 Welcome back to those of you who've already been attending other sessions in this remarkable series, Living Nature, Art, Science and Indigenous Knowledge today. I'd like to thank our partners in this series of Living Nature, Invisible Dust and Flourishing Diversity for a really remarkable collaboration, and to all the artists, campaigners, advocates who have joined in this really important programme. My name is Polly Russell and I'm the head of the Eccles Centre at the British Library, and tonight's event is a collaboration between the Eccles Centre and the Canada UK Foundation. In some ways, many ways in fact, the Eccles Centre and the Foundation share similar goals. The Eccles Centre was set up in 1991 to foster engagement and learning about the Americas using the British Library's landmark collections. We're involved with a range of activities from sponsoring creative and academic researchers using our Americas collections to supporting collection development to supporting and staging events like this evening. The Canada UK Foundation has been running for 50 years with a mission to promote Canada in the UK through education. We work closely with the Foundation, we really value their partnership and we're really grateful to them this evening for helping with this event. Very grateful to their board for their huge support and especially to their wonderful CEO, Wanda Hamilton, who is brimful of ideas and energy and has really galvanised this event. Taking place as it is just a few days before COP26, this talk focused on the Arctic and the Indigenous people of that region could not feel more relevant or urgent. After all, due to physics, the Arctic is warming faster than any other region in the world. More than half the Arctic sea ice has now gone and this is having a devastating impact not just on that region but on the global climate and weather fronts. At the vanguard of these dramatic changes have been the region's Indigenous people, the Inuit. And our speaker today, Sila, is a native of Northern Quebec born in the 1940s and she has witnessed these transformations and their impact firsthand. She is nothing less than a pioneer, one of a generation of leaders around the world who've worked tirelessly to bring Indigenous perspectives to the table to solve the challenge of climate change and the environmental crisis. Sila's determination has moved thousands from young climate advocates to global leaders to understand the Arctic and what it means for our shared future. She's the author of a biography, which I did have by me just a moment ago, but I'll hold up in a minute. Oh, here it is. She is the author of a wonderful biography called The Right to Be Cold, a book which is as personal as it is political, detailing her life in Canada's north and the devastating impact of climate change on Inuit communities and ways of life. Reading it made me hungry because she describes what she describes as country food is incredibly tantalising, but it also made me angry, sad and engaged. It details the extraordinary tenacity, diplomacy, intelligence and open-heartedness Sila has deployed over the years in incredibly intricate, frustrating, challenging, sometimes very tedious negotiations of campaigning. I really do recommend it to everyone. It's a riveting read. Now I'm not going to read out all of Sila's many achievements and accolades because we'd never actually get to hear from her, but I want to mention a few because I really want to drum home just how exciting and what a privilege it is to have her here with us tonight. In 1995, she was elected the president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, the ICC, and she played a critical role in the UN negotiations to ban the use of organic pollutants polluting the Arctic food chain. Reading about the details of that in The Right to be Cold was really eye-opening, quite an extraordinary amount of campaigning. As the chair of the ICC representing 165,000 Inuit people living in Canada, Alaska, USA, Greenland and Russia, she launched a legal petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, linking the impacts of climate change to human rights, the first of its kind, I believe. And in 2007, she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. I'm not going to say more, there are many more accolades, but I will now, I'm going to press on to our questions. But before I start to talk to Sila, I want to mention two more things quickly. I'd like to thank students on ice who are joining us today from locations around the world. On Ice is a fantastic Canadian charity that leads expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic for high school students, university students, in order to provide opportunities for young people, educators and scientists to help build a more sustainable future. And I am thrilled to say that Sila and I will be joining conversation by one of student on ice's student advocates, Ashley Cummings, in about 30 minutes. Ashley is a proud Inuit youth from Nunavut. She's studying Indigenous Governance at Yukon University and is leading a leading voice for climate advocacy. I know she will have some fantastic questions for Sila and I think they're going to have a great conversation. So the running order for today so you're clear is as follows. I'm going to talk to Sila for about 30 minutes, then I'm going to invite Ashley to join us, where we'll be in conversation with her for about 15 minutes. And then we're going to open up to audience questions. So please, please put any questions you have into the tab at the bottom of your screen and we'll try to get to as many of you as possible. And after this event, please do stay on for the session after where you'll be able to listen to a panel of listeners listening to Minari Ushigua, a political and ceremonial leader and healer from the Separa people of the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest, which promises to be a very valuable end to this fabulous festival. So now over over to you Sila. Thank you so much for joining us. It's just wonderful to have you here in sort of virtually in London at the British Library as it were. And I wanted to start by thinking about your book, The Right to be Cold, where you say, like generations of Inuit, I bonded with the ice and snow and I wondered if you could for those of us that have never been to the Arctic and have only a sort of hazy idea of it, describe perhaps the physical and the cultural world that you were born into. Well, first of all, thank you for having me here. It's a pleasure to be speaking to everybody out there in London and beyond, I would think. Yes, well I was born into a very traditional way of life where we traveled only by dog team the first 10 years of my life, and raised by only a grandmother and a mother, until my older brothers got older to be able to hunt. My grandmother was the one that provided everything for us. So, yeah, very humble beginnings where we traveled and hunted and fished. And again as I say traveling only by dog team. So getting to, to connect and bond with nature was was very natural for us. We were outside all the