A Journey From
Polar Bear Country
to Nizhnekolumsky Ulus
Expedition Avannaa* has been one of the most interesting and unusual journeys in the Arctic in 2012. Three men and one woman travelled 4000 km in a small open boat in the drifting ice to visit the world’s northernmost settlements in Northern Greenland.
The Inughuit, or Polar Eskimo, are one of the smallest indigenous groups in the world. They still use kayaks and harpoons to hunt narwhal in the summer and dog-sleds in the winter to hunt seals, walruses and polar bears.
This unique culture that survived millennia is now at risk of disappearance. The abrupt climate change and draconian hunting quotas give this ancient culture little chance for survival. When the old people – tradition keepers - are gone, the hunting culture and the language would be gone too.
Expedition Avannaa which included - besides Eskimo explorers and hunters - a native of Nenetsia in Siberia, travelled "the Greenlandic way" - the hard way. It means that explorers travelled with no special equipment or protection from the outside world. They slept in the boat, ate only when they were lucky and at times were stranded at stormy sea for many days.
There was a moment when the boat disappeared from the "radars" for the entire week during a severe storm which caused a wave of gruesome speculations. But luckily the boat re-appeared seven days later and continued its journey North.
Many people who followed the journey of Avannaa kept asking the same question: why to travel such a "hard" way? Why not to travel by a bigger boat? Why not to have modern means of communication? Why not to be "civilized"?
The reason for such a format was quite simple. The prime mission of Avannaa was to make sure that the voices of people living in these settlements – invisible to the rest of the world – are heard.
Foreign observers – scientist and policy makers – pay infrequent visits the world’s most isolated communities – but only by big boats or by plane. They stay for a few days, make their observations and leave. Their conclusions – often very superficial – define the global policies towards this region.
Expedition Avannaa led by Greenlandic polar explorer, actor and educator Ole Jorgen Hammeken chose another approach. It chose to travel the exact same way as Greenlanders living in the settlements do. Greenlanders don’t have big boats – because they can’t afford them. They can’t buy provision in the store – they have to hunt and fish along the way. Captain Hammeken, after whom the world’s northernmost mountain - Hammeken Point in Peary land - was named, decided to keep as close to the real life as possible and no doubt, this life can be seen only from a small boat in the summer or from a dog-sled in the winter.
On its way, Expedition Avannaa observed and filmed rock and soil, earth and ice, water and sky, wind and currents, wildflowers and ancient lichens, polar bears and arctic butterflies, foxes and ravens, people, walruses and phytoplankton that too has to adopt to abrupt changes – often with little success.
But their main focus were people living in these area. Expedition Avannaa visited all the settlements in the area in order to find out what people living here think about changes in hunting, cooking, shelter and ceremonials.
Expedition Avannaa received a warm welcome in Moscow. It was greeted by Mikhail Gorbachev and Arthur Chilingarov. The short film "The Greenlandic Way" and photo exhibition "The Stolen Moments" by Galya Morrell, the only female member of the expedition, were shown at the Russia’s Senate.
Senator Arthur Chilingarov encouraged Avannaa to transform itself from the "hard-core" expedition into an ongoing eyewitness cross-cultural expedition to the front-line of climate change aimed to reunite the world’s most isolated communities in Arctic and sub-Arctic. So, next year Avannaa will travel to Chukotka and Yakutia and will make its first stop in Nizhnekolymsky Ulus.
Avannaa’s main goal will be to help isolated communities to preserve their heritage that is at risk of disappearance. Avannaa will protect, record and support the indigenous culture, preserve the old traditions of music, dance and storytelling. All the records will be returned to the local communities.
Avannaa offers a unique view of people and their natural habitats in the hardest-to-reach places that otherwise stay invisible to the eyes of decision makers and general audience worldwide.
Photography Galya Morrell
* Avannaa - Uummannaq Polar Insititute reconnaissance boat expedition in Northern Greenland.