Вопросы истории и культуры
северных стран и территорий
-------------------------------------
Historical and cultural problems
of northern countries and regions
Международное сотрудничество
в регионе Мирового Севера
T. Mustonen (Joensuu, Finland),
V.I. Shadrin (Yakutsk, Russia),
K. Mustonen (Joensuu, Finland),
V.N. Vasiliev (Yakutsk, Russia)
“Songs of the Kolyma Tundra”
- Co-production of Knowledge and Observations of Climate
Change of the Indigenous Communities of Lower Kolyma
Region, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Russian Federation
Tero Mustonen (1), Viatcheslav Shadrin (2), Kaisu Mustonen (1), Vladimir Vasiliev (3) together with the community representatives from Kolumskaya, Cherski, Andrejuskino, Podhovsk and the nomadic communities of Nutendli and Turvaurgin in the Niznikolyma region, Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, Russian Federation [1].
Contact Information:
Tero Mustonen, Snowchange Cooperative
Havukkavaarantie 29
FIN – 81235 Lehtoi
Finland
Email: tero.mustonen@snowchange.org
Telephone + 358 40 7372424
Abstract
This article highlights the community-based observations of climate and weather related changes in Indigenous communities of Niznikolyma or Lower Kolyma Region, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Russian Federation. These observations have been collected using a method of co-production of knowledge, which allows the local Indigenous peoples to participate in a meaningful way to a research that impacts on them. In the past four years, the international Snowchange Cooperative based in Finland in cooperation with the Institute of the Indigenous Peoples of the North and Northern Forum Academy based in Yakutsk has conducted field research in the region to document and assess observations of rapid changes to weather, ecosystems and human societies of North-East Siberia. Melting of the continuous permafrost, disappearance of subsistence lakes, and increased flooding and erosion are some of the observed changes impacting the region and its inhabitants. Main focus is on the nomadic communities of the region. The role of traditional knowledge (sometimes referred to as traditional ecological knowledge or indigenous knowledge) of Indigenous and local communities and their observations of ecological changes play a central role in trying to assess and understand baselines of sustainability for the Arctic and Northern regions. Co-production of knowledge has allowed new research horizons to open up that advance the study of Arctic climate change. These include for example inclusion of a more holistic reading of the landscapes under change and a deeper multi-faceted positioning of signifigance of the changes observed if the Indigenous peoples are a key actor in all stages of a research project.
1. Theoretical Framework
The research presented in this article rests on a theoretical framework of Human Geography put forwards by Massey (2005). She associates the qualities of time and space with power and the history of power. In order to understand better the changes taking place in the Russian Arctic in the context of Indigenous peoples and the climate change phenomena, we need to explore locally-produced histories, discourses and assessments of change and time-spaces (ibid. 2005). Our purpose here is just to point to the directions outlined by Massey. However the main body of the research presented here focuses on the empirical findings regarding climate change and Lower Kolyma Indigenous peoples.
The concept of traditional knowledge, sometimes called with different terminologies, such as Indigenous Knowledge, has been widely explored in research of Arctic peoples in recent years (Berkes 1999, Bielawski 2005, Trudel 2006, Jolly et al. 2002, Huntington 1998, 1999, 2000, et al. 2004, Helander et al. 2004, Mustonen 2008). Basso (1996) has emphasized the link between Indigenous knowledge, language and place names. It is tied very closely to the study of Arctic climate change. Human-induced climate change has become a reality in the Circumpolar North.
Findings of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA, Arctic Council 2004) confirms that Arctic ecosystems and human societies face immense challenges in the near future. At the same time around the Circumpolar North, people living in small communities have argued for a number of years that there is an urgent need to study traditional economies and knowledge systems to appreciate their character and complexity and to preserve them. The traditional knowledge developed within local communities, is grounded in the close interaction between people and their local ecosystems over periods of hundreds, or even thousands, of years. It normally reflects subtle strategies for maintaining social cohesion and for making wise use of renewable natural resources in ways that are inherently sustainable.
In general it can be said that traditional knowledge is of scientific interest as an (largely unexplored) example of knowledge acquisition and transmission, a medium of social cohesion, and a set of human strategies for coping with social and natural environments (see for example Huntington et al. 2004). Berkes (1999) emphasizes the ’sacred’ nature of the traditional knowledge of the Indigenous peoples. The same focus is present in the works of Atleo (2004) and Backman (2004). Although traditional knowledge is often hidden it plays a significant role within a culture contributing to the maintenance of social and personal identity. It helps to preserve the basic social fabric during periods of rapid and de-stabilizing change. It adds to the richness and diversity of experience no less than other cultural components such as art, literature or music. Although the strategies and insights of traditional knowledge may become in various ways obsolete when the matrix surrounding human life undergoes rapid and drastic change, at other times these strategies may be of help in understanding and adjusting to change and novelty. Traditional knowledge provides culturally specific tools which enable people to adapt to strange and unexpected influences in their local surroundings.
