2011

Nanisiniq: Arviat History Project

The Nanisiniq Arviat History Project is a joint venture involving youth and Elders in the Inuit community of Arviat, located on the southwest side of Hudson Bay, Nunavut. The project is co-ordinated in Arviat by Tamar Mukyunik and by Professor Frank Tester of the School of Social Work, University of British Columbia.

For decades, Inuit Elders have expressed concern about the knowledge Inuit youth have of their own social history and culture. This project brings together Inuit youth and Elders in an exploration of their history and culture from an Inuit point of view. The progress of the project and the insights and discoveries of Elders and youth are documented on this website. Elders and youth are also filming their experience and interviewing, not only Elders in their community, but Qablunaat who came north in the late 1950s and 1960s, a period of phenomenal change among Aviarmiut.

In about 10 years the Inuit of Arviat went from tents and igloos, land-based camps and a predominantly hunting culture, to living together in the settlement originally known as ‘Eskimo Point’ and now called Arviat. This is possibly the fastest rate of change for any group of Indigenous people, anywhere in the world, in all of recorded history. The impacts on culture, physical and mental health, social relations and well-being have been dramatic.

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York University’s Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability

The York Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS) was established by York University in 2004 to create an interdisciplinary university-wide research institute that is a focal point for the sustainability-related activities of all eleven faculties at York. In the lead up to COP17, IRIS focusing on building a network of researchers and community members interested in being part of an ongoing knowledge co-production process by creating a space for imaginative dialogue leading up to, into, and beyond the climate negotiations.

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Youth Climate Solidarity Project 

In the Youth Climate Solidarity Project, a young person in an Over-Consuming Country (OCC) gets linked up with a person (“climate buddy”) in a Lower-Consuming Country (LCC). Together, they explore their lifestyles and options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  The project, coordinated by Kjell Kühne, is currently in its pilot phase but aims to expand globally through our networks of family, friends, classes, schools, existing organizations, communities, cities, and countries, in order to become one of the underpinnings of humanity’s response to the climate crisis.

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Nairobi to Durban: Youth Climate Caravan 

The African Youth Climate Justice Caravan will bring together over 100 young environmentalists and climate change advocates and will start in Nairobi, Kenya, traversing through Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana and finally into South Africa by road then back again at the end of COP 17.

The caravan shall be launched at the end of the Pan African Youth Conference on Climate Change in  Nairobi . In every country that the caravan shall pass, there are a number of planned activities to create awareness on climate change, to mobilize support for climate justice, to meet and interact with government officials and other leaders, and to discuss positive and progressive ways for youth of Africa to engage with climate change as one of the most important issues of our time. The caravan shall be received by youth movements, religious leaders and communities in the countries and will include music, dancing, capacity building, screening of films on climate change and other creative and youthful ways of sharing information. Check out our facebook campaign and our website.