumière brothers in France, 1897-98, and Thomas Edison in the United States, 1899; and Miroslav's Gospel, a Serbian illuminated manuscript created around 1180. The World Digital Library was launched April 21 at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris -four years after the project was proposed by James Billington, head of the U.S. Library of Congress. Billington envisioned a Web site that would "bring together in a single place what is most interesting and most important of the world's varied cultures."
Posted 22 April 2009; 11:54:27 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Internet Resources
Audio: Arctic Front: The Sovereignty Debate and the Future of the Canadian North (mp3)
Lecture: Arctic Front: The Sovereignty Debate and the Future of the Canadian North, the 2009 Maddison Chair in Northern Justice Annual Lecture by Ken Coates is now available. Follow the title link for access to the mp3s of the lecture. Video to follow in the next week.
Posted 2 April 2009; 9:37:59 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Autonomy, Sovereignty and Politics, Canada, Circumpolar News, International, Internet Resources
New improved Arctic web portal
(Ragnar Baldursson/Nordic Council News, 6 January 2009) -- An Arctic web portal, a joint initiative by the Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Akureyri University, uses information technology to present information about environmental monitoring, research, cultural activities and trade in an attempt to boost sustainable development in the Arctic Region. The portal was formally launched at the Arctic Council summit in Salekhard in late 2006, and has since grown in terms of as content and technology. It now provides access to interactive maps, meteorological data, webcams, monitoring data and an Arctic databank. articportal.org enjoys the backing of many domestic and international partners and has received funding from the Nordic Council of Ministers, Akureyri Council and Statoil-Hydro. A company has now been founded to look after the portal in collaboration with the parties that helped set it up, including the Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ... A virtual classroom is being developed in collaboration with the University of [Alberta,] Edmonton in Canada and several other educational establishments that belong to the University of the Arctic, an umbrella body designed to meet the needs of sparsely populated areas and provide greater access to higher education. Work is also being done to open a special "community square", where Arctic communities and indigenous populations will have their own websites with access to web equipment, web media and debate forums. The aim is to provide better opportunities to preserve and develop language and culture in a developing environment.
Posted 11 January 2009; 4:22:32 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar cooperation, Circumpolar News, International, Internet Resources
New place names website, called Dánän Kwänje – Our Land Speaks
(Ta'an Kwäch'än Council news release, 13 November 2008) -- Ta'an Kwäch'än Heritage will be hosting an official launch for our new place names website, called Dánän Kwänje – Our Land Speaks in Whitehorse next Wednesday, November 19. See the attached invitation for details, and feel free to pass this on to anyone who may be interested. The site will hopefully be of interest to those in heritage related fields, researchers, and also to teachers, particularly social studies and language teachers. For those of you who can't make the launch, feel free to visit the site at www.taan.ca/placenames.
Posted 13 November 2008; 1:18:05 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, Cultural Matters, Indigenous Issues, Internet Resources, North America
Demography of indigenous peoples of the Arctic based on linguistic groups (major groups)
(GRID Arendal map) -- Demography of indigenous peoples of the Arctic based on linguistic groups (major groups). Areas show colours according to the original languages of the respective indigenous peoples, even if they do not speak their languages today. Notes: Overlapping populations are not shown. The map does not claim to show exact boundaries between the individual language groups. Typical colonial populations, which are not traditional Arctic populations, are not shown (Danes in Greenland, Russians in the Russian Federation, non-native Americans in North America). This map is simplified from http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/demography-of-indigenous-peoples-of-the-arctic-based-on-linguistic-groups
Posted 1 September 2008; 7:56:59 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Indigenous Issues, International, Internet Resources
Craigslist has come to the territories. The buy-sell-trade-give-advertise-connect-etc. site has been in operation since mid- to late August, I think. There are already a number of posts. No central RSS feed, though, so you have to dig. Individual sections have feeds.
