Utqiaġvik, Alaska to host 2018 Inuit Circumpolar Council assembly
The Arctic Alaskan city of Utqiaġvik will host the 2018 general assembly of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, the organization announced this week.
The assemblies are held every four years and bring together delegates from the world’s four Inuit regions in Russia, Canada, the United States and Greenland.
The meeting will run July 16-19.
“It is especially significant that the next assembly will be in Utqiaġvik, as this June we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the meeting convened here by Eben Hopson that led to the very establishment of ICC,” said ICC Chair Okalik Eegeesiak in a statement.
- non-governmental organization founded in 1977
- represents roughly 150,000 Inuit in Canada, Greenland, the United States and Russia
- general assembly held every four years
- promotes Inuit rights and culture
- permanent participant representing Inuit at the Arctic Council
Circumpolar strategies
(iStock)
Delegates at the 2018 assembly will discuss everything from human rights, health and social issues, to strategies for tackling environmental and economic issues in Inuit regions of the Arctic.
Before then, ICC will hold two other summits this year: a wildlife management summit in Canada this fall, and an education summit in Greenland this winter.
“As Inuit, we are the people of the land in the Arctic who will continue to advance the livelihoods of our people through the unification of our innovative ideas within our circumpolar region,” Utqiaġvik mayor Harry Brower Jr. said in a statement this week.
Until last year, Utqiaġvik was known as Barrow.
The city voted to change back to its Inupiaq name on December 1, 2017.
Write to Eilís Quinn at eilis.quinn(at)cbc.ca
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Inuit leaders want Ottawa to ‘reimagine’ relations: Obed, Radio Canada International
Finland: Indigenous rights under fire says Finnish Saami leader, YLE News
Greenland: What the EU seal ban has meant for Inuit communities in the Arctic, Eye on the Arctic
Norway: Repressive policy deprived Sámi people of language, culture : Norway’s prime minister, The Independent Barents Observer
Sweden: Sami Blood: A coming-of-age tale set in Sweden’s dark past, Radio Sweden
Russia: Russia brands Arctic indigenous organization as “foreign agent,” Barents Observer
United States: Inuit organization plans economic development across national boundaries, Alaska Dispatch News
Please review this article for places where the diacritic is missing from the name of the town. In this article, the town is inconsistently identified as Utqiaġvik. Thank you.
We corrected “Utqiaġvik” in the photo legend, thank you.