Saturday, 6 February 2010

The Northern Review: New Book Reviews in Northern Studies

From: Brad Martin [bookreviews@yukoncollege.yk.ca]

The Northern Review: New Book Reviews in Northern Studies

In an effort to generate discussion in the northern studies community about recent works in the field, book reviews from the Fall 2009 issue of The Northern Review have been published on homepage of the Northern Research Network website. Book titles and reviewers are listed below. The NRN homepage is here: http://northernresearchnetwork.electrified.ca.

Members of the Northern Research Network will also find the reviews in the book review section of the website.

In the near future, book reviews published in print by The Northern Review will be available on the new journal website.

The Northern Review is a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal concerned with exploration of human experience in the North. Yukon College publishes the journal twice a year, in spring and fall. Submissions in the social sciences, humanities and arts are welcome. Contact managing editor Deanna McLeod at dmcleod@yukoncollege.yk.ca or visit http://www.yukoncollege.yk.ca/review.

Book Reviews:

Beverley Ballin Smith, Simon Taylor, and Gareth Williams, eds. West Over Sea: Studies in Scandinavian Sea-Borne Expansion and Settlement Before 1300. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2007. Reviewed by R. Andrew McDonald, Department of History, Brock University.

Dorothy Harley Eber. Encounters on the Passage: Inuit Meet the Explorers. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008. Reviewed by Brendan Griebel, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto.

Jen Hill. White Horizon: The Arctic in the Nineteenth-Century British Imagination. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2008. Reviewed by Marionne Cronin, Research Associate, Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto.

Monte Hummel and Justina C. Ray. Caribou and the North: A Shared Future. Forewards by Robert Redford and Stephen Kakfwi, sketches by Robert Bateman. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2008. Reviewed by Christopher B. Wolff, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution.

Peter Kulchyski and Frank James Tester. Kiumajut (Talking Back): Game Management and Inuit Rights, 1900-70. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2007. Reviewed by John Sandlos, Department of History, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Natalia Loukacheva. The Arctic Promise: Legal and Political Autonomy of Greenland and Nunavut. Toronto and London: University of Toronto Press, 2007. Reviewed by Lisa Williams, Department of Political Science, York University.

Liza Piper. The Industrial Transformation of Subarctic Canada. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2009. Reviewed by Stephen Bocking, Environmental and Resource Studies Program, Trent University.

Russell A. Potter. Arctic Spectacles: The Frozen North in Visual Culture, 1818-1875. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007. Reviewed by Janice Cavell, historian, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, and adjunct research professor, Carleton University.

Niobe Thompson. Settlers on the Edge: Identity and Modernization on Russia's Arctic Frontier. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008. Reviewed by Andy Bruno, Department of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Thomas F. Thornton. Being and Place Among the Tlingit. Seattle: University of Washington Press, in association with Sealaska Heritage Institute, 2007. Reviewed by Jeff Oliver, Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen.

Graeme Wynn. Canada and Arctic North America: An Environmental History. Santa Barbara, CA, Denver, CO, and Oxford, England: ABC-CLIO, 2007. Reviewed by Andrew Stuhl, Department of History of Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

--
Northern Research Network
http://northernresearchnetwork.electrified.ca


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Tootoo extended - Right winger signs a two-year, $2.5 million extension with Nashville.

In the Crease

Tootoo extended  http://ow.ly/14Gxv

Right winger Jordin Tootoo, 27, signed a two-year, $2.5 million extension with Nashville.

Tootoo will earn $1.15 million next season and $1.35 million in 2011-12.

He has played in 330 NHL games, with 71 points and a franchise-

record 550 penalty minutes.

The 5-foot-9 forward was the 98th pick overall in the 2001 draft and became the first player of Inuit descent to play in the NHL when he made his debut Oct. 9, 2003, against Anaheim.