time. And we were family and we were community. But my family was mainly in, you know, one of the rare families that were staying within the Hudson's Bay Company post of old what we called Old Fort Chimo that's where I was born, where most Inuit families were still out in outposts what we call outpost camps, living out in in complete, completely out on the land, in tents in the summer and in Louis, which are English to you in Louis for us out on the land. And so I was born into the world where we were still living extremely traditionally. And the bonding that happened with our hunting culture was just quite amazing. So my, my earliest memories was being on top of the, the hammock, where we have a box for younger children to sit in. And I would be in there being the youngest of the family traveling and hearing the crunch and the sounds of the dogs of my as my brothers led them to where we were going to go fishing or hunting. So yeah, that was my early memories and humble beginnings in Old Fort Chimo. I was that's a wonderful description seal and when I was reading your biography I was really struck by the descriptions of how much life there was in the Arctic. And I wondered if you could just say something of the kind of life of nature in the kind of engagement between the Inuit sort of culture and nature and the kind of how fundamental that what is to Inuit community culture and the Arctic. And it still is I mean we're still a hunting fishing gathering people every day you know you look out the window and you see somebody packing up their, their snowmobiles or their canoes or their boats you know ready to go. So even if we have nine to five jobs today every every spare moment really is about going out on the land in some way. So, you know that that's what it was all about. And, and, and that's what we did. And there was a real sense of community to all of that as well because our culture is a very sharing culture. So as everything that we hunt we come and we share with others you know within the family or the community. And, and the importance of a hunting culture is not well understood by many where, you know, we have a very holistic approach to teaching and preparing our children for opportunities and challenges of life. And of course when you're out there being taught the technical aspect, you know, with what nature can teach you. You are being taught, you know how to become a natural conservationist and a proficient provider for your family, and your community, but you're also it's very holistic in the sense that it's very important. Because you're out there, the actual life skills and character building skills in a very holistic way are taught. And what I mean by that is that when you're out there in the in the elements of nature. It is teaching you patience, as you're waiting for the animals to surface or the, the, the snow to fall the ice to form, all of those things. And it's also teaching you how to be courageous to be persistent in your pursuit of harvest and your hunting that you're going to provide for your family to be bold under pressure, how not to be impulsive, how to develop your sound judgment, and how to develop your wisdom. I think we call that in our language. So all of these character building skills are because a technical aspect of the hunt is about how the world works, but the actual character building skills that I talk about are about how you work. And so it's really important to have that holistic approach but when the new ways came they separated that. And it was never replaced in any other setting. So that's one of the fragmentations that happened with our education systems, where we didn't, you know, we moved away from the holistic approach to teaching our children for the challenges and opportunities of life. What I mean to realize now in the modern setting, sorry, Polly, is that the kids who have really had that the younger generation that had that routine and that grounding right right from the beginning with the holistic way are the ones that are able to adapt and adjust much better to the modern setting because those skills are very transferable. It isn't about either or those life skills, they build resiliency and they build coping skills are very, very not only required but they are transferable to the modern setting to be able to combat the modern stressors of the day. Well, I mean, that's that's all really fascinating. And I think anyone who reads your book will really understand that when you're talking about resilience and tenacity and patience. I mean, those are the skills that are clearly being deployed by you when you're engaged in these negotiations that are pains taking I mean it really is a life. These are life skills that are absolutely invaluable. There are so many things I want to ask you. You know, I'm really interested in this generational shift between, say your generation and maybe your parents and grandparents generation and then the younger generation you're talking about now who have now had the benefit of some of these experiences and have been less divorced from these cultures and that you can really see that the skills and the sort of the sort of community, the power of that indigenous culture is really sort of important for them but then there's this kind of is there a sort of lost generation in a sense. There is because, because of the historical traumas, the historical traumas, and the historical timeline of what happened in our world and I run through that in a larger keynote address, but in a very short period of time I'm going to try to run through this very quickly. The changes that we inuit have made in one lifetime most societies have made in 350 years for us in almost one lifetime, starting from the time when we were made to become fur traders and fur trappers to meet the global markets for fur. You know, right from the get go the diet started to change overnight the religious orders came in to take away our shamanism our religious, our spiritual beliefs, and then we were brought into communities to go to school forced into school. We're curriculum was not relevant to any of what we were meant to be learning about ourselves and the changes and traumas that were to come. And then of course the land claims that started to happen. Relinquish a lot of our lands as well, even though we got institutions new institutions that play, it still didn't do what it was supposed to do the abuses that started to happen with from those people from authority of sexual and physical abuses. The animal rights movement that came in and really demolished the the the transition traditional or the transitioning culture that we were in with where we were using the byproduct of our marine mammal hunting to be able to provide for our families and in a broad stroke. These animal rights movement took that away take stripping away the dignity and the self worthiness of our hunter to be able to provide in a transitioning culture. Forced into schools, you know, into communities when we were used to the land being the teacher. All of these things you know have come into play. And here as we're coming out