The role of research on traditional and Indigenous knowledge has also triggered sharp criticism from the leading Indigenous authors, such as Smith (2005) and Simpson (2006). In brief, criticism of documentation of traditional knowledge exists, but has been marginalized in academia and in the larger civil society debates. One of the leading scholars of this topic, Leanne Simpson (2006) from the Anishinaabe Nation in Canada, argues that:
”Our teachings tell us that knowledge is a process that must be lived. Anishinaabe knowledge holders for example have always documented aspects of their knowledge systems (petroglyphs, pictographs, scrolls, wampum etc.) but the contemporary pressure to document is coming from the colonizing culture. So whenever I am confronted with a documentation project I always look at the motives. In cases where real Indigenous knowledge holders want to document aspects of their knowledge for specific political purposes, I can usually respect that decision...Documenting knowledge makes it more accessible and palatable to those who know little or nothing about Indigenous cultures. Our knowledge holders caution that documented knowledge is only the ”residue” of these systems and it can easily be misunderstood and exploited when taken out of context. Meaning is derived by context. I believe we need to focus our efforts on internal matters – on community and nation building, on recovery and revitalization on decolonizing, etc. in terms of knowledge that means creating situations where youth are interacting with Elders so that Elders and knowledge holders have the opportunity to pass their knowledge on using culturally inherent ways. It means protecting the land. It means promoting language, recovering traditional political culture, leadership and governance. It means strengthening connections to the land. It means finding a way to live our knowledge in the contemporary world.”
In short we are witnessing new and better recognition of Indigenous Knowledge in the Arctic and worldwide as a valid source of information. Simultaneously, as described by Smith (2005) and Simpson (2006) above, the awareness of the colonial framework of research on Indigenous Peoples has been put forward. Maori scholar Linda Smith (2005) has challenged the role, scope and quality of an imposed analytical framework and research on Indigenous Knowledge. Yet the urgency of climate change advocates further research, especially in the Russian Arctic (Arctic Council 2004), while the criticism grows.
New initiatives on Indigenous research and climate change work need to address both ’sides’ of this debate. What therefore constitutes as a meaningful, post-colonial road ahead? For this research 2004-2008 this tension was solved by methodologically employing a community-based production of research and knowledge that rests on the experiences and models used since 1970s in the Canadian Arctic (Berkes 1977, Jolly et al. 2002) as well as the Snowchange work among the Saami and other Arctic subsistence communities in the European North (Helander et al. 2004).
2. Methods
At the beginning of the work presented here it was decided that Snowchange keeps all doors open and we do not presume anything regarding the Lower Kolyma civilisations and communities. We centered the research methods on the theme of co-production of knowledge in climate change projects. There are plenty of good examples of this process from the North American Arctic (Huntington 1999, Jolly et al. 2002) but this concept and methodology has not been widely employed in the Russian or Fennoscandian Indigenous societies. Materials of Saami observations of weather changes are early examples of such pilot inquiries (Mustonen et al. 2004, Helander et al. 2004). Benefits of applied community-driven research are many. It offers a possibility of colonized peoples (Smith 2005) to participate in a meaningful manner in research. As Huntington emphasizes for Chukotka and Alaska (1998, 1999, 2000) they as well may retain greater interest in initiatives where the community agency is recognised. Research priorities of a outsider team and the local community naturally require lengthy and often difficult negotiations, but a successful result can lead to new discoveries and opportunities of studies of ecosystem and weather changes from a position where time and space can be considered to be relatively ’open’ (Massey 2005). This allows the finesse and delicate nuances of the weather knowledge of the Indigenous peoples of the North to be better understood. For the community, such a partnership may provide much needed resources for cultural revitalisation and re-traditionalization (Pika 1998).
For the research presented here, we employed participatory observation in remote nomadic reindeer camps, one-on-one interviews, Indigenous group interviews, participation in communal and private events, such as ceremonies and rituals as well as events of the reindeer year, such as the round-up of Nutendli reindeers in March 2007. Most of the interviews, provided permission was given by the Indigenous knowledge holders, were recorded with digital video and audio. Special emphasis was put on gender-based knowledge, as Kaisu Mustonen (2008) writes. In the recent years much has been written about women and their knowledges but it is still not very common to look at knowledge of women through local economies. Mustonen (2008) argues that the participating Indigenous women manage the changes and belongings in their ’sentient temporal and spatial landscapes’ with a set of mnemonic pegs which form geosymbols in the form of place attachments through every day, informal practices. These mnemonic pegs allow the women to adapt, form relationships and come to terms with ecological, social and climate change. By investigating with the women their experiences of place, landscape and time-space (Massey 2005) a new understanding in nature emerges. It can be argued that formal research methods and gender-excluding frameworks fail to capture the holistic experience of marginalized communities. Such discovery further argues for aware, gender-specific studies of Indigenous communities, which Simpson (2006) as well underlines.