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Live Tracking Yukon Quest: Most mushers carrying GPS tracking devices for first time

RT @Northern_Clips:
Most mushers carrying GPS tracking devices for first time during #Yukon Quest
http://ow.ly/14DBN
Live Tracking
http://ow.ly/14DDP




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Tracking Wolves of Ellesmere Island, #Nunavut

RT @Northern_Clips: Remote sensing #Wolves of the High #Arctic – tracking Wolves of Ellesmere Island #Nunavut http://ow.ly/14BIY

[excerpt]

"... Editors' Note

Several people have asked how Dave and Dean find wolves in such a huge region. One Blogger asked if they had to travel around looking for signs of wolves, hoping to get lucky. All great questions!

Much of Ellesmere Island is too lacking in vegetation to support large herbivores like muskoxen on which the wolves depend for food. It is an arctic desert, and some regions of this huge landscape are locked in ice. There are formidable mountain ranges and bleak areas of rock. But here and there are "thermal oases," areas that receive enough annual moisture to nourish the shallow-rooted plants that feed muskoxen, the primary prey of the wolves. The wide expanses of landscape around the tiny weather station at Eureka on Ellesmere are home to wolves, muskoxen, arctic hares and other animals.

Sometimes wolves travel on a route near the weather station. They are not afraid of people because in this region, they have never been subjected to the persecution of their relatives to the south. They seem to be curious about humans, and some will approach and come close. Since 2006, the wolves in the area have not used the Rock Den (see the 2006 Blog). So finding them has, in fact, been a huge challenge in recent years. Read the 2008 Blog, and you will readily see what a task it was to locate them!

The GPS/ARGOS collars have a VHF transmitter in them (see below). Thus, Dave and Dean hope to be able to pick up a radio signal from any wolves they collar if they can get within range. With the location data sent from the ARGOS satellite by the collar, this may be possible. The beauty of the technology is the capability to receive locations through a computer. Thus, the great question asked at the end of the 1986 documentary White Wolf may finally be answered: What do the wolves do in winter? Where do they go? How far do they travel? It is important to collar a breeding pair. They are the core of the wolf family, and they and possibly some others will probably travel and hunt together even though they will not have pups to feed until late spring.

The standard VHF radio collar is extremely useful in many locations for tracking animals and birds. But a VHF collar alone wouldn't serve any purpose in a region as remote as Ellesmere and with weather so extreme and harsh most of the year. Additionally, the short summer is over by late August, and it is difficult or impossible to get around by foot or ATV until late June after the long, dark winter is over and the mud has dried up.

This VHF collar consists of a transmitter (just like a radio station that emits a signal that cannot be heard), a receiver (just like a radio) and a direction-finding antenna. With the antenna, the researchers can "find" the transmitter either by using direct line or triangulation. Some antennas are hand-held, and others can be mounted on the wings of aircraft. ..."


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Friday, 5 February 2010

Call for Applications: Arctic Voices Fellowships, Canada


AVF Logo

February 2, 2010

 

 

Dear Colleague: 

 

 

RE: Arctic Voices Fellowships Call for Applications

 

 

The Arctic Voices Fellowship program is up and running and we need your help in identifying Northern applicants, aged 25 -35, from across the Canadian North who are embarking on a path of public and community service and would benefit from these fellowships. Former MP Nancy Karetak-Lindell is directing the program from her home base in Arviat. 

 

Twelve candidates from the five Arctic regions - Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Northern Quebec (Nunavik) and Northern Labrador (Nunatsiavut) - will be chosen as Arctic Voices Fellows. First Nations, Inuit and Métis candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. 

 

Arctic Voices Fellows will have the opportunity to research and develop policy ideas that they believe will benefit their communities and the North. The Foundation's commitment is to support Northerners who have ideas and talents but need opportunities and support to carry them out, so that Northerners have the tools to shape their own future.

 

Each Fellow will receive $25,000 spanning two years starting in June 2010, mentoring from Elders, and opportunities to spend time with other Fellows and policy experts across Northern and Southern Canada. 

