ImagineNATIVE 2010: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, which ran Oct. 20-24 in Toronto, is an international event showcasing works by aboriginal peoples in the realms of film, video, radio and new media. Samantha Anderson kept a blog for CBCNews.ca on this year's festival.



Zacharias Kunuk, left, and Ian Mauro answer questions at the screening of Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change. (Samantha Anderson/CBC)

Last night, I went to see the documentary Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change, which was a sold -out event at the Al Green Theatre. Directed by Zacharias Kunuk and Ian Mauro, the doc was shot in Inuktitut with English subtitles and preceded by Inuit High Kick, a short film made by Aleathea Arnaquq-Baril.

Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change explains how the thawing permafrost, shrinking ice and warmer weather of the Arctic affect its people. It also reveals the realities of indigenous and scientific thought, and what can happen when the two intersect.

Inuit can tell so many things just by looking at the sky; they have observed the land for more years than most people can comprehend. In one of the early scenes, we see a black dog running across the white, flat tundra. There are few people living there, but they are dealing with the pollution of the rest of the world in life-altering ways.

Hunters speak of contaminated caribou meat; elders speak of the changing weather and the slow disappearance of the glaciers. "Those beautiful glaciers, they seemed they would never melt," one elderly woman says.

In the film, elders say that Inuit hunters carry a great awareness of the environment, particularly the birth cycles of animals, when they gather and to only hunt when food is needed.

The landscape of the arctic communities, such as Resolute Bay, is mostly rock, ice and mountains. Some of the elders were filmed outside, others at their kitchen tables. Young people were filmed in boats, around seal holes and wearing Jr. Ranger hoodies. Inusia Nashalik, who lives there, says they don't know what cold is anymore; it used to be much colder.

Mary Simon, dressed in a sealskin jacket, says the Inuit feel powerless when it comes to climate change. However, they are an intelligent and knowledgeable people who have survived in harsh conditions, and are willing to adapt and change. "I want other cultures to realize [what's going on in the Arctic]," Simon says.

"What we wanted to do was give them a chance [to speak]," says co-director Zacharias Kunuk, of the Inuit people, especially the elders. Kunuk grew up on the land, and with Mauro's science background, the filmmakers were able to create a film that struck a balance between the two worlds.

Mauro says there was a conscious decision to leave scientists out of the film, but that a new dialogue has to be created where people are willing to listen to the elders.

"Elders should be able to express their point of view without scientists having to validate it," he said, to a loud applause from the audience.

In the film, hunters speak of the longer boating season and increased daylight due to climate change. "That's a message of hope to me," Mauro says, "We've got to change down south."

"This isn't traditional knowledge locked away in the past -- it's living knowledge."

Mauro says having the world premiere at the ImagineNATIVE festival was the best way to release a film about indigenous thinking. Jason Ryle, the executive director of the festival, agrees and says it was an honour and a gift for ImagineNATIVE to screen Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change. "It's extraordinary what happened in there tonight," Ryle said.

-- Samantha Anderson