Posted 1 September 2008; 7:36:52 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Internet Resources, North America, Nunavut / Canada, NWT / Canada, Social Issues, Yukon / Canada
Photogallery: Siberia's assets frozen by photographs
(Mike Sturk/Rob Galbraith DPI, 23 June 2008) -- National Geographic's Gerd Ludwig shows how Russia's vast northern region has been changed by oil wealth in an interesting photo gallery called Siberia's Frozen Assets. Awash in oil wealth, Siberia goes upscale.
Posted 24 June 2008; 1:30:17 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Internet Resources, Research / Reports, Russia, Siberia / Russia
Elegy for Amundsen - single released - free download
(Hornorkesteret press release, 22 June 2008) -- Hornorkesteret, the Norwegian Polar Orchestra, has released a single commemorating the 80 years that have passed since Roald Amundsen disappeared in the arctic in the small seaplane Latham 47. The single is available from >h;www.hornorkesteret.no> with cover art and three additional tracks, all relating to Roald Amundsen's life. The title track, "Elegi for Roald Amundsen" features the vocals of another great norwegian polar hero, Fridtjof Nansen, taken from his speech at Amundsens funeral. Three other tracks related to Amundsen are included on this release, "Mot Sydpolen" (Towards the South Pole), an imagined soundtrack to the trek towards the pole in 1911, and "Mandolin under et vindu" (Mandolin under a window) which looks at Amundsen's youth and his early determination to make a name for himself in the polar regions. Finally, a live version of the title track is included, recorded at the memorial monument at Amundsens birthplace in Borge, Norway at a memorial ceremony on the 18th of June 2008, complete with birdsong and rustling leaves.
Posted 22 June 2008; 5:27:33 PM. 01_Elegi_for_Roald_Amundsen.mp3 Permalink
Tagged: Antarctica, Arts and Artists, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Internet Resources, Nordic Region
Isuma.tv goes live from Iqaluit for National Aboriginal Day
(CBC News, 20 June 2008) -- Since Isuma.tv launched about six months ago, the brainchild of filmmaking duo Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn, it's built an online community that touches indigenous people around the world. The video-sharing website is the first of its kind — a sort of YouTube dedicated to bringing Aboriginal films and videos to a global audience. This weekend, on National Aboriginal Day, the site hopes to accomplish another first — the first live webcast from Iqaluit. It will bring the Alianait Arts Festival in Nunavut to the rest of the North and to the rest of Canada for the first time. The festival features performances by Colin Adjun, Dave Bidini, Les 7 doigts de la main and Gjoa Band. Although the technology is new to many in the North, Kunuk said the idea of the concert being broadcast from Iqaluit is being greeted with excitement. "If we can do that, we can do that from anywhere in the world," he told CBC News. "I'm surprised that we're doing it first," Kunuk said of himself and his partner Cohn, who made the award-winning film Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner). "New technology never crossed by mind because I was born on the land and came to Igloolik — which was a bigger community, to where they have stores and health centres. To dream that one day we will do this never crossed my mind." Cohn said there are enormous challenges to an online broadcast from Canada's North because of the lack of broadband access necessary to carry video over the internet. "Everyone knows, especially in the media industry that doing anything in the North is going to be twice as difficult as it would be anywhere else," Cohn said. "These issues are magnified by disparity in broadband access between what exists where you are in Toronto and what exists in Iqaluit, much less in a remote community like Igloolik." Cohn said he's not surprised at the global interest in the site, which sees videos submitted by people in Mexico and other countries with indigenous populations, as well as Canada's North. … Isuma.tv will have live webcasts from the Alianait Arts Festival in Iqaluit this weekend.
Posted 20 June 2008; 3:48:08 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Arts and Artists, Canada, Circumpolar News, Indigenous Issues, Internet Resources, North America, Nunavut / Canada
Google Translate speaks six circumpolar languages
(23 May 2008) -- I probably should have noticed this before, but Google Translate can handle six of the circumpolar languages along with English: French, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Russian. As with all machine translation, the results can be a bit odd but, generally, you get the basic idea of the document.