 

Application deadline: March 24, 2010, 5 p.m. PST

 

Please encourage the young Northerners you know to apply and help us spread the word about this great opportunity.

 

For more details on the Arctic Voices Fellowships, please visit our website: www.arcticvoices.ca 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation was established in 1965 as a private charitable foundation. One of the major programming areas is the Canadian North. The mandate is to support research and education projects that enhance Northern peoples' ability to participate in and help shape public policy at any level - local, regional, national or international. www.gordonfn.org 

 
The J.M. Kaplan Fund was established in 1945. It has recently expanded its programming mandate to include protection of Arctic coastal communities and waters. www.jmkfund.org 

--
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Largest climate change study ever undertaken in Canada says the Arctic sea ice is thinning faster than expected.

RT @Northern_Clips: CBCNorth - #Arctic ice melting faster than feared http://ow.ly/14uFl largest #climate change study ever

[excerpt]

The head of the largest climate change study ever undertaken in Canada says the Arctic sea ice is thinning faster than expected.

The Canadian Coast Guard ship Amundsen remained mobile all winter during the Arctic Ocean for the Circumpolar Flaw Lead study.
The Canadian Coast Guard ship Amundsen remained mobile all winter during the Arctic Ocean for the Circumpolar Flaw Lead study. (Emily Chung/CBC)

"It's happening much faster than our most pessimistic projections," said University of Manitoba Prof. David Barber, the lead investigator of the Circumpolar Flaw Lead study. A flaw lead is the term for open water between pack ice and coastal ice.

The study aboard the Canadian Coast Guard research ship Amundsen began in July 2007 and involved 370 scientists from around the world.

It was the first time a research vessel had ever remained mobile in open water in the Far North.

Barber called the expedition climate scientists' "first opportunity to look at what the Arctic Ocean looks like in the middle of winter."

They found that Arctic sea ice is disappearing faster than scientists expected.

"We're seeing it happen more quickly than our model thought [it] would happen," said Barber.

Warning for the south

"It's an early indicator of what we can expect to happen further south," Barber said at a news conference in Winnipeg. "We can expect things to happen faster here, too."

[...]



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4th International #Indigenous Traditional Knowledge Conference

---------------------------------------------------------------------
4th International Indigenous Traditional Knowledge Conference
from Alaska Native Knowledge Network - Friday, 5 February 2010, 10:12 am
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact details: enquiries@traditionalknowledge2010.ac.nz
telephone +64-9-3737599 ext 82376 or 84220

 ===================================

4TH INTERNATIONAL INDIGENOUS TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE CONFERENCE,
6-9 JUNE 2010, AUCKLAND, AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND

 "Kei muri i te awe kāpara he tangata kē - Behind the tattoed face a stranger stands: Recognising, engaging, understanding difference"

 Tēnā koutou katoa! Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga is proud to announce the opening of online registrations for its 2010 conference;
http://www.traditionalknowledge2010.ac.nz

 Please visit the site to:
 * Register for Conference online (for early bird rates by May 14th 2010),
 * Submit Abstracts online (by April 30th 2010),
 * Find out about our Conference Scholarships,
 * Find out about us, NZ's Māori Centre of Research Excellence.

 The Conference will discuss strategies for generating social, educational, intellectual, and economic opportunities by building relationships that engage, understand, and accommodate difference to overcome the adverse effects resulting from failure to understand sufficiently the differences
among indigenous and non-indigenous communities and societies.

 Target groups for the conference include: academics, emerging researchers, graduate students; community groups/workers/activists; tribal and community elders and leaders; and local and national government representatives.

 Nāreira, rau rangatira mā - nau mai, piki mai, haere mai!

 Contact details: enquiries@traditionalknowledge2010.ac.nz / telephone
+64-9-3737599 ext 82376 or 84220
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