the other side of understanding these historical traumas, but we realize that culture is the medicine that we seek. And our culture is right in front of us that we need to do that but now climate change is coming and taking that away. And so we've got the second wave coming upon us. Yes, you wanted to ask. Yeah, I thank you so much because you've just sort of summarized very adeptly a huge period of very important context to the problem. Absolutely. It gives a context of this kind of what this this crisis now in terms of climate change and I wanted to ask you about that. Thinking of kind of COP26 coming up, you know, you in 2005, based on the findings of the Arctic climate impact assessment, which project projected I think that Inuit hunting culture simply could not survive the loss of sea ice and you launched the world's first legal action on climate change, I believe, submitting a petition of Inuit hunters and elders from communities across the Arctic. And as a result, you were asked to testify to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. I really could you describe to people listening the changes that the community and you have witnessed in the last two, three decades as a consequence of climate change and its impact. Yes. And anyone can link up into earthjustice.org and link into that Inuit petition where the hunters voices are in every one of those rights that we were defending. Yes, indeed. I mean the changes have been stark and they are getting even more stark this day. The ice is forming very differently in the fall. It is breaking up very quickly in the spring. So there's less hunting time on the ice now. And the conditions of the ice, which we rely upon by the way for transportation and mobility, is now becoming an issue of safety and security as a result of the ice forming so differently. Many of our hunters falling through that ice that is really hard for traditional knowledge even to read some of these conditions now. The coastal erosion is happening all over the Arctic, more so in the western part, more so in Alaska where we Inuit live. But it is happening. The permafrost is melting so quickly that you've got what we call drunken trees that are falling because of that. But in other areas, like in my area, you've got trees that are becoming so high and so lush because of the roots that are now getting more nutrition because of permafrost melt. You've got the beach slumping that is happening, the coastal erosion as I mentioned, and you've got houses that are buckling inward as a result of permafrost and having to be moved. We've got that in my region in Nunavik. The runways even that buckle even more so now and having to be repaved because of that. There are new insects that have come into play, insects, birds and fish that we don't have names for. So all of these changes together are creating yet another stressful situation to an already stressed and vulnerable communities of the Arctic who are still trying to come through the first wave of tumultuous changes and historical traumas. And the historical traumas that really have impacted very much the spirit of the people and the oppression, the suppression of colonialism approaches and programs such as residential schools. I mean, I went to three years of residential school myself, I was sent away at the age of 10, and I was away for eight years in total and three of those years were in church for Manitoba residential setting with 200 fellow unique kids. So, you know, these are the historical traumas that I'm talking about. And in the book, of course, you know I chronicle the dog slaughters that we rely upon that were killed off 20,000 of them. And the authority at the time still deny that, but it's very evident that this happened the hunters have testimonies and testimonies of all that. And so, you know, yeah, we're coming from a really remarkable ingenious, strong culture to be able to not just survive the environment that we live in one of the harshest in the world, but to what we have thrived in it and we actually thrive in it because the older it is the better often, you know. So, yeah, these all of these historical things are our big challenges for us to this day, and we are hunting people, and we still teach our children what the land is so good at teaching. So, can I ask you, Celia, you're talking about these real waves of huge change that are impacting on, have impacted and are impacting on your community. But I'm just thinking, you know, so many people, and I guess many people listening today, you know, are based in cities, they're living in cities all over the world. I just want to ask you, you know, what is the right way for climate activists and for scientists, and scientific community to help people who don't know the Arctic have never visited who don't have a connection there to really understand lay people to really understand the importance of the Arctic regions for all of our futures what what should what do we need to understand and what should they be doing do you think Well, I often say and I say this to every and I said it again this morning for these young people at a college here in Montreal. Once you know this information, you know, from a very human perspective, don't become on the crusade to save us because that is at the root, the very root of the problem of the missionaries. We don't have a good history of ourselves, you know, so don't repeat that history, whatever you do, but what you need to do is look at yourself, your approaches your attitudes towards these and I often say now, it's personal transformation that is going to be the real kickstart to how we change our approaches to indigenous issues and and our environment and our common humanity how do we bring each everybody together to that. And this is about personal transformation it really starts there. And if I may I just want to be able to say to you this quote that makes so much difference for me in my life and I say this to everyone now, personal transformation can and does have global effects, as we go so goes the world for the world is us, the revolution that will save the world is ultimately a personal one. And I think this is true, because people say well what can I do will change your perspective, your attitude, and the way in which you do things in your life, and you will emit a change all around you you will make that shift first with yourself, and you will shift that out to the outer world in all that you do as a parent, or in the work that you do in the leadership that you're in, whatever it is, it starts with self, and you move that out to the outer world, and because really that's what it comes down to, you may think that's simplistic or it's got to be political it's got to be academic it's got to be all these things, but in reality it's about us as parents as individuals that will make that shift. Governments are very slow to make changes. I'm not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater here, but we do need to take that leadership role within ourselves within our families or community or municipality, our province or country. And I know that there's