Posted 23 May 2008; 3:54:53 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar Issues, Circumpolar News, Internet Resources
Arctic Council webpage wins award
(Arctic Council News, 30 April 2008) -- The Arctic Council web page was Friday awarded the Norwegian Graphic Artists annual prize "Visuelt". The web page won the category Editorial Design and was awarded with Silver. The Arctic Council was nominated together with a private web page and professional web pages from the television station TVNorge and the Association of Norwegian Architects and was the clear winner in the category. "The web page has a good structure on information and the typographics are excellent. The design expresses the geographical universe and the page is perfectly matching the needs of the target group. Excellent work!" said the jury. The homepage is developed by Rita Schistad-Stensvoll and Svein Arild Myrer from the Oslo based company Bouvet A/S and Jesper Hansen from the Arctic Council secretariat in Tromsø. The competition "Visuelt" is Norway's leading competition in graphic design, illustrations and interactive design. The competition encourages new solutions and high visual design standards.
Posted 2 May 2008; 8:22:02 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Awards, prizes, recognitions, Circumpolar News, International, Internet Resources, Nordic Region, Norway
Google maps Anchorage, Fairbanks
(Julia O'Malley/Anchorage Daily News, 30 March 2008) -- When Tomas Jensen looked up his address Friday on Google, he expected to pull up an image of his rooftop taken from a satellite. But what appeared was an up-close snapshot of his house taken from his street in Airport Heights. There was his car parked in the driveway. His garage door was open. Fall leaves were strewn across the lawn. The house next door. The one across the street. "Holy crap!" he said aloud in the downtown office of Agnew Beck, where he works as a map-maker. "How do they do that?" Google posted images of Anchorage and Fairbanks on Thursday that were taken last year with a 360-degree camera as part of a mapping program called Street View. The effect is a a slightly distorted tour of city cul-de-sacs and roadways made of pasted-together still images taken from the roof of a car. "It kind of looks a little bit like I'm riding my bicycle drunk," Jensen said as he clicked down the streets of his neighborhood. Google launched the mapping feature last year, offering street-level navigation of major cities across the United States. Street views of Juneau have been available since last month.
Posted 31 March 2008; 12:52:59 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska / US, Circumpolar News, Communities, Internet Resources
Juneau first Alaska city to appear on Google Street View
(Eric Morrison/Anchorage Daily News, 22 March 2008) -- JUNEAU-- While searching on Google for directions to a plumbing store from his home, Juneau resident Matt Huston became curious about the Web site's "Street View" mapping feature that popped up on his computer screen. "It went directly to my house and I noticed, 'Hey, that's me,'" he said. The Internet company's Street View mapping feature was introduced in 2007, allowing users to digitally navigate through communities via a series of stitched-together panoramic photographs. Juneau was one of 12 cities added last month to Google Street View. The company photographed nearly all the streets of Juneau last fall, using a specialized camera system strapped to the top of a car. People can now cruise the streets of the capital without leaving the comfort of their computer desks. Thirty cities across the country have been included in the Google Street View feature since last year, Google spokesman Larry Yu said. The company has selected cities of various sizes in different geographic regions, including Los Angeles, Orlando, Detroit, San Antonio, Salt Lake City and others. Juneau is the only city in Alaska currently mapped in Google Street View.
Posted 22 March 2008; 4:37:35 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska / US, Circumpolar News, Communities, Internet Resources, North America
Participate by webcast in a celebration in Whitehorse!
Yukon Educational Theatre (YET) is planning one of its biggest years ever for the 10th anniversary of Burning Away the Winter Blues. Burning Away the Winter Blues is held in Whitehorse every year to help Yukoners mark the Spring Equinox, celebrate the end of winter and renew their spirits in time for spring. To celebrate the anniversary, YET has commissioned a new video, re-built its website, and will carry the event live on the Internet. This year, Yukon Educational Theatre is inviting people all over the world to attend the 10th annual Burning Away the Winter Blues via webcast. Virtual participants can send in their blues to be burned on the fire in Whitehorse (e-mail address on the site, follow the title link). A torch-lit riverfront procession ends at a huge bonfire (see the picture from the 1999 event), where an effigy of Winter is burned, along with slips of paper on which people have written their "winter blues". This year's event will be held on the evening of March 22nd starting at approximately 8:30 p.m. Yukon time (GMT -8).
