On February 28, deeply red northern lights could be seen in the Dutch skies – at 53°N! I like to think they heralded the participation of APECS Netherlands in the International Polar Week of March 2014. We organized a poster session at the Pool tot Pool Day, a public event for polar enthusiasts held at the Ethnological Museum in Leiden. Louise Flaherty, Director of Inuit Languages and Culture at Nunavut Arctic College, was one of our valued poster judges. Her attendance had been made possible by the Canadian Embassy who, as part of Canada’s chairmanship of Arctic Council, promote Arctic knowledge in the Netherlands and support our APECS activities. The poster award went to Eugenie Stapert and her work of Dolgan languages.
In a discussion with APECS Netherlands, Mrs Flaherty felt inspired by our admission that as a non-polar nation, our early-career researchers can be very blueeyed with regards to indigenous peoples and may lack the necessary cultural competence for mutual knowledge transfer. She promptly highlighted Linda Tuhiwi Smith’s ‘Decolonizing methodologies: research and indigenous peoples’ as a key text her own students use and a good place to start for APECS members everywhere. Last but not least, the meeting provided APECS Netherlands with a whole host of ideas for our symposium later in the year. Also keep a look-out for our activities during the IPW in September!
