Arctic Without Borders

03/15/2024

Next month the gates of Barneo Ice Station will be flung open to the public for the first time since 2018.
Adventurers, tourists, and those undergoing mid-life crises with enough disposable income, will once again have the opportunity to ski or, for the less athletically inclined, fly to the North Pole itself.

But the experience will be very different this year.
That is because everyone going to the ice station must travel through Russia and spend several days there.

How did all this come about?

Read my story about the new season of 2024 , Barneo’s simple beginnings 30 years ago, and what had preceded it – a spartan world of Soviet research ice stations.

And here is a spoiler: the North Pole is a purely mathematical concept and yes, you can reach the Pole, you can even die trying to reach it, but you can’t stay on it no matter how hard you try.

https://explorersweb.com/barneo-do-you-want-to-go/

For the first time since 2018, tourists will visit the Barneo ice station to ski or fly to the North Pole. But the experience will be very different.

01/23/2024

The Gurans of Transbaikalia, a breed apart.

When the hunt called them forth, their attire mimicked the Siberian goats, a sartorial choice designed to keep the game unsuspecting.

Notable were the Guran men, famed for their headgear fashioned from Guran hide and crowned with antlers. The unyielding winters meant those guran hats adorned their heads almost year-round.

The word "Guran," or "gurohn," whispered the Buryat tongue, translates to "buck of Siberian roe deer." Yet, in the Nanai language, it held another meaning: "people," "humans."

Gurans, tracing their lineage through a tapestry of Evenks, Nanais, Buryats, Mongols, Daurs, Manchus, and Eastern Slavs, once roamed Transbaikalia, west of the vast Lake Baikal. A few still cling to that rugged terrain.

Once nomads, they possessed the skill to live and thrive in the most unforgiving climates Earth offered. However, following the storm of the Communist revolution, many fled toward the refuge of Mongolia and Manchuria, seeking shelter from the tempest of terror, famine, and persecution. Most were compelled to settle, to forsake their native tongue, and to adapt to a foreign reality.

Today, the lifeways, beliefs, songs, and dreams of the Gurans have largely faded into the abyss of time.

06/21/2021

Today we are celebrating the fifth International Arctic Without Borders Day! On this day we are embarking on a journey that is larger than the interests of our governments.

Most often national borders of the Arctic don't define our cultural and family relations in the North.

Community to community across the top of the world, we share so many bonds, including the experience of community joy and happiness as we continue to live our ways of life.

Take a look at these Siberian grandmothers in Yakutia who celebrate their friends living on the other side of the globe - in Greenland, on their National Day today! 🇬🇱 They sing and dance creating a Circle of Love, because love is always a Circle.

03/25/2021

From Chukotka to Greenland - with love!
Borders will open up soon!

12/14/2019

"I was jailed in a Russian boarding school where they tried to make a Russian second-class citizen out of me — because I was a ‘primitive Nenets.’ I rebelled.” My story about Khadry Okotetto is now in
Terralingua and Langscape Magazine

Khadry Okotetto, an Arctic an Indigenous artist, shares his story with Arctic explorer, artist, and photographer Galya Morrell of Avannaa, an organization whose mission is to carry out “an eyewitness cultural expedition to the world’s most isolated communities affected by climate and societal ch...

12/14/2019

"My brothers and sisters chose to become doctors. They loved our tundra, but they didn’t want to continue the tradition. I thought: I’m the only one left. So I decided to stay and become an artist", says Vova Yadne, a young Nenets carver and our very dear friend from Yamal Peninsula.
Please, read our story about Vova in the latest issue of Terralingua and Langscape Magazine!

Vova Yadne, an Arctic Indigenous youth, shares his story with Arctic explorer, artist, and photographer Galya Morrell of Avannaa, an organization whose mission is to carry out “an eyewitness cultural expedition to the world’s most isolated communities affected by climate and societal change.”

12/03/2019

And here is a new story from Terralingua and Langscape Magazine, this time we are talking about Katrina Trofimova, a young indigenous artist from Northern Yakutia. Katrina grew up in a small remote settlement, Olenegorsk village, whose name literally means “a reindeer place.

Katrina Trofimova (Even, Russian Federation), interviewed by Galya Morrell

11/28/2019

Terralingua and Langscape Magazine run a story about D'ulus Mukhin, 19, is an Even actor and drum-dancer from Yakutia, Siberia. Acclaimed in Yakutian cinema, he uses his unique voice to open up stories that we’re not used to hearing. He says his mission is to break the stereotypes people are born into.

D’ulus Mukhin (Even, Russian Federation), interviewed by Galya Morrell “As a child,” says D’ulus, “I was beaten at school on a daily basis. My classmates thought I was ugly. They did not like the shape of my eyes, and my ears were too big for them. I don’t hate my bullies; I hug them and

11/12/2019

Women in Siberia are joining forces.

10/20/2019

"I am 18. I was born in the Arctic village, where fathers and brothers were vanishing faster than ice. I was running and hiding and dreaming of a beautiful world where I could live one day. One day I saw Arctic Clowns and I fell in love with them."

"Not today, but tomorrow I hope to travel to Nunavut and meet Piita Irniq who inspired me to apply to college and become an artist despite all odds", says Katrina Trofimova, the young Even artist from Yakutia, Siberia.

Evens, formerly called Lamuts, are an indigenous nation in Siberia and the Russian Far East. According to the 2002 census, there were 19,071 of them left.

07/05/2019

Half-Siberian half-African, 10 year old Cheikh from Hawaii is our missing link in the Bering Strait project.
To learn more please visit https://www.nuclearwakeupcall.earth/melting-ice-curtain-bering-strait

06/25/2019

Our young friend Teresia from Qaanaaq, Greenland has become the face of our Summer Solstice ARCTICANOS exhibition in Hawaii.

“Whatever happens in one part of the world will sooner or later affect us in the other part of the world. Whatever happens in Greenland will affect us here in Hawaii, and vice versa. We must understand that we cannot exist in this world alone”, - says Aunty Puna, Puna Dawson, the distinguished elder, community leader and the carrier of Aloha tradition.

The journey of ARCTICANOS in Hawaii has just begun. It is a part of the "Melt the Ice Curtain in the Bering Strait" project, founded by Cynthia Lazaroff and Bruce Allyn. You can read more about their project and support it at https://www.nuclearwakeupcall.earth/