there's a movement of civil society. There's a movement of youth now around the world, including our own, and many others around the world that are starting that and saying, it's time to take action, and not to be caught up in the political rhetoric and trying to figure out, you know, to connect the, you know, put the, the dot on the eye and the cross the T's in these conventions that often have no heartbeat to them whatsoever. There's no real human eye and I've been to many of these meetings and I know that you're in there with 20,000 30,000 people. Indigenous people have these side events, but they're not part of the real true negotiations that are ongoing. The voices never get to be heard within the big plenary sessions where they need to be heard. You know, so things have to change there too of course, but at the same time, it starts with us. And it's not to save us, but learn about what these issues are so that you in the world that you live in concert to make those changes on a daily basis, yourselves. It's not just up to us as in as Indigenous peoples to be teaching you, but if you know this and you get it, teach each other, you know, spread the word teach each other. It's not just our responsibility. Yeah, that really leads on to a question I wanted to ask. I read an article recently just came out by the journalist Gwen Dyer. And the piece was, I mean, I think sort of fundamentally quite pessimistic and I'd love to know your view on it because he made the argument that the likelihood of the top 26 delivering is really small because he said that most people are not at what he described as the necessary pain threshold yet. And he meant that there are, that most people's lives have not been directly impacted yet by climate change. And really, Indigenous people, Inuit people, you know, have been absolutely directly impacted as it's shaping lives. I wanted your reflections on that about the extent to which, you know, are we going to have to wait for the rest of the world to catch up. We don't have time to do that. And what do we do to kind of help speed up that kind of recognition, ideally so that not everyone has to go through a pain threshold, I thought, but perhaps you could reflect on that. I think there's a lot of truth to what he said. I didn't read throughout the but just from hearing you say that I think there's a lot of truth to that. Because, you know, I was busier than ever before COVID hit because people's lives, they were, people were starting to 20 years ago I'd say we're the early warning, you know, the Arctic's the early warning, it's the health barometer for the planet. It's only a matter of time other people far away from the Arctic are going to be impacted in the way that we are being impacted and living states of emergencies with food and security and poverty and all of the things you know that historical traumas and colonialism has done for us to us. And so I said it's only a matter of time well that time has come some time now because I got busier than ever before COVID hit where I was in very high demand because people started to understand that Arctic connection, because their own livelihoods were being negatively impacted by the erratic, you know, events of the atmosphere, whether it's droughts or fires or, or, or hurricanes tornadoes, you know, and and so they started to want to know whether it was in their work or the initiatives or the programs they were working on. What is that Arctic connection because the Arctic is the cooling system, the air conditioner for the planet. It's breaking down and creating that havoc everywhere else in the world. That's the connection. And 25 years ago I'd say if you protect the Arctic you save the planet that's the connection. And so people are starting to understand these issues now, but you know science alone hasn't been able to change the hearts of people. You know it takes that pain threshold I guess as when we're saying for people to actually see that they are being negatively impacted by the inactions of politicians and economists and so on. So that's why I say bring it out of those realms and bring it back to the human perspective, the human dimension human rights, because that's where it matters. And that's where we can shift the way in which we do things, treat one another, and even scientists are starting Gus Speth I quote him. You know when he says, you know if you give me one second I got if I can use this quote because it's really important. I used he says this he's a great scientist from the US. I used to think that top environmental problems were biodiversity loss environmental collapse and climate change. And I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address these problems but I was wrong, he said, the top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with this we need a spiritual transformation, and we scientists don't know how to do that. You know, so everyone starting, you know, is starting to think in those and not everyone. There's a movement now, starting to think in those terms, ah, if it's not science if it's not economy it's not politics it's not academia. Then where do we go well we go here. We go here, where personal transformation needs to happen. And here in Canada recently you know we've had the recovery of children at residential schools I'm sure the world has heard this. You know we're up to 7000 some odd numbers you know we started with with 250 15 and now the hearts and minds the hearts have softened in Canada, and this is the time the pandemic is trying to teach us that it isn't just about one country one species that's that that has made this happen. It's how we have treated our planet. It's how we have treated the habitat of all wildlife for many decades now. And we have to be in this place where we need to do things differently, but it can't be from just the headspace anymore with just science and economy. It has to be from the heart space. And we need to have that personal transformation, and it has to be a spiritual transformation that makes us move the mountains that are needing to be moved now. Could I ask you a little bit about that see I'm going to ask a couple more questions for bringing in Ashley, but one of the things that you talk about in such a compelling way in your writing and your talks is this need for us. And I think this relates to what you've just been saying this need for us to fall back in love with nature. I would love to know what you think that educators, parents, citizens what what we all can do to ensure that this happens that ensure that generations now and in the future fall back in love with nature how do we do that. First of all, we as Inuit and indigenous peoples are still very connected, as we know to nature, because it provides us still with nurturance with nourishment with peace with connection, all of those things that are important. And so we protect what we love, because it is a giving planet that has given to us and it continues to give us, and we are grateful each time we harvest and hunt. People seem to under misunderstand the hunting culture as though it were killing animals in