Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Sunday, February 16

Magnetic North: Voices from the Indigenous Arctic

The British Museum teams up with Border Crossing’s ORIGINS festival’s latest offering to their series on climate change and indigenous people. Magnetic North: voices from the Indigenous Arctic sees art, technology, spoken word and music collide in an event dedicated to the culture of the indigenous people of the Arctic Circle.  Here, artistic expression finds its groove in technology and shows us love of the planet, and of each other’s culture is a vital step in the race to save the environment. Only then can we begin to understand what we are fighting for.

Ishmael Angaaluuk Hope’s spoken word introduction describes indigenous people using the concept of Shukat Khu.oo, a Tlingit word meaning people at the very front and at the very back of society. Knowing our earth so intimately, as a result at being the back of society means, that climate change roots them at the very forefront. As people who rely, celebrate and cherish the land, they have borne the brunt of the rest of society’s actions. From Colonialism, to conservation, and now climate change, they are now the communities who are seeing the first destructive consequences that the ‘developed world’ has caused.

Tonight’s live curated film is not just an exploration of these issues, but a celebration of Indigenous culture in its traditional and contemporary forms. We’re treated to the traditional array of practices that help indigenous peoples connect with their surroundings and their heritage. We feel and hear Yoik, a music practice that allows you to evoke a place, person and animal and spiritually engage with it. We witness beguiling Greenlandic Mask Dancing from Elizabeth Hellmann Blind. Spoken word is performed by bastions of indigenous cultures, Laakkuluk Williamson-Banthory and Taqralik Partidge who champion contemporary Inuit culture. At the end of the performance we are taken back firmly into the present in conversation with environmental activist Dr. Mya-Rose Craig and Caitlyn Baikie, a pioneering Policy advisor for Indigenous people in the Arctic. But perhaps, the highlight of this, virtual artistic happening is Hishu’s singing and musings on indigenous life. Edited over the vast expanse of the arctic tundra, technology enables us to see the practice of ‘Yoik’ in action; we are given the chance to see, hear and feel Hivshu’ s voice spiritually resonating with the subject it is singing about, just as we would if we were around a fire with them.

Magnetic North: Voices from The Indigenous Arctic embodies Shukat Khu.oo throughout. We feel we are simultaneously looking forwards and backwards through their culture. And although it does feel like a jarring ad on in comparison to the celebration of culture that goes before, Dr. Craig’s conversation with Baike is vital. Their assertions that previous acts of conservation were colonialism are a shock. But we need to hear this- we need to know that trying to curb the work and life of indigenous people does just as much damage to the environment as burning fuels.

Indigenous art as it is presented here, is the writing on the wall. The indigenous people of the Arctic are the communities who are feeling the brunt of the ‘developed world’s’ disregard for environment first. It’s a must watch for any environmental activist, scientist or dare I say it, ordinary person of the people, who needs to be reminded of who and what we’re fighting for.

Reviewer: Melissa Jones

Reviewed: 3rd December 2020

North West End UK Rating: ★★★★

0Shares