In 2003 the President of the Northern Forum Academy Vladimir Vasiliev, invited the Snowchange Cooperative to start community-based monitoring of climate, ecological and biodiversity changes in the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, Russia. In July 2004 the first visit from Snowchange was made to Sakha Republic. Plans were drawn to prioritise regions and topics together with the expanded project partners. In addition to the Northern Forum Academy and ECORA: An Integrated Ecosystem Management Approach to Conserve Biodiversity and Minimise Habitat Fragmentation in Three Selected Model Areas in the Russian Arctic – Project, the Institute of Small-Numbered Indigenous Peoples of the North (Russian Academy of Sciences) led by Honourable Scientist of the Russian Federation, Vasiliy Robbek participated in the work. It was decided that in addition to community-based observations of changes, the ambitious, multi-year Snowchange Yakutia project would focus on methodical collection of oral histories, traditional knowledge and legends. The project would involve members of the respective Indigenous nations, so that an inside community and culture-based approach would be included in the work. Much emphasis was put on trying to advance the re-traditionalisation (Pika 1998) of knowledge and support for communities struggling in the face of rapid changes. In autumn 2004 an application for funding was submitted. Funding was granted allowing work to begin. Two regions of Sakha Republic were chosen – the first was Niznikolyma, Lower Kolyma ulus due to the tundra ecosystem and its location around 69 degrees North. To provide a comparison the Neriungri region in southern Sakha-Yakutia was chosen because that is where the Evenki people are settled and it is mostly a taiga-based ecosystem.
During 2005-2007 the Snowchange team visited local communities and indigenous peoples to document oral histories, traditional knowledge and conduct research on ecological and climate changes in the region. Nomadic reindeer herding is a traditional way of life in the Nizhnikolymsky region. Weather plays a central role in daily life. The impacts of climate change are therefore significant. It is a region of cold-based cultures most of which still practice a way of life rooted in the shamanistic traditions (Siikala 1996).
The first round of fieldwork in the communities occurred during March and April 2005. This visit focused on settlements along the lower Kolyma delta (Andreyuskino, Kolymskaya, Cherski) as well as Even, Yukagir and Chukchi Indigenous communities. Additionally the nomadic Nutendli and Turvaurgin obshchinas are the primary partners for this work. The obshchinas are a new form of post-Soviet Indigenous organisations, which allow mostly nomadic reindeer and subsistence communities to practice their age-old nomadic way of life (Pika 1998, Fondahl et al. 2001). In September 2005 a large community and researcher delegation participated in the World Expo 2005 Aichi, Japan and Snowchange 2005 Workshop on Indigenous Observations of Climate Change in Anchorage, Alaska, USA. In these events, funded by Snowchange and its partners, the initial messages from the Niznikolyma communities were presented to international audiences.
From January to March 2006 another community round was made and interviews conducted both in the nomadic obshchinas and settlements of lower Kolyma delta, with expansion of the community work to the fishing settlement of Podhovsk in the Kolyma delta. Meetings were held in the Cherski scientific station with Professor Sergey Zimov, world known scholar and biologist, to compare scientific results and Indigenous observations in the region. Events in local schools, museums and other organisations were made. Surveys on obshchina land use, weather changes, impacts to water ecosystems, gender specific subsistence activities, sacred locations such as shaman graves and so forth were successfully conducted. Recommendations for the advancement of conflict resolution, building civil society and supporting Indigenous rights and small-businesses were made in cooperation with the ECORA: An Integrated Ecosystem Management Approach to Conserve Biodiversity and Minimise Habitat Fragmentation in Three Selected Model Areas in the Russian Arctic– Project. The Niznikoluma region is one of the three ECORA Project regions in the Russian North. The ECORA project represents a historical attempt in the Arctic to preserve and revitalize Northern communities. It may be the last and best attempt to influence the development of this region.
On completion of the fieldwork, first results were presented to the local administration and in March 2006 to the Northern Forum Conference on Arctic Floods in Yakutsk. Presentation to the Duma, parliament of the Sakha-Yakutia was made as well in March 2006. From April 2006 to January 2007 the community voices were presented to various scientific and public events across Finland, Russia, Alaska and Sweden, including the 4th Open Meeting of the Northern Research Forum. In March 2007 the last project fieldwork period took place, with the results taken back into the region and communities. In April 2007 the findings highlighted below were presented to the scientific community and administration and community stakeholders at the Snowchange 2007 Conference in Sakha Republic. In 2008 community follow-up monitoring was conducted, and further research results presented in one monograph (Mustonen 2008) as well as one masters thesis (Mustonen 2008). Snowchange worked with three kinds of indigenous communities in the Nizhnikolymsky Region: towns, settlements and reindeer camps. We hope that the work begun in 2005 is the start of a long-term collaboration on community-based monitoring with the local people. So far approximately 100 hours of materials has been recorded, translated, analyzed and stored in the Snowchange Kolyma archives. Copies of the materials are in the possession of the local communities and/or their representatives in Yakutsk, depending on their wishes.
3. Research Findings
Lower Kolyma landscape is full of myriad meanings, information, knowledge, stories and events accessible only with local languages that carry the traditional knowledge of the cultures of the region. For example the Yukagir language has its own specific vocabulary for mammoth, which indicates the significant age of these languages. It is a similar discovery as what Basso (1996) puts forward.
