Window in the skies: indigenous memory, resistance and experience of Eurasia and the onslaught of resource extraction in the Arctic
As the Arctic switches to “new normal” it is being re-imagined once again ‒ region is viewed from the outside as a “window in the skies” – referring here to a distant window of opportunity, myth place, place of frontiers, resources and exotic peoples “somewhere” up there, away. This article position...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English Finnish |
| Published: |
The Geographical Society of Northern Finland
2014
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doaj.org/article/660bed4ce57049ea9978a5f767d7f2f2 |
| Summary: | As the Arctic switches to “new normal” it is being re-imagined once again ‒ region is viewed from the outside as a “window in the skies” – referring here to a distant window of opportunity, myth place, place of frontiers, resources and exotic peoples “somewhere” up there, away. This article positions the region differently: challenging this view based on Terra nullius, empty land of the North is the notion that the Arctic, here, including the boreal sub-Arctic too, is a homeland to a vast range of indigenous and local cultures with their non-Euclidean lifeworlds. Methodological overview of indigenous societies of the North, presented in short form here, illustrates the vast diversity of societies – currently ignored for the most part in the “window in the skies”. Article concludes with the view that by engaging with the various traditions and oral histories of the North a more realistic view can be obtained of this region of geopolitical interests. |
|---|