How does climate change affect those living in a Nunavut community? Talk directly with members of the northern hamlet of Arviat on the western shore of Hudson Bay as part of the Inuit 
Qaujimajatuqangit Film Festival next Tuesday.
Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change, by Zacharias Kunuk and Ian Mauro, will screen simultaneously at York and in Arviat, Nunavut, on Sept. 27, from 7pm to 9:30pm, in Curtis Lecture Hall F, Keele campus. Three shorts – Introduction to Nanisiniq, Martha’s Gang and Experiencing Climate Change – Inuit Elders and Youth – by Jordan Konek will also be shown, followed by a live by video Q&A with youth and elders from the Arviat community and filmmaker Mauro.
It is a pay-what-you-can event presented by York’s Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS) and the Nanisiniq Arviat History Project. It is just one of the ways IRIS is working with the communities most affected by climate change to have their voices heard, said Annette Dubreuil, IRIS coordinator. She hopes to have their message brought to the United Nations climate change conference COP17 in Durban, South Africa, in November. The funds raised through the York film screenings will help send three Arviat youth to Durban.
Last year, two York students went to the 16th annual conference on climate change – COP16. IRIS and the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists will co-host a series of upcoming virtual events in advance of the conference.
York Faculty of Environmental Studies post-doctoral fellow Rachel Hirsch hopes there will be more opportunities for further dialogue about climate change between various interested groups. “We hope more people will want to collaborate with us in the lead up to the COP17,” she says. She is already busy planning more events at York and partnering with outside groups to further the climate change discussion.
Anyone wishing to collaborate, should contact Hirsch at rhirsch@yorku.ca.
For more information about the work IRIS is doing regarding climate change, visit the IRIS Climate Justice website.