a way that we don't understand it to be that for us when we have blood on the ice, it's not confirmation of death, it's affirmation of life. It's a giving planet that gives to us the nourishment we need to survive and thrive. And many people haven't come to understand that. So we protect what we love I go back to that. And if you have not, if you have disconnected from nature, because you're in an urban setting, there's always ways in which you can reconnect to nature. You don't have to become a hunter or fisher, you know, or gatherer, you can go out there and just enjoy it. Go on a boat, go on a canoe, take walks, take hikes, and learn more about the hunting culture, and reset the way in which you understand what hunting cultures are all about, and learn from us, because we are the most giving, sharing people as part of our culture as well. And all those basics of, you know, of being in community are things that we still live by. So you can learn to do that and create that within your own circles and your own community. Because I think technology has been a wonders for many things, but it also has really created that divide even further in terms of being able to connect at this level, the heart level, we connect this way, but not so much the heart level on the understanding of one another. So fall back in love with it by going out there and appreciating it, go on picnics and hikes and canoeing and hiking and doing whatever it is that makes your heart sing when you're out there. Thank you, Sila. And just before I bring in Ashley, which I will do after this question, I just wondered if you could reflect on what, from an Inuit perspective, a successful COP26 would look like. That's probably a huge question. In the sense that, you know, it should have been done how many years ago when I launched that Inter-American Commission petition to the Inter-American Commission. I mean, we planned that and we launched it in 2005. I like how many years are we going back then? You know, it's how long has it taken for people to really get this in terms of how urgent those matters are. We have been signaling that, you know, for 20 some odd years. And yet, you know, I remember going to COP meetings and the language of the context of the convention itself, you know, we would be able to inject, you know, the issue of human rights into it, but they would put it into the preambular language in kind of a weakened way rather than the context, you know, the actual context or the text of the actual convention itself. And then the following year, they would have taken those language out and we'd be like few steps backwards again. And it just goes on and on and on. And that's what I mean is that if you go in as a technocrat, it's not going to do anything to create that sense of urgency from a heart space. And so I don't, I, you know, I sometimes question and I may be throwing everything out here. I often question if the COP meetings are now obsolete. Is that the way to go? Is that how really that the world is really going to address these issues? I think we've got to ask some serious questions about that. And I think for me, the work that I'm, you know, I'd be, I'm being asked, you know, at all fronts now to get involved in certain initiatives. And then until I feel that there's a values aligned with my values and what I want to do and how the approach that I take to these issues from a very human perspective from a person from a spiritual perspective. I don't really get involved because it becomes too bureaucratic. And when you're, you know, when you're working from that headspace and just in the bureaucracy of it, the language of the text, you know, that they're fighting over. How are we going to ever move forward on really making a shift and a change? So the POPs treaty work, you know, as you read, changed the course of that being from a chemical and environmental story to one of human health of people who rely upon the marine mammals that were being poisoned. And that's the shift that happened there was to humanize it to that, to that extent. And, and to have people picture Inuit women having to think twice about nursing their babies as a result of toxins. And so when you put that, you know, a relatable messaging narrative, I find that it really does shift things from the head to the heart. And that's what we have to continue to do whether it's with civil society with organizations with this event with whatever to change the minds and the hearts of people and particularly to one where we need to act on this, but from a heart space. So maybe this is the perfect point sealer to invite Ashley to come and join us because Ashley is a climate advocate for students on ice and a youth campaigner and working on Indigenous governments at universities. I suppose, like you at the sort of vanguard at these issues and thinking about how to enact change and how to connect change with the kind of politics, the personal, the heart, all of these questions. So Ashley, welcome. Thank you so much for joining us. Wonderful to have you and you're coming to us from Yukon. That's right. So we have Montreal Yukon and London on the panel. Ashley, I'm going to hand over to you because I know you have some questions for Sheila. So, over to you, Ashley. Thank you. Sheila, I have to say it's a really big honor for me to meet you because I listed you as one of my role models in my graduating yearbook from high school. I know in this line of work, even with my own advocacy, whether it's mental health or climate change, as I've been lucky to speak a lot to both of those things. There's a lot of emotional labor involved in this advocacy work because it is talking about the problems our people face and talking about the solutions that come with those problems. Do you have any advice for Inuit youth who are doing this same advocacy work for our land and people? Yes, and I do understand what you're saying. It really does take can take its toll because we're up against a lot. But what I try to do in keeping myself safe is simply that keep yourself safe. In other words, not to become overwhelmed with the larger issues at hand. And as hard as that can be, it's really important to be able to witness yourself as you're going through some of the stressors without becoming the stress. I know, I mean, we could do a whole one week session together on these things and perhaps we will do that one day. But certainly, it is to keep yourself just a little bit of a buffer from getting, how can you call over identifying with the issues to the extent that your thoughts are becoming are taking over the stressors that often happen with caregivers and often happens with those that, you know, are really working on trying to make it a better world for our people. So, you know, again, keep yourself safe and give yourself that buffer so that you don't burn out as you're trying to do this advocate advocacy work so young. Because you've got a lifetime there to go still and you're beginning that that advocacy work and we need you intact and not burning out so young. Could I just quickly ask you both as I've got you both here