The Eighth International Symposium on Arctic Research (ISAR-8)

Chair: Stanislav Saas Ksenofontov (University of Northern Iowa)

Indigenous people in the Arctic comprise only 4% of the total world population. They heavily rely on their land, water for food, shelter, and their livelihood, as well as for their cultural and spiritual well-being. In current climatic upheavals such livelihoods are becoming more under threat. Sakha People of the Northeastern Siberia are the largest Indigenous group in this region with a population numbering half a million, yet many rural Sakha struggle with effects of climate change and thawing permafrost that surrounds them. This session will bring together Sakha scholars from different academic backgrounds to present a range of perspectives focusing on traditional understanding of tight/close/synonym relations between people and environment. We aim to shed light on the ontologies and epistemologies of Sakha people with a special emphasis on Indigenous ecological knowledge, ever so important at the time of ecological precarity.