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Frozen Commons: Change, Resilience and Sustainability in the Arctic
The interdisciplinary collaborative project “Frozen Commons: Change, Resilience and Sustainability in the Arctic” examines the sustainability of frozen commons under changing environmental conditions to assess Arctic community resilience. Seven universities are involved, working in partnership with Arctic Alaskan, Sakha-Yakutia and Northern Mongolian rightsholders and stakeholders. All project activities are conducted based on the convergence of Arts, Science, and Indigenous and Knowledge systems (ArtSLInK) with a goal to develop deeper understandings of how a range of worldviews and management assumptions affect meanings, stewardship, use and management of frozen commons landscapes.
In Nikolai and McGrath, Alaska, and Bayanzürkh and Tsagaannuur, Mongolia, Frozen Commons activities hinge on building strong community-researcher relationships and focus on expanding monitoring activities for permafrost, ice and snow, as well as interviews, and in Alaska, use of the PhotoVoice methodology to document diverse practices and meanings of snow, ice and permafrost. A recent project highpoint was a March 2024 knowledge sharing gathering with scholars, artists and knowledge holders in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in collaboration with the Institute of Geography and Geoecology Mongolian Academy of Sciences (MAS), ArtSLInK and Arctic Indigenous Virtual Artists Network (AIVAN). The recent exhibition “Arctic StoryWords: Weaving Different Ways of Knowing through Arts, Science, Local and Indigenous Knowledge” at the March 2024 NNA Annual Meeting in Washington DC is one illustration of how Arts-Science connections between communities, researchers and artists is proving to be a catalyst for new conversations about climate change and the rights of Northern peoples to “stay cold”. This kind of boundary pushing will continue in a June 2024 exhibition planned for the Arctic Congress in Bodø, called “Arctic StoryWorlds: Frozen Matters.”
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