The findings presented here are mainly from two nomadic obshchina communities along the Lower Kolyma. Additional observations have been included when applicable from settlements of the region. The nomadic communities include the Chukchi obshchina Turvaurgin as well as the Nutendli obshchina which was established in 1990s as a separate community away from Turvaurgin. The basic unit of Indigenous Nations in Russia is usually defined as “obshchina”, which can be translated as “a small Indigenous community, based on kin or non-kin groupings. During the Soviet period, obshchina designated Indigenous territorial units based on a theorized system of primitive communal land tenure; in the post-Soviet era, the word has come to more broadly encompass any traditionally-inclined Indigenous unit with a territorial base” (Pika 1998: 194).
Obshchina is a universal form of social organisation for the Indigenous peoples in Russia. It provides an economic territorial organisation, a structural unit for survival (zhizneibespechenie), autonomy and the reproduction of ethnos identities (ibid. 1998: 65). The Sakha Republic law on obshchinas from 1996 defines the unit as “a voluntary union of representatives of aboriginal peoples, or also representatives of other Indigenous peoples and ethnic communities of the North who pursue a nomadic way of life, on the basis of membership and joining of property shares for joint activities connected with traditional occupations and trades on their age-old territories of occupancy” (Ob izmeneniyakh 1996, section 3, adapted from Fondahl et al. 2001). Gail Fondahl et al. has argued that the obshchina unit “might serve as a political-territorial unit for aboriginal selfgovernment, as well as a socio-spatial unit to revive aboriginal culture. It could, in optimistic theory, empower aboriginal peoples while disencumbering the state, economically and politically, in ways that would appear to endorse the current discourse of political and economic reform” (2001).
The Nutendli nomadic community or obshchina was established in early 1990s at the Northeastern corner of the Lower Kolyma delta area. Nutendli has a nomadic school and currently one brigade for nomadic reindeer herding. The community consists mainly of the relatives of Grandmother Akulina Kemlil and Grandfather Jegor Nutendli, who are the Chukchi elders of Nutendli. The documentation of observed changes and land use of Nutendli is presented in the Map 1. The maps for this article and research have been co-produced in the nomadic camps with the wishes and guidance of the community reindeer herders to ensure that only that is mapped which is acceptable to the local community (see as well Huntington 2000).
Turvaurgin is mainly an economic Indigenous nomadic reindeer herding obshchina that was founded in the early 1990s to replace the Soviet-era kolhoz state farm of the same name. Its base is the village of Kolymskaya. Most of the herders in the community are Chukchi and Yukagir. The lands used today by Turvaurgin start along the Kolyma river close to the village of Kolymskaya and continue to Arctic Ocean appr. 350 kilometres North where the brigades spend their spring and summer with the reindeer. Burch (1988: 228) indicates that the lands used by Turvaurgin today would have been used by Chukchi tribes of Dry Anyuy and Saalet before colonisation in the 1800s. Turvaurgin has seven brigades for the 2007-2008 seasonal round. Most of the fieldwork 2005-2007 with Turvaurgin was carried out with the elders in Kolumskaya and extended field visits to brigade number four of Turvargin. The documentation of observed changes of Turvaurgin brigade #4 is presented in the Map 2.
Weather is the most important factor which determines where the reindeer will go for their pastures and where the brigade sets camp during their seasonal round between the upper highlands of winter pastures and spring to summer pastures along the Arctic Ocean. Traditional observation and prediction methods are still in use in the Kolyma area for daily, seasonal and long-term weather. Elders in Kolymskaya confirmed in 2006 that it can be said that the weather prediction, especially for the seasonal and long-term, has become next to impossible, as the markers and indicators are out of place. Traditional knowledge regarding the weather is under change as the markers do not hold true anymore. Weather prediction measures include starlore, moon, dreams, snow knowledge, observation of wild animal behaviour, winds and so forth. The special role of spiritual people, including their shamanistic knowledge (Siikala 1996), plays a role in the relationship to weather that these communities in Lower Kolyma river possess. During the fieldwork many accounts of these issues were recorded, but are beyond the scope of this paper, which focuses on observations. First results of the deeper understanding of human-weather relationship have now been concluded (Mustonen 2008) but the theme awaits for proper and further research in the future.
Snowfall, the times of freeze up and melting have shifted according to the participants in the communities. Alexei Gavrilovich Tretjakov, an Even reindeer herder, believes the climate is getting warmer. Ground is 'sinking', he says, because it is wetter than before. There is more floods in the region and lakes have disappeared as the ground becomes waterlogged, he says. The local landscape is changing. He has also seen the arrival of sable in the area. Sable is traditionally a species of taiga habitats, but has now spread northwards to the tundra regions. It has replaced squirrel in the border areas between taiga and tundra. Tretjakov is one of many community participants who reports that willows and other bush are moving North and also are increasing in density and territory along the Kolyma tundra.
In Andreyuskino, local community leaders voiced their concern about the flooding that has impacted their community. Andreyuskino depends on ice roads for medical services, supplies and other crucial humanitarian services; it is 12 to 18 hours away from the regional capital of Chersky by car. The thinner river and lake ice, as well as the unpredictable and swift changes in winter conditions, are impacting community life, they say. In Autumn 2007 Andreyuskino suffered from the worst flood in recorded history leading to a situation of humanitarian catastrophe in the town.
