Update from Michaela Stith: Hart Fellowship in Norway

We thought we'd share an email update that we received over the summer from Michaela Stith, reporting on her Hart Fellowship with the Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat (IPS) of the Arctic Council:

Hello everyone,

You are now reading the first monthly update from my Hart Fellowship. As of today, I have lived in Norway for one month! It has been a strange month for Norway (and not just because I arrived).

Northern Norway experienced a record-breaking heatwave during the last week of July. Temperatures in Tromsø peaked at 29 degrees Celsius (84.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on days when the historical average was no more than 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit). Tromsøya, the island on which I live, experienced its first ever recorded “tropical night”: temperatures stayed above 20 degrees all night long.

These drastic highs reminded me of the importance of the Arctic Council and the work I will be completing with them. The Hart Fellowship is a competitive program that funds recent Duke University graduates to work an international organization of their choice. This month I began my Hart Fellowship with the Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat (IPS) of the Arctic Council. The Arctic Council is a high-level intergovernmental forum for the eight Arctic countries to discuss environmental policy issues like climate change and pollution. The Arctic Council is unique because it was the first intergovernmental group to meaningfully engage Indigenous peoples’ groups. These groups, called “Permanent Participants,” have full consultation rights in all the Arctic Council’s research, meetings, and actions. Our job at the IPS is to make sure the Permanent Participants can secure funding to attend meetings, have all the information they need to participate, and possess the organizational capacity to engage in the Arctic Council.

An important aspect of the Hart Fellowship is that I will conduct a research project driven by the needs of IPS and the people it serves. This requires:

1.       The IPS provides input and approves of the research, and

2.       Local Indigenous people provide input and approve of the research.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to update you on my research project until next month because everyone at the Arctic Council office is on vacation! Workers in Norway have the lawful right to 21 days of paid vacation, and summer is the typical time when locals travel somewhere warm. Even my supervisor, the Executive Secretary for IPS, will be gone until August 20^th.

Luckily my supervisor left me with many tasks. So far, I created a calendar of this year’s meetings for the Permanent Participants, revised a 50-page course manual about the Arctic Council, and began an Excel spreadsheet with 250 post drafts for the IPS Facebook page, among other tasks.

Additionally, I am using this quiet period at the office to meet local people and tackle #2 on my list. In Norway, it is not common to befriend strangers. To make friends you need to join a “frame activity,” such as a club or an event, that gives you an excuse to meet people. This month my frame activities of choice were Saami music festivals.

Before I tell you more, here are some facts:

• Saami people live in the traditional land called Sápmi, which spreads from southern Norway to Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Up to 60,000 Saami live in Norway.
• The Saami are well-known as reindeer herders. Today Saami people possess the exclusive right to herd reindeer in Norway and Sweden.
• Some Saami traditions include duodji – handmade crafts such as clothes, tools, and jewellery – and joik – one of Europe’s oldest surviving music forms.
• The Saami language has multiple different dialects that are still spoken across Sápmi. Due to “Norwegianization” assimilation politics in Norway, many young people never learned Saami.
• Most assimilation policies were enacted during the 1900s. These include dispossession of lands (especially lands used for herding and farming), forced slaughter of reindeer, and illegalization of the Saami language.
• The Saami Council represents Saami people at the Arctic Council.

The first festival I attended is called Riddu Riddu. Riddu began as a political celebration during an era when many Saami chose not to speak their language or wear traditional clothing so they could pass as Norwegian. Over 25 years the festival has grown to celebrate indigeneity worldwide, boasting attendees from Greenland, Taiwan, Eastern Russia, and Siberia. I took part in “Nuorat,” a youth group in which we enjoyed personal performances and workshops from the featured artists. The pictures below show me posing with Nuorat and dancing syddis, a popular Saami dance.

Last weekend I traveled south for Márkomeannu. Although welcoming to everyone, this festival is produced by and for Saami. The program was only circulated in Norwegian and Saami, and only 15 attendees came from outside of Sápmi. Here I met many people who own reindeer and learned Saami as their first language. The pictures below show me reading at the mini-library with my friend from Finland and enjoying one of the concerts.

Additionally, I took advantage of the weather to spend time outside. I went hiking to the top of Fjellheisen with a new friend from Riddu, found a cool river to swim in on the edge of the city, and visited the University of Tromsø’s arctic botanical garden.

Overall, I feel very blessed. I am passionate about environmental justice – the concept that marginalized people should be able to enjoy a clean environment and influence environmental changes that affect them. I also feel personally connected to the Arctic after growing up in Alaska. The chance to work with the Arctic Council as a Hart Fellow is once-in-a-lifetime.

Over the next ten months, I hope these monthly updates will give you a clear picture of my personal and professional experiences. If there are any topics you would like to hear more about, let me know! I’ll be in touch next month.

Best,

Michaela Stith