arctic futures
Inuit Youth-led
planning and policy
Inuit young leaders are reshaping conversations with leaders, policymakers, planners, researchers and communities.
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About Us
Arctic Futures is a collaboration between Inuit young leaders, artists, researchers, policymakers and educators from across Inuit Nunangat, Canada and the United Kingdom.
This work emerged from an Inuit youth-led research project exploring how storytelling and art could support Inuvialuit youth in reflecting on and sharing the impacts climate change is having on their communities.
ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓄᓇᖓᑦ, Inuit Nunangat (Inuit Homelands)
Inuit continue to live and govern the lands and waters of the Arctic across Inuit-Nunangat (Canada), Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), Alaska, and Chukotka (Russia).
ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓄᓇᖓᑦ (Inuit Nunangat) is a collective term for the Inuit Homelands in Canada, and includes the land, sea, and ice vital to sustaining their communities and culture. It includes the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Nunavut, Nunavik, and Nunatsiavut, and comprises 40% of Canada’s landmass and over 70% of its coastline.
Most people in Canada live within 100 miles of the US border, so including these perspectives allows us to inform Canadians and think about what is happening in places that most people don’t see or think about.
Greg Flato
Director of Climate Research, Environment and Climate Change Canada.
It feels like we are paying the consequences for someone else's actions. Like we're being taxed by climate change in a way that others are not.
Brian Kowikchuk
Inuvialuk Young Leader
Something's gotta be done to address climate change now. We are seeing how even one year can make a big difference. During a recent storm surge, the point [in Tuktoyaktuk] was almost gone. Five years ago, that wasn’t the case. Now we also have forest fires. I picked up my boy on Friday, but I couldn’t bring him outside. The air quality was too poor due to smoke from the forest fire. We don’t have enough indoor spaces for youth in our community to be inside together. All of this has an impact on mental health.
Nathan Kuptana
Inuvialuk Young Leader
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Places where our people have been going for generations and didn't think would be an issue are getting more dangerous. Our ice monitoring programs help alert our people to the danger but it's still a shock.
Eriel Lugt
Inuvialuk Young Leader
Nunavut and remote Indigenous communities have some of the highest suicide rates in Canada, but our closest mental health supports are in Edmonton. It's hard to reach out for help when the help is hundreds of miles away.
Carmen Kuptana
Inuvialuk Young Leader
A rapidly changing Arctic
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Climate change displacement is already a reality
In Arctic communities like Tuktoyaktuk, people are facing rising sea levels, shifting shorelines, storm surges, alarming rates of erosion, and thawing permafrost.
Arctic communities are experiencing rapid rates of change
The Canadian Arctic has warmed about three times faster than the global average rate.
Indigenous communities face disporportionate impacts from climate change
According to the Government of Canada, Indigenous and Inuit communities are disproportionately impacted by climate change in Canada.
Arctic communities are experiencing rapid rates of change
The Canadian Arctic has warmed about three times faster than the global average rate.
Climate Change displacement is already a reality
In Arctic communities like Tuktoyaktuk, people are facing rising sea levels, shifting shorelines, storm surges, alarming rates of erosion, and thawing permafrost.
Indigenous communities face disporportionate impacts from climate change
According to the Government of Canada, Indigenous and Inuit communities are disproportionately impacted by climate change in Canada.
Our Home. Our Stories. Our Future.
It feels like we are paying the consequences for someone else's actions. Like we're being taxed by climate change in a way that others are not.
Brian Kowichuk, Inuvialuk young leader
Inuit Youth: Carving Out Space for Change
Inuit youth are one of the youngest and fastest-growing populations in Canada.
Inuit perspectives, knowledge, and lived experiences are vital to building better planning practices and stronger policies, programs, and futures that address pressing environmental and social issues.
Inuit youth are well-placed to help build a better future for themselves and their communities.
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Why we do this work
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Supporting Indigenous Sovereignty and Rights
Supporting Inuit self-determination and sovereignty—as outlined in the National Inuit Strategy on Research—is a matter of justice and reconciliation.
Decolonizing research and policy practises requires a fundamental shift in how we approach research and policy work.
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Creating Opportunities for Inuit Youth
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Knowledge and Resources
We share practical resources, stories, research, and tools to support Inuit youth in shaping, designing, and informing policy, planning, and research on their own terms.
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