Home

Arctic ICCE Project
Inuit Climate Change Enthnographies

Aujaqsuittuq: Eternal Snow

The Arctic ICCE project documents the impact of climate change on the hunters of northwest Greenland. The goal is to visit communities in Greenland's Thule region and record stories and interviews of the few remaining full-time hunters and their families, as well as government and NGO officials. Transcripts and commentaries of those interviews are available on this website under Ethnographies.

The name of this project, ICCE, stands for Inuit Climate Change Ethnographies. The website URL, "Aujaqsuittuq", which means eternal snow in the Canadian Inuktituk dialect, was the original name of the project. Unfortunately, no one could spell, pronounce or remember it (so much for my future in marketing). What's more, while the word is used by the Inuit in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, it is not used in Greenland. So in 2005 I changed the name to its current acronym.

Documenting the impact of climate change on the people, culture and environment of northwest Greenland

Update

Depopulation in the Thule region continues and in the case of Siorapaluk, the world’s northernmost community, the change is dramatic. In 2009 the population of Siorapaluk was approximately 70. By the winter of 2011 it had shrunk to 20. There is no longer a school in the village.