Overall the 2005-2007 fieldwork indicates that the reindeer herders of the region have witnessed dramatic changes in the past 10 years. Winter 2005-2006 was reported to be very snowy which made pasture selections harder. During 2005 the Nutendli brigade witnessed increased blizzards and cyclones along their seasonal route. Zoja Nikolajevna Tokareva, Yukagir Woman, from Nutendli reported in March 2005 that “This year (2005) there is more snow fall than I have ever seen in my life.” Leader of Nutendli Vyatcheslav Kemlil, Chukchi reindeer herder commented in 2005 that: “We watch the weather and notice changes. Lakes are flooding the banks. Small rivers become larger. On grazing grounds, I come across unknown plants. There are many dwarf willows growing on the tundra. We use them for bonfires. When I was a kid we had to search hard for the willows. Today, I don’t need to look hard at all. New fish species can be observed in the Kolyma River. Marine species are showing up. We used to migrate north slowly to reach the sea. Now we reach it very fast because of the mosquitoes that bother the reindeer. We observe new streams and very little ice on the sea. We are observing lots of single polar bears wandering along the shore. Four cyclones in the fall and lots of snow. Very difficult to ensure enough food for the reindeer.” In the winter 2007-2008 a 90-kilometer strip of the Halartsa tundra, a key pasture area of the Turvaurgin community froze after a ice rain fell to the ground during an usual warm period in December-January. This rain water then froze as the temperatures returned to sub-zero and caused the lichen to freeze. This ice layer prevented the reindeer from accessing the lichen through this layer and caused additional feeding and re-routing of nomadic communities to avoid significant reindeer losses.
Permafrost changes in the Lower Kolyma area represent the most significant climate and weather change-related observation for the communities. Both Turvaurgin and Nutendli herders have witnessed a rapid process of collapsing riverbanks, disappearance of subsistence lakes and increased erosion along the Kolyma river. Melting of continuous permafrost had started in mid-1990s according to the Nutendli herders, but it has accelerated in the 2000s. Riverbanks, such as along the Philipovka River which is along the Nutendli subsistence round, are collapsing. Herders report that the melting is changing the annual water cycles and affects floods and accessibility to subsistence lakes and water sources for the reindeers. The 2007 flood of Andreyuskino is attributed to this phenomenon by local experts.
Numerous Indigenous community representatives in the region reported this disturbing observation. Aljora, a local site of fishing activity, has had several lakes disappear as the permafrost has melted and the water has drained out. This phenomenon began in the last ten years according to the community representatives. Alexei Gavrilovits Tretjakov from the community of Andreyuskino said in 2005 visit that “several lakes in Aljora are gone. Water went away. This has had impacts on fishing sites and times.” Pjotr Kaurgin, Vice Head of the Turvaurgin said during the 2006 visit to brigade four winter camp that “River Tsukotsja has many new bushes growing rapidly. Weather is warmer and permafrost has melted. The River Kolyma is eroding fast, the banks of the river are collapsing, and the river is wider than before.”
Alexey Nikolajevits Kemlil, a Chukchi reindeer herder from the reindeer brigade number 4 of Turvaurgin observed in the 2006 visit that “changes have taken place on the permafrost. Many lakes have disappeared in the past ten years both in the taiga and tundra zones. We can see this happening in front of our eyes. It is warmer than before. This has impacts to fishing, reindeer herding. One lake disappeared so that the fish in the lake died completely. New holes on the ground have appeared–collapsed zones. We do not move any more so much on the marsh lands.”
Alexey Kemlil indicated that both Nutendli and Turvaurgin herders are not yet agreeing what are the long-term implications of the changes to the permafrost to reindeer herding. Subsistence fishing has already had significant negative impacts from the melting of permafrost as whole lakes have disappeared, but so far the herders indicate that alternative routing of reindeers has provided an adaptation mechanism for the 2005-2007 period.
4. Conclusions
This short paper has highlighted the complex dynamics and shifting frameworks of Indigenous observations of change as a part of community based monitoring project in remote parts of the Russian Arctic with emphasis on traditional knowledge and oral histories. It contributes to the climate system studies of the Arctic, Indigenous studies, International Polar Year 2007-2008, post–ACIA climate work, Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Programme of the Arctic Council and the ECORA: An Integrated Ecosystem Management Approach to Conserve Biodiversity and Minimise Habitat Fragmentation in Three Selected Model Areas in the Russian Arctic – Project.
In the field of Arctic sciences, the application of traditional knowledge to the understanding of ecosystem changes has begun to take root. The most significant of these attempts so far is the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment from 2004 (Arctic Council 2004), which contains observations of climate and weather changes around the Arctic communities. Like Jolly et al. (2002) demonstrates among others the approach of co-production of knowledge so that the community is centred as the agency in the research has a long and quite well functioning methodological record from the North American Arctic. In the case of post-Soviet Russian Arctic, such approach is quite new, and in the process of formulation, reflecting all the complexities of Russian Indigenous context today. Healthy questions can as well be raised on transferability of North American Arctic experiences directly to Russian context. This requires long-term negotiations with the affected peoples and their communities so that concerns are addressed and the community-based approach is genuinely applied to the local Russian context. Furthermore this involves a through-out preparatory project meetings, which were held for this research activity during 2003-2004 as well as personal, on-going contacts to the field area, return to the same people and families that have been targeted with a new, outside research activity and naturally, last but not least, proper language, research and academic skills to carry out such long-term research in the Russian Arctic peripheries.