just your perspectives on the importance of intergenerational work around climate change and the environment and how those collaborations work and how important they are perhaps starting with you Ashley. I think the intergenerational work is so important, especially late growing up in paying I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. That was a lot of my youth was just being with my grandmother my little girl while she told me stories of the land. Those stories myths legends and talking about how important it is to us, and also the names of the land and why that's important to and growing up almost every summer we were out camping for weeks at a time. I spent a lot of important time with my grandparents, my aunties and uncles, and that's really where I learned a lot of the responsibilities of being a person and being an in a person on this land. And so I feel like it's, it's essential in order to see those changes that have happened across generations. Yes, absolutely. I mean, I, again, I was raised by my grandmother, mainly my mother was a single mom who had to work all the time. And so I feel very blessed that I had that grounding the first 10 years of my life. Because when I was sent away then she passed away while I was away at the age of 11. And so, you know the grounding that happens from our grandparents really is gets really rooted in us. And my generation often talk about and it's just wonderful to hear Ashley say the same thing about spending time with her grandparents on the land, because that's what keeps us so grounded forever to come. And my generation oftentimes we talk about that where there is that other generation that didn't get all of that and got more of the effects of the historical traumas, and the abuses that started to happen within our own communities. And not that any of us are really exempt from that but you know it, I think the more you got that connection grounding with from tradition, the more you're apt to adjust and take on more of the challenges that face you as you grow up and become an adult. So it is really important to have that grounding from our elders and from our culture. I was really struck just listening to you both at the very beginning that I hearing you sort of in conversation with one another. I just want to remind people who are watching please do send in questions because we'll be turning to audience questions soon enough, but back to you Ashley because I know you have some other questions for Seela. How do you take care of yourself in this line of work and what is your proudest point with our people in our culture. I take care of myself by, I become somewhat even more of a loner than I have before. Now in my book, you know I write that I am an introvert doing extrovert work. And so it can take its toll on you when you are an introvert. What I was going to mention, you know, to keep yourself safe in that way is I spend an awful lot of time in stillness in my home, you know, in whether it was in Kujrak or in Haluit when I was living there for almost 20 years. My days other than the work that I'm doing. I live in stillness to be honest. I live in stillness as much as I can. And I've had the privilege of being able to do that because for many years now, I don't work in an office I work independently and even when I was with ICC and Haluit. My home was in my office. I mean, or my office was in my home. I was able to have that stillness happening throughout that time. And I just find that that is comforting. And it also keeps me focused on the issues that I need to focus on, and not get distracted by too many things. And the problem I say that the problem is that Facebook could become such a distracting social media network, and I'm guilty as anyone else in trying to see how everybody's doing, you know, my including my family my community and so on. And one thing that I'm realizing that I've got to start to like, okay, let's let's let's keep that stillness going without, you know, being curious as to how everybody's doing on Facebook. There's some pluses to it, but there's a lot of distraction and there's a lot of drama that gets projected out there as well, especially in our communities, who are using it to vent. You know, and that becomes pretty heavy when you are hearing that and seeing that day in day out in our communities, but because there's no other mechanisms and other ways in which people in the communities that are struggling, they have started to use Facebook as the venting place. You and I have to be careful of that I think as well, because we're in the advocacy work but we have to keep ourselves safe and sane, and not be caught up in the dramas that are going on there where people are using it for that purpose. And not so much as a social network that is trying to share some good things not that a lot of people are sharing to but, but we do have to be careful. I don't know if I think you had it did you have a part to know. Ashley, do you have another question. Yeah, I just wanted to know what your proudest point with our. Within our within my work, did you say or within with our people and culture. Well, I think, I think it's really just an ongoing pride I have in being enough to begin with I just find that it's been a gift and a blessing. And the, and I have turned some of my many of my challenges that I've had in childhood, being sent away so young as opportunities to really just get to understand better the struggles and challenges that we face. And I think that kind of, you know, perhaps when I was a child and I was trying to understand why things were happening the way they were, why strangers were raising me and and preventing me from speaking my language and and censoring every letter that I wrote home so that they wouldn't, my family would never know that I was struggling, you know, as a child away from home all of those things today have, I think led to places where I have been able to go back to writing and and go back to advocating and go back to speaking even if I was terrified as a child to be able to do that in in strange settings and families and all of that. And so I have tried to look, you know, change and shift I think the way in which those traumas have have formed or could have had the potential to do the opposite. And I have used them to, to do better for the world for our world, our culture and to keep protecting it, because I recall a time before all of these real major challenges were happening. And that what that's what keeps me going and saying, we can have that again, we can have that time of such a strong and resilient and incredible culture that we come from, and help the world to understand that and emanate that and to have them understand that we have much to teach the world that we're not just victims to globalization we're not just victims to commercialization, and that we can offer teachings to a world that is largely lost itself, in terms of what sustainability means because we are still connected to the land and to our way of life that we so love. Thank you so much, Sila and Ashley, are you happy for me I mean these are wonderful