Posted 2 March 2008; 7:30:23 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Arts and Artists, Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, Cultural Matters, International, Internet Resources, North America
New webpage gives the Arctic Youth a voice
(Tana Lowen Stratton/Arctic Council News, 24 January 2008) -- Share your history and tell us how you are, is the message in a brand new homepage aimed toward young people in the Arctic. "Your north is my north is our north" is the slogan of a brand new webpage aimed toward the Arctic Youth. In short the homepage is called North3 [see link at right]. Here, young people are encouraged to record and share their views on northern issues and to participate actively in International Polar Year activities. North3 is supported by Canada's Northern Initiative Fund. The project is part of a larger Arctic youth website called "Ookpik" that provides young northern residents access to Arctic networks, knowledge and events in eight languages. Both are hosted by the International Institute of Sustainable Development in Winnipeg, Canada.
Posted 29 January 2008; 3:31:21 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, International, Internet Resources, IPY, Tourism / Perspectives, Women, Children and Families
Your North is My North is Our North
(North3, 17 January 2008) -- New website aimed at northern youth. "This website began as an initiative of the Arctic Council's Future of Children and Youth (FCYA) The FCYA was initiative of the Sustainable Development Working Group, one of the five working groups of the Arctic Council." "Share your views; we are interested in what you think. Take a moment to participate in this outreach project and exchange the experiences of northern youth. We may live a thousand kilometres apart, but your North and my North are part of the same unified circumpolar world, a common home we should call: our North."
Posted 18 January 2008; 5:43:49 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, International, Internet Resources, Women, Children and Families
Nunavut's internet appetite creates bandwidth concerns
(CBC News, 12 October 2007) -- The growing demand for broadband internet service in Nunavut is causing some bandwidth bottlenecks for the territory's high-speed provider. Since launching its satellite-based broadband service in 2005, the Nunavut Broadband Development Corp.'s Qiniq service has had more subscribers than expected. At this time, about 3,700 Nunavut residents are Qiniq customers. "The numbers have more than exceeded our expectations," NBDC chairman Darrell Ohokannoak told CBC News on Thursday. "In our initial projection, we thought that 2,000 would be sufficient, and we've way exceeded that and gone into our ninth-year projections." Qiniq's success has created the development corporation's biggest challenge, project manager Lorraine Thomas said: how to deal with the growing bandwidth demands of such a large number of users. Unlike most broadband services in the southern provinces, which rely on fibre-optic cable to transmit data from one point to another, Qiniq must rely on satellites as the backbone of its service. That results in already limited bandwidth that has been spread thin with a growing customer base, Thomas said. "If you imagine that you lived in a desert, you would become very good at managing your water, right? Because it's your biggest, most difficult thing, expensive thing. You don't waste it," she said. "That's what it's like in Nunavut. Our biggest, most expensive, difficult thing to access is satellite bandwidth. It's hundreds of times more expensive to transfer data over satellite than it is over a fibre line between Ottawa and Toronto." The NBDC has received subsidies from the federal government to pay for its bandwidth, but that funding only supports 2,000 subscribers.
Posted 12 October 2007; 7:03:43 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, Internet Resources, Nunavut / Canada
New list: Building research networks among graduate students in the social sciences and humanities
(24 September 2007) -- A new listserv is being created to facilitate the exchange of information among graduate students conducting northern research in the social sciences and humanities. The listserv will provide the means for building professional relationships, communicating funding and conference news, sharing resources, and facilitating dialogue on the unique challenges of northern research among young scholars. Participation by researchers in all fields of the humanities and social sciences is welcome. If you are interested in being on this list, please contact Brad Martin at b-martin1 (+a+t) northwestern.edu
Posted 24 September 2007; 4:05:34 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, International, Internet Resources, Research / Reports, Social Issues
Resource: Old maps of North Calotte
The old map collection of the Regional Library of Lapland represents Lapland, the North Calotte and the Nordic countries. A total of fifteen individual maps have been digitalised for these pages and Olof Tresk's (1642-1643) atlas of Lapland's Kemi and Tornio regions published in 1928. Around half the maps are original editions.