This article represents the first scientific reporting of the 2004-2008 fieldwork. In this article we have identified the sites, communities and overall context of the climate change impacts for the Lower Kolyma nomadic Indigenous communities. In the voices, maps, photos and other materials presented here a landscape under change emerges. Herders and elders confirm that the weather is changing and they interpret extreme events to be present in the materials collected. Turvaurgin and Nutendli members identify the melting of permafrost as the most significant and rapidly proceeding change that their homeland is undergoing. This interpretation has been priorized despite the many other pressures that these communities have in the context of post-Soviet Arctic. This is not often the case in the Russian Indigenous context. Such was the situation in the ACIA study of Kola Saami reindeer herders 2001-2004 (Mustonen et al. 2004).
Melting of permafrost has had according to the accounts presented here implications for subsistence fishing, nomadic reindeer herding, communal hunting and other uses of the land, such as travel and berry-picking. Some of the implications of these changes are not yet clear for the community and they vary; subsistence fishing has been ‘hit’ hardest while it can be carefully said that the direct impacts to the reindeer herding from the permafrost changes are yet to be seen fully. Some adaptation takes place in form of alternative nomadic routing. Additionally as Kaisu Mustonen (2008) points out, by investigating with the women their experiences of place, landscape and time-space a new understanding in nature emerges. It can be argued that formal research methods and gender-excluding frameworks fail to capture the holistic experience of marginalized communities and therefore gender-specific knowledge is a crucial aspect of a fieldwork in the Russian Arctic communities. This portrays a necessity of inclusion of the voices of the Indigenous women into the post-colonial research initiatives in the North. Therefore community-based, gender-specific and -minding Human Geography, if properly understood, allows new readings, understandings, new research and new methodological horizons to the multifaceted ecological threats and problems that the Circumpolar Arctic is facing.
Turvaurgin and Nutendli possess deeper layers of knowledge that have been called in anthropological literature (for example Siikala 1996) ‘shamanism’. These layers represent a crucial pool of knowledge regarding change, weather, landscape and subsistence practices that these communities use to make observations, reflect on them and act upon the reflections and decisions. In the Snowchange Kolyma materials there exists very interesting, experimental materials in which the community tries to reflect on changes that have happened and form relationships to these events and processes. Vyatcheslav Kemlil from Nutendli has established a nomadic school at the Krasnushka base camp to ensure survival of his Chukchi knowledge and community. Kemlil has as well made new (re)traditional songs about the seasonal round, Chukchi life and reindeer nomadism. The best known song that is as well recorded in the community materials for this research is titled ‘Tundra Awakens in the Spring’ which contains crucial information about the system of relationships and knowledge Nutendli possesses regarding their landscape and home area. These deeper forms of knowledge remain the material of future articles from the Kolyma research. Second assessment that will delve deeper in to the perceived changes of the communities has to do with linking of the observations with the surviving application of Chukchi calendar. Third follow-up in the research will involve the role of Yukagir and Chukchi language and snow knowledge as an indicator of changes. The focus will be on the beings and characteristics of different snow types and qualities in the Lower Kolyma nomadic communities. In Spring 2008 using these deeper layers of their knowledges the community elders had observed that the changes taking place in the region mean that “nature has stopped believing in us”.
The research findings where contrasted with the findings of natural sciences from the region. This involved extended interviews, comparison of mapped areas and discussions with Professor Sergey Zimov who has been carrying out long-term research in the Lower Kolyma region (for example in Walter et al. 2006). The previous macro-trends and views from the ACIA report (Arctic Council 2004) were used as well. In Yakutsk we worked with the Minsitry of Nature Protection as well as various Institutes of Russian Academy of Sciences and the renowned Permafrost Institute to compare research findings. While the Russian scientific views sometimes differ from the established Arctic climate change research, recent scientific articles point to similarities between the observations of the Indigenous peoples of the region and natural sciences (Walter et al. 2006: 71–75).
It remains an additional future activity to compare the more detailed ecosystem changes between the two scientific fields but general comparative view points to a shared consensus that the Lower Kolyma permafrost is melting fast and has significant implications beyond the region, especially in the context of increased greenhouse gas release to the atmosphere (ibid. 2006). The findings presented here are in line with the trends outlined in the ACIA studies and point towards accelerating Arctic climate change. Specific impacts to subsistence livelihoods of the Indigenous peoples of the Arctic, such as ice layers that prevent reindeer from accessing the lichen and negative impacts from disappearing fishing lakes are as well consistent with the previous studies of impacts from other Arctic localities, for example on Inuit and Saami communities (Mustonen et al. 2004, Huntington et al. 2004).
