The first week of my LiA experience was a baptism by fire. The organization that I am working with is called the Arctic Mayors’ Forum, and is a pan-Arctic forum representing the voices of Arctic Peoples through elected leaders at the municipal and community level. They are the only organization in the Arctic that represents local communities and knowledge in the international Arctic sphere, and they work on a number of different issues, including public health and wellbeing, attractiveness and retention, sustainable development, and youth.
My work with the Arctic Mayors Forum began in Brussels at the EU Arctic Forum and Indigenous Peoples Dialogue. The Arctic Mayors’ Forum was one of the facilitators of a side program called the EU Arctic Youth Dialogue, which brought 35 youth from across the Arctic and Europe together to discuss issues facing the Arctic, and to develop a series of policy recommendations to address some of these solutions. You can read the policy recommendations here if you are interested.
On my first day at the job, I attended the Youth Dialogue as an observer, and got to hear young people discuss issues and solutions to things facing their communities. It was a very inspiring and interesting introduction to the Arctic, and helped me better understand some of the things that are most important to the community I was working with. For example, many of the Indigenous youth from the Arctic discussed the ways colonialism and intergenerational trauma has impacted their lives, cultures, and lands. Many other people discussed the ways that climate change is already incredibly visible in their communities, many of which have had to physically move homes, schools, and other buildings due to melting permafrost or rising sea/river levels.
Over the next three days, I attended the EU Arctic Forum and Indigenous Peoples Dialogue, where hundreds of people gathered to listen to panels of experts talk about issues facing the Arctic region. Some of my favorite talks were about climate adaptation in the Arctic, emergency management in the Arctic, resources in Arctic communities, and weaving Indigenous and traditional knowledge into international processes.
I also got to meet the entire team working at the Arctic Mayors’ Forum, as well as many close partners from other organizations with the Arctic Council in Brussels. This was the part that I found the most difficult, as there are so many organizations, and working groups, and projects, and people. It is super hard to keep track of who everyone is and how they are connected to each other and to the Mayor’s Forum.