Posted 3 September 2007; 2:04:40 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, InfoBits, Internet Resources
Resource: Municipalities of North West – Investment opportunities
(BarentsInfo.org "Latest Link," 3 September 2007) -- Municipality database is the first database that includes municipalities of North Norway and Northwest Russia with detailed description of their economic activity and contact information. The purpose of Municipality Database is to provide full information about municipalities and offer investment opportunities as well as stimulate foreign investment and international cooperation. Municipality Database offers detailed search criteria and is currently updated by representatives of municipalities. Potential investors will gain full information adjusted to their area of interest and business idea. Municipality Database is user-friendly where search can be done by choosing a particular region on the map or by using the search criteria in order to localise the potential place of business development.
Posted 3 September 2007; 2:03:19 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar News, Communities, Internet Resources, Norway, Russia
Best practices guide for AUV polar operations
(Engineering Committee on Oceanic Resources (ECOR) Specialist Panel on Underwater Vehicles, 29 August 2007) -- The Engineering Committee on Oceanic Resources (ECOR) Specialist Panel on Underwater Vehicles has taken on the task of preparing a Best Practices document for polar AUV operations in the form of a new website. The website includes an expanding archive in the field of polar AUV research and a wiki where members can contribute to the content of the site. Funded by Collaborative Autosub Science in Extreme Environments (CASEE), the website is intended for everyone from experienced to new AUV users, from AUV manufacturers to scientists, and the public at large. The website is a living document open to everyone and will expand as information is added on the wiki. The Best Practices Guide for AUV Polar Operations and other AUV-related information is available at: http://www.srcf.ucam.org/polarauvguide/
Posted 29 August 2007; 7:45:11 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Expeditions, exploration, and field trips, Internet Resources, Research / Reports, Sports and Games
Inuit midwifery web site launched
(Ajunnginiq (Inuit) Centre press release, 20 August 2007) -- OTTAWA, ON – Today the Ajunnginiq (Inuit) Centre is celebrating the healthy birth of its trilingual information Web site on Inuit midwifery, maternity care, birthing and infant health in the North. The Web site, located at http://www.inuitmidwifery.ca, is available in Inuktitut, English and French. The site is rich with resources, including research reports and news clippings on Inuit and western midwifery, notices of conferences of interest to midwives, a listing of training courses at northern colleges for maternity care workers, and much more. The Web site was developed to serve as tool for the Irnisuksiiniq – Inuit Midwifery Network. Irnisuksiiniq is the Inuktitut noun for midwifery. Inuit midwives inspired the Ajunnginiq Centre to create the Network and its information services: the Web site and an email listserv. At the Aboriginal Women and Girls’ Health Roundtable in 2005, midwives from Nunavik and Nunavut spoke of the need for a strong connection between midwives in different Inuit regions and a way to share useful resources with each other.
Posted 23 August 2007; 1:46:51 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, Health and wellness, Internet Resources, Nunavut / Canada
Minnesota Arctic Expedition returns from Russia
(GoNorth! press release via PRNewswire via Yahoo! News, 14 May 2007) -- MINNEAPOLIS - For more than 50 years, outsiders weren't allowed into the Chukotka region of the Russian Arctic. However, that changed. With the blessing of the Russian government, the adventure learning program GoNorth! traveled 1,000 miles by dogsled from the Pacific Coast to the Arctic Ocean delivering an unparalleled learning experience to millions of K-12 students throughout the world. Anchored by a K-12 standard-aligned curriculum, the live 14-week program brought environmental issues such as global climate change and sustainable development of natural resources to the world and its future decision-makers. The curriculum is offered at no cost through http://www.polarhusky.com. Led by world-renowned explorer Paul Pregont and Dr. Aaron Doering, Assistant Professor of Learning Technologies at the University of Minnesota, the team of explorers, educators and Polar Husky sled dogs connected more than 20 million online learners with the most economically-challenged and remote region of the Arctic. Dogsledding into these communities, the team introduced Native Chukchi and Yu'pik people of Chukotka to the outside world and gained unique insights into cultures threatened by extinction.