International climate change research machine has had its role in the inquiry presented here. The Institute of the Indigenous Peoples of the North in Yakutsk had heard of the ACIA Saami work that Snowchange had carried out and felt this to be applicable to the Sakha nomadic Indigenous communities back in 2003-2004. Now after first round of research four years later we can say that ‘climate research machine’ has added on this value to the connections and work carried out. But researchers and local Indigenous communities need to be very aware of this machine at all times, like Simpson (2006) indicates. Massey (2005) points out, like Smith (2005) that act of research of the mainstream societies is in itself part of the colonial process of possessing, controlling and subjecting. Increased global focus on climate change and the impact it has through media is well known in the communities. This can lead climate change to become a way to explain all perceived changes. It may lead to research fatigue in the remote, peripherial communities of the Arctic as is implied by Jolly et al. (2002). The negotiations and long-term commitments that need to be demonstrated during a co-production of knowledge process are a way to ensure that these problems are addressed adequately.
We feel that the application of community-based approach to the Lower Kolyma Indigenous climate change work was successful despite the 2003-2005 configurations and preparatory doubts. They included for example scepticism of commitments of foreign organisations to Russian Indigenous communities for research partnerships, cultural divisions and so forth. Success was best demonstrated during the 2006 field period from February to March in the nomadic camps of Turvaurgin, when both the leadership of Turvaurgin (Pjotr Kaurgin) and Nutendli (Vyatcheslav Kemlil) came forwards with their own observations of change on their own initiative. Most specifically the locations of melting permafrost were felt to be important to be presented. Members of Turvaurgin community had even documented on their own photo cameras the areas of collapsed riverbanks, which is evident from the photo number 5. Likewise the application of co-production of knowledge is present in the production of the land use and site maps of Turvaurgin and Nutendli. They were drawn by the reindeer herders on top of a regional map of the area at the accuracy they wished to share their communal land use and seasonal activity in the case of the Nutendli maps. Maps represent a significant contribution that the community has approved, as Simpson (2006) points out. Mapping of indigenous territories and land use remains a complex and contested issue, one that the Indigenous scholars have well addressed in recent years (Smith 2005, Helander et al. 2004). Part of the complexity of the mapping of Indigenous lands relates to the recent emphasis in Human Geography to identify spaces, or rather time-spaces that remain ‘open’ (Massey 2005) despite the long-term application of European time, space and control over vast parts of the Earth. Therefore the application of community-approved documentation of land use in the Russian Arctic seems to be a successful method in co-production of knowledge regarding climate change. As well the Snowchange 2007 Conference in Sakha Republic where the key herders who participated in the fieldwork as well as the Indigenous leaders of the region had been invited provided a valuable reflective event and deepened the observations, context and priorities of the research findings before they were released. Therefore we can say that the community-based approach takes much time and resources if the ambitious goals of co-production of knowledge are applied, cleared and Indigenous rights (Smith 2005, Pika 1998, Simpson 2006) recognised in the 21st century Arctic science. It fit well with the aims of the ECORA habitat conservation activity as there the emphasis is put on integrated ecosystem management including full application of traditional knowledge of the local communities and Indigenous peoples.
We hope that our work has helped document important and disturbing reports of climate change impacts, such as permafrost melting. It provided a strong sense of communities ‘re-traditionalising’, returning to the land, and being in control of their own destinies again. Interesting, little-explored questions will remain as a part of the this research endeavour. The Lower Kolyma communities and individuals are faced with a significant question: How do we adapt and mitigate the vast and overlapping changes that loom ahead? In many cases of the North, traditional knowledge and the revitalization of this knowledge are proving to be answers to the dilemma. In short this process features the following components:
1. Revitalisation of Community Autonomy (political, economic, cultural) leading to
2. Revitalisation of Local Economy and Language (Oral history projects) leading to
3. Revitalisation of Knowledge: People of the Land teach young people to be on the Land
Chart 1: Retraditionalisation of Northern Communities
The Nutendli nomadic school represents the most important attempt into this direction. Space here does not allow the exploration of these themes, but they will be a focus for future publications. For Snowchange Cooperative the participation in joint community-based research has been positive as well. This article is finished amongst communal harvest of vendace in the Selkie village for the first time in 60 years. While the Karelian and Finnish communal seine net fishing bears little comparison to the Kolyma tundra subsistence activities, the belief in a re-traditionalised future has been awakened and strengthened during this cooperation and therefore has positive impacts beyond the scientific significance of the work presented here. These community and scientific worlds are related as the survival of local and Indigenous communities of the North with allow better and further research in the future if the critical voices of the Indigenous scholars are addressed (Simpson 2006, Smith 2005, Helander et al. 2004).
The peoples of the Kolyma are aware of the changes that are happening around them on the land that has provided for these cultures for millennia. They are negotiation and re-negotiating their relationships to their homeland in the middle of this period of rapid change. Jegor Nutendli (2006), an Elder from Nutendli has provided age-old wisdom of the peoples of the Kolyma:
”We worship the sun. And the return of sun after the long polar night, after the long winter darkness. We feed the sun. When our families conduct their rituals, we always give offerings to sun; it is the source of light in our lives. We feed the fire and the sun. We have the waters, sky, sun and the land.”
