After completing a circumpolar journey, you might think James Raffan would want to lay off travelling for a while.
But the author of Circling the Midnight Sun says he’s got a great summer of touring planned. Before that, he’s stopping at Meadowlark Festival to deliver the keynote address on May 20.
Raffan, one of Canada’s top explorers, embarked on a project to circumnavigate the Arctic Circle with a goal of putting a human face on those most immediately impacted by climate change. Raffan spent three years exploring and engaging with people in Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, Russia, Alaska and Canada.
Raffan said he wanted to show people that the North isn’t a vast wasteland with a few beleaguered polar bears, as is often shown in news footage when people talk about climate change.
“I know the North to be wonderfully peopl
ed and filled with life,” said Raffan. He was also inspired, he said, by Michael Palin’s travel book Pole to Pole, though, not being supported by the BBC, he had to find his own ways to pay for his journey.
Raffan said one thing was constant as he met with northern peoples, whether they were Inuit in Canada, Sammi in Finland or Nanette reindeer herders in Siberia.
“The welcome was unqualified,” he said, noting that though poverty may have been evident in other ways, the best food was brought out for their guest.
Raffan said he went to the North expecting to find nostrums about climate change. The signs of climate change were clear, but he said the people he met told him that wasn’t their only, or even biggest concern.
When he asked about climate change, Raffan said he was told “we are good at dealing with change. The changes that are killing us are cultural.”
“Northern people are losing their language and culture,” said Raffan, adding that they are also losing a generation; the problem of teen suicide is not confined to remote Canadian communities.
“It doesn’t matter where you are,” said Raffan. “There are some very sad stories.”
Northern peoples have a long history of adaptation, but the collision between traditional cultures in the North and Western/European culture is a complex one, Raffan said, and threatens to overwhelm them more than climate change.
Raffan notes that the Internet and modern communication is spreading into the remotest areas, like a shaman with a cell phone in his tent or a reindeer herder extolling the virtues of a liquid soap. It was concentrated, Raffan was told, so there was less to transport and they had found at least 23 different uses for it, from washing dishes and children to helping tan reindeer hide.
Raffan’s confidant told him he should get some of this wonderful soap and offered to help, presenting Raffan with a business card. This reindeer herder, in a remote corner of Siberia, was branching out and selling for Amway.
Raffan’s goal, through the book and his talks, is to amplify the voices of Northern Peoples. His keynote at Meadowlark will talk about the connections between people and place and affirming people’s connection to the land. Circling the Midnight Sun celebrates those connections and introduces the public to these people through a collection of images and stories that celebrate the human dimensions of the circumpolar world.
There will be a limited number of tickets available at the door for James Raffan address on Friday in the Shatford Centre at 7 p.m. Tickets can also be bought in advance, online at meadowlarkfestival.ca.