Posted 14 May 2007; 3:29:23 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska / US, Circumpolar News, Education and Civil Society, Expeditions, exploration, and field trips, Internet Resources
(Siku Circumpolar News, 4 April 2007) -- Denmark's Meteorological Institute has launched a new web site that reveals possible climate changes in Greenland. DMI's global and regional climate models calculate all the way up to the year 2080 and show a general temperature increases in Greenland between 7° and 8°C, significantly higher than the global average. On Greenland's eastern coast the increase is expected to be 12°C, with the largest increase in the winter and fewer extremely cold days. The meteorological model also shows other climate changes such as snow melting in earlier in the spring in southern regions. Greenland will also experience a general increase in precipitation between 20 to 30 percent in northern Greenland with certain areas seeing a 250 percent increase. Read more at http://www.dmi.dk
Posted 8 April 2007; 2:11:53 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Environment and Landscape, Greenland / Denmark, Internet Resources, North Atlantic
Photo tour with RIA Novosti: Yakutia
(RIA Novosti, 5 January 2007) -- This is a 20-picture collection of Novosti-watermarked images of landscapes, communities, flora and industries of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), located in the western part of the Russian Far East.
Posted 5 January 2007; 7:20:16 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Environment and Landscape, Far East / Russia, Flora and Fauna, Internet Resources, Russia
(ArcticInfo, 28 December 2006) -- Climate Commons is a networked conversation about climate change, sustainability, and the Arctic. The website features thirteen core participants, including a glaciologist, architect, journalist, and comedian, each of whom contributes weekly posts about their work, inspirations, discoveries, or questions. Readers can join the conversation by clicking on the comments "hex" icon and choosing a cell in which to respond to any particular post. Please note that you must register to post comments. As an interdisciplinary, collaborative art/research project, Climate Commons seeks to point to voices behind complex environmental concerns and to create connections, analogies, and discussion across disciplines, economies, and ideologies. It's a collective interdisciplinary look at what our environment is facing today. Climate Commons is part of a larger project, Arctic Listening Post, a series of interdisciplinary, collaborative hybrid art research works in digital technologies by Marsching. The project is supported by Creative Capital and LEF Foundation Contemporary Work Fund and will conclude at the end of February 2007.
Posted 28 December 2006; 12:12:53 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Arctic Ocean, Circumpolar Issues, Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Conservation and Wildlife, Internet Resources, Research / Reports, Resource Issues, Tourism / Perspectives
Sámi language course interaction on the web
(Stig-Arne Nordstrom/Euroarctic.org, 22 December 2006) -- A new interactive Sámi language course produced by UR Norrbotten - the Educational Broadcasting Corporation – is now available on the web. The course has a number of ingredients from interactive practices to grammar and 7,5 hours of radio programmes. It was produced jointly by UR and the Sámi Educational Centre in Jokkmokk. The course “Gulahalan” is so far transcribed in the northern Sámi dialect interpreted into Swedish. The radio producer Birgitta Lindstrom, who spent two years compiling the project, is very pleased that it will develop further. "A Finnish version of the language course is on its way and will be completed in spring 2007, Birgitta Lindstrom says.