questions and I know that you and Sila could be in conversation for hours days probably weeks. But are you happy for me to do you have any burning question for Sila are you happy for me to go to audience questions because I have some wonderful ones lined up here too. So I just would like them to have an opportunity to speak to you both. Absolutely. Okay, so there's a question here from Felix. And I think this would be good for both of you. Perhaps start with Sila. He said, given that you feel that cop meetings are obsolete. How else should we as individuals or nations best organized to tackle a problem that requires urgent global coordination. Well, as I said I wasn't trying to throw the baby out with the bathwater I'm just suggesting that perhaps it is because it never gets anywhere. And now here we are going to go into Glasgow with a weekend positions you know and people backtracking and once again. But what I would say is that, you know, there are movements that are happening, I think, in spite or despite the governments, you know, governments can be very slow and paralyzing, just by the nature of how they're structured and how, you know, leaders may be saying all the right rhetoric for political reasons, but the bureaucrats below them who aren't dependent on being elected, stop things right there, the door shuts, you know, and then things don't get done. You know, so there's all kinds of things and reasons why governments can be fairly slow in getting these things done. So I think, again, it's civil society that really has a lot of potential whether in the work that you do. I was watching the news the other night here in Canada where there's towns that are starting, you know, not being told what to do and or how to do it and they're just starting. They're starting with community gardens, they're starting with bike paths, they're starting with planting trees, they're starting with little farms, you know, like it just goes on and on. It's that kind of small, you may consider it small, but boy, if small became big, you know, in every country, every state, it can happen in the future and that shift can happen fairly quickly with or without. I mean, remember the time when the American administration said, we will not sign on to COP, we will not sign on to the UNFCCC, you know, all of these things. And other, you know, the states like California and many others said, well, we are with or without you, without the federal government, we're going to do it ourselves and they did, they're doing it. So, you know, there are ways in which things can get done without these big global leaders dictating whether they're going to do it or not. Now, I know, I know that, you know, China, Brazil, and other countries have been saying, well, it's our turn to develop because you guys have been developing all these years and it's our turn to develop and become, you know, wealthy too. Well, I mean, if we can, and then Canada and others are, well, you know, we can't do much without them being on site, but you know, why would we wait for others or why would we say, you know, stalling tactics for our own gain, when in reality, our own, as individuals, as, you know, in the work that we do in our own countries could be doing so much. And I mean, we are the people, we are, you know, as I said earlier, you know, as we go, so goes the world for the world is us. So, let's make that happen, because we are the world of the world is us. And it doesn't have to be about all of these political leaders that are driven by politics that never get very much done. I mean, who hasn't, when you think of, you know, the big changes and shifts that happened in the world in the history of the world, Rosa Parks, you know, and Nelson Mandela, you know, Martin Luther King and you know, many others, you know, First Nations. They are the ones that made big shifts, you know, in the world today that we live by, so we can do it. And Ashley, do you have anything you'd like to add to that wonderful empowering and hopeful account from Selah? Absolutely. I feel like I come from a different view, for sure, just with my experience on the Prime Minister of Canada's youth council, and how exhausting the process can be. And in addition to that, being a young enough woman, a lot of what I hear is, oh, you speak so well. You, you talk white as some of my cousins will pick on me for, and all of these different aspects that are coming at me personally, socially, I think that is reflected a lot in our different global leaderships and our different global policies, where indigenous and particularly female voices are not taken very seriously. And I am glad to be kind of a mouthy person. And so I can defend myself quite well, but I know that can be so disengaging for so many other youth and so many other indigenous people and other women. So I feel like if we are so committed to reconciliation, for example, here in Canada with our indigenous peoples. And if we are really committed to making impactful change in the climate, it is necessary to connect with indigenous peoples because you're living in a colonized society, which the vast majority of us are. We are constantly fighting back. We are constantly trying to make things better for our community. And I think that we just need to make that leap to include more of these voices, more of these people who might be more on the sidelines because that's where we'll get the deep accounts. It won't be from, you know, downtown Toronto, for example, it's going to be from those who are on coastal regions, those who are in deserts, those who are in these very small areas that, you know, are quite hard to reach. But we just need to make that, make that leap. We have got some, that's a wonderful answer, both of you. Thank you so much. We've got some fantastic questions coming in here. Sheila, I'm going to ask this one to you, which is that on a practical day to day level, what kind of contact is there between members of the Inuit Circumpolar Council and indigenous leaders working on climate change in, for instance, the Amazon or Africa, other parts of the world, and has this connectedness increased in the run up to COP26? It's been ongoing for a long, long time. The Inuit Circumpolar Council has been connected to many other indigenous organizations around the world for a long time. Of course, we're more connected to the Circumpolar indigenous fellow indigenous people such as the Russian indigenous peoples, the Sami Council, you know, we're very close to them and have worked with them for, you know, 30, 40 years now. And in these international circles. But certainly, when it comes to these issues, there are organizations that connect the indigenous peoples of the world who are working on climate change issues. And you just have to pretty much Google some of those initiatives and some of those connections and partnerships and you'll see there's a lot of work being done. I'm not suggesting that that isn't happening and making some headway in many of these areas, but it's when you go to these COP meetings. Then that's where you become quite paralyzed in being able to make a huge