List of Figures
1. Photo: Chukchi Reindeer Herder Pjotr Kaurgin on a melting permafrost bank, Autumn 2005. © Pjotr Kaurgin, 2005.
2. Photo: Jegor Nutendli, Elder from Nutendli, greets the morning sun, Spring 2006. © Tero Mustonen, 2006.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank first and foremost all community representatives and participants to the on-going work to document the observations from the region. Authors are thankful for the financial support received from the Ministry of Environment, Finland, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland, University of Akureyri, Iceland, Academy of Sciences, Finland, ECORA Project, The Northern Forum, The International Arctic Programme of the WWF. Specifically the Snowchange Yakutia project wishes to thank the following organisations and individuals in no specific order;
Lena Antipina (Kolyma, Russia), Vasily Robbek, Tamara Andreeva / Institute of Northern Peoples (Sakha, Russia), Grigory Velvin, Tiina Kurvits /ECORA (Russia/Canada), Priscilla Wohl / Northern Forum (USA), Yana Neustrova, Maria Krivtsova / Northern Forum Academy (Russia), Lena Volkova / Ministry of Nature Protection (Sakha, Russia), Paul Fryer / University of Joensuu (Finland), Tonje Folkestadt, Samantha Smith, Miriam Geitz / WWF Arctic Programme (Norway), Mari Holopainen, Viktoria Kudashova (Finland), Mikael Karlsson / University of Akureyri (Iceland), Victoria Hykes-Steere (Alaska, USA), Dawn Adams (USA), Save the Children – Iceland (Iceland), Henry Huntington (Alaska), The Arkleton Foundation (UK), University of Joensuu (Finland), Jyrki Terva / Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Finland), Elina Helander-Renvall / The Arctic Centre (Finland), Johann Asmundsson and Embla Oddssdottir (Iceland), Saija Lehtonen, Olli Klemola, Hanna Eklund, Eero Murtomaki, Jaakko Pohjoismaki / Snowchange Cooperative (Finland), Paavo Tulkki (Finland), Martti Poutanen, Esko Jaakkola, Sauli Rouhinen / Ministry of Environment (Finland), Finnish Academy of Sciences, Jarmo Rinne / University of Tampere (Finland), Yrjo Musta / Inari School (Finland), Tarja Lansman (Finland), Donna Green / CSIRO (Australia)
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Unpublished References
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All interview quotes are taken from the Snowchange Yakutia Oral History Archive and are available upon request. Identical copies of the archive remains at the Institute of the Indigenous Peoples of the North and the affected communities, in the case they have wanted to have copies of their knowledges.
Map 1: Nutendli Community Land Use Map 2005-2006
RED LINE = Nomadic route
RED CIRCLES = Pasture areas
Map: Johanna Roto, 2007. Used with permission.
Map 2: Turvaurgin Brigade 4 Observations of Changes 2005-2006
Map: Johanna Roto, 2007. Used with permission.
* * *
1. Affiliations: 1 - Snowchange Cooperative / University of Joensuu, 2 - Institute of the Indigenous Peoples of the North, 3 - Northern Forum Academy.
© Tero Mustonen
Map 1: Nutendli Community Land Use Map 2005-2006
Map 2: Turvaurgin Brigade 4 Observations
of Changes 2005-2006
Chukchi Reindeer Herder Pjotr Kaurgin on a melting permafrost bank, Autumn 2005. © Pjotr Kaurgin, 2005.
Jegor Nutendli, Elder from Nutendli, greets the morning sun, Spring 2006. © Tero Mustonen, 2006.
Данная статья посвящена наблюдениям за изменениями климата и погоды в регионе проживания коренных народов, населяющих район Нижней Колымы Республики Саха (Якутия) Российской Федерации. Эти наблюдения были сделаны с использованием метода совместной выработки знаний, что позволило местным народам принять значительное участие в исследовании явлений, которые влияют на них. За последние 4 года международное объединение «Снежный покров», основанное в Финляндии, при содействии Института по изучению проблем коренных народов Севера, и Академии Северного Форума, основанных в Якутске, провело исследование в указанном регионе. Цель исследования – задокументировать и оценить наблюдения быстрых изменений погоды, экосистем и человеческих сообществ в северо-восточной Сибири. Потепление, выражающееся в таянии вечной мерзлоты, исчезновении озер, увеличении половодий и эрозии являются некоторыми из наблюдаемых изменений, воздействующих на данный регион и его обитателей. Основное внимание сосредоточено на кочевых народах этого региона. Роль традиционных знаний (иногда их называют традиционными экологическими знаниями или местными знаниями) местных обществ и их наблюдения за экологическими изменениями играют решающую роль в попытке оценить и понять основные моменты поддержания арктических и северных регионов. Совместная выработка знаний позволила открыться новым исследовательским горизонтам, которые продвигают изучение арктических климатических изменений. Сюда входят более холистическое чтение ландшафтов, находящихся под воздействием изменений и более глубокое и многогранное позиционирование важности этих наблюдаемых изменений, если местные народы являются главным действующим лицом на всех стадиях исследовательского проекта.
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