Natural Custodians

Natural Custodians

The Arctic is warming up to four times faster than the rest of the world. Ice caps are melting and sea ice is retreating, changing the weather and disrupting marine life. To protect these polar ecosystems, we need to understand them. And no one knows the Arctic as well as the indigenous communities that live here. Greenland is the world's largest island. It is one of the most extreme environments on Earth where polar night or 24 hour daylight can last for months and temperatures can reach -50. Inuit have thrived here since time immemorial. But the Arctic is changing, and it's happening in mere decades. Indigenous peoples of the far north have been adapting to change for millennia. A new generation of Greenlanders is combining science and traditional knowledge and in the process, reframing perceptions of the Arctic. In Greenland, journalists and scientists come for one thing, for climate change. How do you see that as a Greenlander? There's a very powerful narrative around the Arctic these days and Arctic indigenous peoples, that we are the place of climate change. But we've lived here on these lands for thousands of years and there's a lot more to us than climate change. What indigenous scientists can do is to bridge some of that gap. As a microbiologist I'm interested in understanding how being in nature, eating from nature impacts us through connecting us to the microbiology of our environment. Microbial species outnumber the stars in our galaxy, and they impact every living thing on earth, including Arctic biomes. What we're looking at here is the downstream effect of nutrients like phosphate, silicate and nitrogen. how they affect the fjord systems out there specifically the phytoplankton. So this is a land-terminating glacier, feeding in via rivers. And so what's the difference between a marine-terminating glacier and a land-terminating one? The marine-terminating glacier creates an upwelling effect on nutrients, and these nutrients spike the biological production in the fjords. Well, when they retreat back, we lose part of the microscopic plankton and they are in turn food for higher organisms like whales, for instance. It's all connected, right? In Kalaallisut, we have this incredibly meaningful word, Sila. Sila means the weather, it means consciousness, it means the spirit, it means outside. We're not separate from nature. When our minds are well, when the Sila inside of us is well, we can treat our environment well. Right now, my work is very much focused on building the Sila biology program. We're going to be outside a lot like, that supports mental health but it's also an excellent way of learning biology. When we eat from nature, when what we wear comes from nature. We are conscious that what we do has consequences. People assume that it will have a really strong smell, but it's not strong, it's just very particular. It's very particular to iginneq. I'm currently so excited that I can't even think, I'm just in eating mode. My biggest hope is that we'll have Indigenous students coming out of this program who can use the skills that they've learned to make a difference for their communities. Arctic peoples are uniquely placed to understand what is happening here and what it means to heal our relationship with nature. We just need to be willing to listen and to learn. Prada group and IOC/UNESCO launched SEA BEYOND to promote ocean education around the world. SEA BEYOND represents Prada Group's long-term commitment to supporting educational programs that connect the younger generation with marine ecosystems. That's why Prada is donating one percent of profits from its Re-Nylon collection to generate innovative approaches, science-based solutions and humanitarian projects that address the global challenges facing our ocean.