Sibirica

This first special issue of 2023 began with a call for papers that highlighted a key facet of the population often overlooked by outsiders to the Arctic—despite its relatively sparse overall numbers and low population density, the region is full of human diversity. This diversity exists within the inhabitants, both Indigenous and (im)migrant (whether temporary or permanent), rural and urban, and by sexual orientation, gender roles, class, and ethnicity, on multiple parameters. For this issue, we go beyond the borders of Siberia to examine some of those key factors and their impacts on the lives of neighboring circumpolar peoples in North America, Greenland, and Scandinavia as well, in order to better understand commonalities as well as divergences in the experiences of those living in northern regions.

Environmental issues such as climate change benefit from intersectional analysis that uncovers various forms of discrimination and oppression and explores links to other social issues. Intersectionality calls attention to the experiences of different population groups with several intersecting aspects of social identity. Climate justice addresses the ethical dimensions of climate change, including its discriminatory effects. Communities and individuals within Arctic countries and even within Arctic regions are affected differently by climate change. To strive for a comprehensive climate justice that encompasses various human and non-human entities, we must take into account who benefits and who is harmed by climate change along with actions to mitigate and adapt to it, and through which processes. In this article, I examine gender and Indigeneity in the Arctic with regard to climate change.

Inspiring Girls* Expeditions is a global organization that empowers 16- to 18-year-old youth through 12-day backcountry science and art expeditions, including in the US Arctic and Subarctic. Because science and outdoor fields are historically white- and male-dominated, Inspiring Girls* follows an intersectional approach to welcome youth with marginalized genders, people of color, Indigenous people, and other marginalized groups into these arenas. Inspiring Girls* also provides professional development for early career scientist, artist, and outdoor guide instructors. We discuss how Inspiring Girls* leverages our own research as well as best practices from the literature to prioritize such strategies as intentionally building diverse teams, offering a tuition-free format, and participating in community learning to reimagine the inclusivity of science and outdoor fields in the Arctic and beyond.

While historical depictions of gender and sexuality propagated by outsiders continue to resonate through contemporary representations of Arctic peoples, researchers have only now begun to unpack these persistent ideas and their role in shaping current struggles for access, inclusion, and equality. This article aims to contribute to this growing discussion by examining the depictions of Greenlandic women and sexuality in Rockwell Kent's Salamina (1935). Drawing on a sensationalism that has long been a fixture of Arctic accounts and later media, Kent described Greenlandic women as childlike and highly sexual but still knowable, reinforcing existing hierarchies of power built on constructions of gender and race. This article interrogates the artist's depiction of Greenlandic women and its relation to broader representation of Indigenous peoples in the Arctic.

In 2021, The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women examined Denmark's (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands) fulfillment of the rights ensured in The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. This article analyses gender equality in Greenland through investigating documents related to the Committee's examinations. The reason for focusing on women's rights in Greenland is the intersectional identity of the majority of Greenlandic women as both female and indigenous (Inuit). The article identifies several issues and explains the status of these issues, including how the Greenlandic government has tried to overcome them. The aim is to create an overview of the official status of women's rights in Greenland to help further the process of ensuring equality.

The Ethnological Impact Assessments (EIA) procedure in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is used to protect the interests of indigenous minorities living in areas where extractive companies are planning to operate. Rural women are active in the process of exercising conscious, free choice in the planned activities of industrial companies. Industrial companies, when seeking the consent of indigenous minorities to develop resources, agree to conduct ethnological research and enter contracts for compensation payments. The role of women in the compensation process is virtually ignored. The article discusses economic and socio-cultural aspects of indigenous peoples’ sustainability and the possibility of “structural restoration” of their local system. The proposes ways to preserve traditional knowledge, women's proposals for assuring wellbeing and quality of life for rural families.

Indigenous women's activism occupies a specific niche within local and global Indigenous politics and plays a particularly important role in the socio-cultural and political development of Indigenous communities. In this regard, it is vital to explore not only activist strategies of grassroots Indigenous women's organizing but also their histories, contexts, and activist scopes. The women's collectives in the Olenek Evenki National District of the Sakha Republic (Russian Federation) have a long history of cultural and political activism. In this photo-essay, we aim to narrativize women's activism in Olenek as well as visually represent the activists themselves. Through the photos and the analytical narratives complimenting them, we also want to explore distinct (and diverse) articulations of Indigenous identities and of Indigenous activisms in the post-Soviet Indigenous Arctic.

The celebration of Día de Muertos (Spanish for Day of the Dead) has been hosted by the Latino community in Anchorage, Alaska, every second of November since 2004, where the ritual to honor ancestors is shared, and a symbolic bridge between the communities that converge within the territory is built. During the 2021 celebration, the Indigenous women Christina Edwin (Denaa and Chicana) and Itzel Zagal (Mexica Xochimilca) collaborated on an altar that was culturally appropriate for Olga Ezi (Ahtna Dene, South Central Dena'ina matriarch). It was a tribute the Alaska Native women (Chedas or grandmothers) and brought together Indigenous perspectives with a common respect for ancestries. This collaboration found that Día de Muertos is a spiritual practice and an act of cultural resistance and solidarity.

This article explores social identity borders at the intersection of gender, sexuality, and race in the Circumpolar North. Perspectives of those living in the Arctic who self-identify as women, LGBTQ+, Indigenous, or any combination thereof, is presented. An intersectional lens frames lived realities among marginalized communities within context of ongoing challenges and advocacy in the Circumpolar North. This exploration of social identity borders, or border digs, shows mutual imbrications of inequity across marginalized communities. Advocacy for equitable futures supports sustainable futures and these futures require cultural safety – a call to action.

Tunguska: A Siberian Mystery and Its Environmental Legacy Andy Bruno (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2022), 305 pp. ISBN 978-1-108-84091-0.

Galvanizing Nostalgia? Indigeneity and Sovereignty in Siberia Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2021), 270 pp. ISBN: 978-1501761317.

Prikladnaia etnologiia Chukotki: Narodnye znaniia, muzei, kul'turnoe nasledie (K 125-letiiu poezdki N.L. Gondatti na Chukotskii poluostrov v 1895 godu): Kollektivnaia monografiia [Applied ethnology in Chukotka: Indigenous knowledge, museums, cultural heritage (Celebrating 125th Anniversary of N.L. Gondatti's Trip to the Chukchi Peninsula in 1895)] O. P. Kolomiets and I. I. Krupnik, eds. (Moscow: PressPass, 2020), 468 pp.