Posted 23 December 2006; 10:31:53 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Cultural Matters, Education and Civil Society, Indigenous Issues, Internet Resources, Nordic Region
Multinational scientific expedition kicks off International Polar Year 2007-2008
(US National Science Foundation press release 06-176, 19 December 2006) -- An international team of scientists and teachers has sailed from Punta Arenas, Chile for a two-week, U.S. National Science Foundation-sponsored research cruise aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden, in one of the first collaborative activities of the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008. IPY is a global campaign of research in the Arctic and Antarctic. Oden left Punta Arenas, Chile, historically a gateway city for Antarctic research, on 12 December 2006. On its way south, the ship will transit the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica, and then follow the Antarctic Peninsula and the coastline of the southernmost continent before entering the Ross Sea. Along the way, scientists from the U.S., Sweden and Chile will conduct a variety of observations, while two classroom educators selected by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), and a Swedish teacher selected by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat will work alongside a Chilean colleague and the scientists. The teachers also will interact with students at home, using shipboard telecommunications to file journals and conduct teleconferences, bringing the excitement of polar research to life for the next generation. ... The educators also will be posting blogs and journals from their trip on the PolarTREC Web site: http://www.polartrec.com/odenexpedition/overview, and on the SWEDARP 2006-07 Web site: http://www.polar.se/expeditioner/swedarp2006_07
Posted 20 December 2006; 3:38:31 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska / US, Antarctica, Circumpolar News, Education and Civil Society, International, Internet Resources, IPY, Research / Reports
Resource: Siberian Studies dot org
This website is dedicated to the presentation and dissemination of case studies about Siberia and the Russian North by leading social and cultural anthropologists. One special regional focus is on Kamchatka. In addition to essays by international scholars, particular attention is given to publications by local and native authors. Along with books and articles on current native issues, there are historical sources that provide complementary ethnographic information from the 18th to the early 20th century. Siberian studies are also placed into a wider circumpolar context. Because of historic and recent exchanges between Siberia and the peoples of northern Europe and the American Pacific Northwest, the site includes corresponding themes relating to these peoples. An express aim of this site is to offer a broad perspective on scientific, practically-oriented and artistic works for this region. Differing viewpoints from a variety of backgrounds should help to stimulate fuller and more productive discussion and understanding among scholars, local and native experts and other practitioners of culture in the Russian North. This can best be facilitated by making such information more widely accessible even in remote communities of the region.
Posted 23 November 2006; 1:05:55 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Autonomy / Sovereignty / Governance, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Indigenous Issues, Internet Resources, Nordic Region, Russia, Siberia / Russia
(Nordic Council News, 17 November 2006) -- The project "Reappraising Nordic colonialism", which has been running since the end of March, looks at the colonial history of the Nordic countries and also tries to identify the roots of some of the hierarchies, inequalities and intolerance found in contemporary Nordic society. The Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art (NIFCA) project sheds light on Nordic colonial history through exhibitions, workshops, conferences, hearings and happenings in Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and in the Saami territories in Finland and brings together artists, theoreticians, politicians and grassroots activists from all over the world. Nordic colonisation has had a major impact on the indigenous societies, including great destruction and repression. Even though the Nordic colonies have (more or less) been phased out, colonialisation is far from dead. [The web site: http://www.rethinking-nordic-colonialism.org/]
Posted 18 November 2006; 7:36:20 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Internet Resources, Nordic Region
Circumpolar Musings adds links to online resources
Some of you reach this site because you're looking for specific information. For some time, now, I've picked a few of your questions and answered them. You can see the results in the "InfoBits - FAQ" page. A colleague's comment about libary subject guides suggested that it might be useful to have a collection of links to some useful literature and resources about the Circumpolar North. I've put together a list in "Online literature (which expanded to include some good web sites). It's not comprehensive; there's an awful lot of very good material out there on the net. This list is simply a starting-off point. I welcome suggestions for other resources, of course! I'm beginning to think that a database might be a better way to go. Hm.
Posted 13 November 2006; 4:04:30 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Books, Blogs and Publications, Circumpolar News, Genuine Musings, Internet Resources
email to: agra...@yukoncollege.yk.ca
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