Thursday 28. October 2021 | By: Harmony Wayner
On Wednesday the 14th of October, students enrolled in the course Arctic Ocean Governance, with Brad Barr, and some second-year students loaded up into a 4x4 van and set off down to drive the 7 hours to Reykjavik. The mission: Attend the Arctic Circle Assembly set at Harpa Conference Center in downtown Reykjavik. After a year and a bit of sheltering in place and restrictions on gatherings, this was one of the first international conferences that we could attend face-to-face so we could feel the excitement in the air.
On the first day of the conference (after getting COVID tested), we saw the opening session with speeches from the chair of the Arctic Circle, the former President of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, and the current Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir. Followed by introductions of the European Unions Arctic Strategy and the new American Arctic Strategy, the New Government of Greenland, and the push towards Cop26 in Glasgow and the Denmark minister of foreign affairs. It was a great experience to hear directly from the political leaders worldwide on Arctic strategies and have an open invitation to anyone in the audience to ask questions at the end of the session.
After the plenary sessions, we could choose to go to any breakout session, usually smaller groups with a similar format of panels and speakers, then ask questions at the end.
A few other students who did not enroll in the course chose to volunteer, so we had to work a few hours in a shift every day but were provided complimentary admission and lunch every day of the Assembly. It was a good deal for our student budgets!
I was excited about the Assembly because I got to visit with fellow researchers from home in Alaska. Adelheid Herrmann, also from Naknek, my hometown, is a postdoc at the International Arctic Research Center in Fairbanks and works for the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy. On the last day of the assembly, she spoke on a panel with the US Department of Energy about her post-doctoral research on capacity building of rural communities and tribes with climate change in Alaska.
I appreciated the indigenous presence at the conference but often felt that there weren’t enough spaces to hear our voices in this western conference context. Since the Arctic Circle is not affiliated with a democratic body like the Arctic Council, it tends to be more political than other forums. Or at least that was my opinion.
Each night the conference day was capped off by a networking reception, live music, and an Arctic-focused film. The days were long and filled with new information, and we all left tired with spinning heads filled with ideas. Next year, I would highly recommend going if the new cohort gets the chance; nothing can replace meeting people in person, connecting with the other Arctic-focused professionals, and having meaningful conversations about challenges facing our home in the Arctic.