Dotting the ice

Abstract

For centuries, nation-states have drawn lines on Arctic maps, appropriating and sub-dividing Indigenous homelands. Sometimes, in the drawing of boundaries, debates attended the processes, such as those between advocates of competing definitions of the Circumpolar North. Was Arctic land that which existed north of the tree line or was the Arctic Circle its true southern boundary? Or is the Arctic centered on an eponymous ocean? For a generation now, the Arctic’s Indigenous Peoples have pressed their own claims to their homelands and, latterly, the Arctic’s settler majority has joined them in crossing over the nation-states’ lines of demarcation. Together, they are transforming the Arctic region into an arena for inter-societal conflict resolution, climate adaption, fair dealing, sustainability, and lively democracy. Far from the FOX News moon-howling madhouse, northerners are creating quieter, saner, more secure spaces.