difference or a huge, huge impact on them because many people who are there negotiating with these governments are in very privileged situations, very privileged places, where they're not having that. What did you call it when said pain threshold threshold. Yeah, you know, so, and are very comfortable in the settings that they live in in a very privileged world. So, you know, it is that, you know, the lack of understanding of that that of the most vulnerable who are impacted by climatic changes that are not being heard as Ashley was saying we've got to keep those voices and allowing indigenous voices to be heard at those levels where they're being heard and not just side events or side, you know, side shows of some kind. Yeah. So this is a question which I think relates to that and, and perhaps Ashley you could reflect on it first which is among the many obstacles to learning that exist to constrain understanding between cultural ways of doing and being. So the problems to people understanding how other, what other cultures can teachers, which obstacles or obstacle would you want to remove to really help develop understanding between people. That's a big question. It is a big one so I guess it's we know I suppose it's a sort of what one thing would you like to change to change in people's perception in order to create sort of transformative change. I think Sheila has really touched on this just by talking about humanizing a lot of our problems. Mental health is a particular thing I'm very passionate to advocate on because in community. I have extremely high rates of suicide and mental illness and I have depression anxiety myself and I have family that went to residential school so mental health is such a big part of the well being we need to do, we need to work on. And in particular, in a lot of that work, I feel like I get looked at as almost the zoo animal at times. And so I feel like humanizing a lot of these problems and humanizing a lot of the issues that you know you and indigenous people across the world face is not, you know, looking at us from the lens of a colonial institution but realizing we are people just as much as you are. And we have differences in our culture and how we are going and things and so I feel like instead of, I don't know what element it would be to remove or what obstacle it would be to remove but it would certainly be inserting the human in our problems and realizing we are humans with emotions, working through these hard things. Thank you Ashley it's a really important reflection and Seela did you want to add anything to that. I think the, the, the most yes and thank you Ashley that was really well said and well expressed and well felt. I think what it is in this world is that we other one another so much as though we were separate from one another, and othering one another is the major problem I think that we're faced with in this world as though, you know, that I am separate from you and you are separate from me. And I mean I think that's the whole crux of the matter isn't it with colonialism is that we were othered so much as though we were less than human. And even in our country today you know we are still in the First Nations community space with no drinking water not for a week not for a month not for a year but for decades. You know, what is that about you know what is that about that you would not allow for fresh drinking water to exist in many First Nations communities in a country like Canada, Canada. Why is it that we have missing and murdered indigenous women without any kind of resolve to it with no explanation to it. And then, you know, all of these incredible commissions that have been set up the truth and reconciliation, and the murdered and missing women's, you know, a work that was done. But yet, the governments don't act on the implementing of the recommendations that have been put forth now, until the recovery of these children. In the residential setting where oh my God is this is true after all kind of approach that you know Canadians and then once they realize I say oh my God, you know. What does it take, you know for people to really understand that what we have been saying for decades whether it's about the historical traumas whether it's about about the consequences of animal rights movements or, or, or about climate movements, all of these things that are interrelated. What does it take for people to wake up and say oh this is true. This is actually happening. You know, we're we're in the Arctic but you know we're not that far away from one another when it comes to our common humanity. And what happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic. It affects and impacts negatively everywhere else in the world, because of the melt that's happening. And why is it that humanity a human beings you know have been treated less than human, because we are so busy othering one another. And we must stop that that's that's for me is is the crux of the matter really is the fact that we have othered one another, as though we were others were less than human beings. And that feels like a really powerful and potent place to end tonight's talk reluctantly because I know that we could talk for much longer and also because I wasn't able to get to many of the wonderful questions that people had asked so I'm so sorry. I wanted to read out a quote from the beginning of your book, Zeila by the poet Louise Bogan, because I think it's so beautiful and it speaks so powerfully to the work that you do and also Ashley is doing and so I wanted to read it so other people could hear it but also to pay tribute to you and what you do. She says, in a time lacking in truth and certainty and filled with anguish and despair. No woman should be shame faced in attempting to give back to the world through her work, a portion of its lost heart. So I wanted to thank you, and you both for trying to give back to the world a portion of its lost heart for the work that you do for joining us tonight for not giving up for sharing with us strategies and ideas, and for reminding us all why it matters so much that we are connected as one and that the Arctic matter matters the indigenous people in the Arctic matter indigenous people all over the world matter and they were all part of a solution and we need to work together. And so I wanted to pay tribute to you both for the work that you do, and to thank everybody for listening this evening. Go forth and make the world a better place everybody. And to remind you you can stay on, stay on to this session and then you could listen to the wonderful Manari Ushigura a political and ceremonial leader and healer from the Separa people from the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest, sure that is going to be absolutely wonderful. But once again, thank you from the British Library, from the Canada UK Foundation, thank you to students on ice and thank you Ashley and Seela for being inspirations and for sharing your views of the world with us tonight. And thank you Polly, you've just done a wonderful job of this thank you and for the opportunity. Thank you very much.