The Archipelago of Hope

by Gleb Raygorodetsky

Overview

While our politicians argue, the truth is that climate change is already here. Nobody knows this better than Indigenous peoples who, having developed an intimate relationship with ecosystems over generations, have observed these changes for decades. For them, climate change is not an abstract concept or policy issue, but the reality of daily life.After two decades of working with indigenous communities, Gleb Raygorodetsky shows how these communities are actually islands of biological and cultural diversity in the ever-rising sea of development and urbanization. They are an “archipelago of hope” as we enter the Anthropocene, for here lies humankind’s best chance to remember our roots and how to take care of the Earth.We meet the Skolt Sami of Finland, the Nenets and Altai of Russia, the Sapara of Ecuador, the Karen of Myanmar, and the Tla-o-qui-aht of Canada. Intimate portraits of these men and women, youth and elders, emerge against the backdrop of their traditional practices on land and water. Though there are brutal realities—pollution, corruption, forced assimilation—Raygorodetsky's prose resonates with the positive, the adaptive, the spiritual—and hope.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681775968
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	11/07/2017
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Gleb Raygorodetsky is a Research Affiliate with the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance at the University of Victoria and the Executive Director of the Indigenous Knowledge, Community Monitoring and Citizen Science Branch of the Environmental Monitoring and Science Division within the Department of Environment and Parks, Government of Alberta. Gleb has traversed the far corners of the world, from the Brazilian Amazon to remote corners of Siberia, documenting the challenges of sustaining our biological and cultural heritage. When not on assignment with National Geographic, he lives in Edmonton, Canada. All proceeds from the sale of The Archipelago of Hope will go toward “The Archipelago of Hope Indigenous Resilience Fund,” established through Land is Life (www.landislife.org), which will support the communities profiled in the book.
Gleb Raygorodetsky is a Research Affiliate with the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance at the University of Victoria and the Executive Director of the Indigenous Knowledge, Community Monitoring and Citizen Science Branch of the Environmental Monitoring and Science Division within the Department of Environment and Parks, Government of Alberta. Gleb has traversed the far corners of the world, from the Brazilian Amazon to remote corners of Siberia, documenting the challenges of sustaining our biological and cultural heritage. When not on assignment with National Geographic, he lives in Edmonton, Canada. All proceeds from the sale of The Archipelago of Hope will go toward “The Archipelago of Hope Indigenous Resilience Fund,” established through Land is Life (www.landislife.org), which will support the communities profiled in the book.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

Prologue: Thousands of stories xvii

Chapter 1 Into The Wind 1

Uneasy stroll 3

Knowing the place 8

New winds 19

Chapter 2 Chancing with the Land 23

Backbone 25

Peacemaking 32

Sauna 40

Soul of salmon 44

The color of northern lights 49

The magic 55

Chapter 3 The Edge of the Would 61

Toundra sea 63

Real people 65

Rain-on-snow 67

Time to kaslat' 71

Yamal or bust 75

Thawing Earth 77

Arctic heat 80

Potemkin's village 84

The road that shouldn't be there 86

Chapter 4 The Melting Tombs of Altai 93

Goat-pulling 95

Golden mountains 99

Uch-Enmek 103

Earth doctor 108

Glacial retreat 110

Melting tombs 114

Shaman's vision 120

Keeping the balance 124

Chapter 5 Pachamama's Blood 129

Blood 131

Naku 133

Children of Aritiaku 136

An Amazon 140

Yuca gardens and medicine trails 145

"Keep the oil in the ground" 152

Alcides's tale 157

Of dragons and spirits 163

Not in vain 167

Chapter 6 Swidden Honey 169

Jar of light 171

Shifting cultivation 176

Cool Earth 183

Karl Marx, poppies, and forests 192

Of Snakes and bats 198

Chapter 7 Everything Is Connected 205

Survivors 207

Enchanted island 212

Ancient woods 222

Salmon people 227

Tribal parks 233

A better way 236

Chapter 8 Gifts 247

Levi the Kaa-muth 249

Land is life 252

Knowledge cocreation 256

Indigenous rights 259

Healing journey 261

Epilogue: Being a good ally 267

Sources 273

NGOs that support indigenous communities featured in the book 291

Acknowledgments 295

Editorial Reviews

The Archipelago of Hope shares important stories and sophisticated biocultural strategies. I highly recommend this inspiring book, with warm, loving photographs and many other resources, to lead us to a better appreciation of the rich biocultural diversity of our shared world, and a more inclusive and humble approach to stewarding it through these times and into the future. 

Dr. Rajindra K. Puri

This finite blue-green planet creaks under growing pressure. Solutions must come from within: we will all need to find ways of living with a light touch on the planet, and yet at the same time, bring well-being and contentment. This fine book develops a much-needed narrative of hope. We should listen and learn.

Dr. Jules Pretty

When Indigenous Peoples meet one another for the first time it’s as if we’ve always known each other. Gleb’s powerful and knowledgeable book captures that essence and the intimate ties we have to our Mother Earth. This book is like reading my own ancestry. We say that ‘all things are connected’ and these stories show us how related we all are.

Patricia Cochrane

There is no better time then now for the world to learn from this important work by Gleb Raygorodetsky as he respectfully allows the Indigenous voices, those most impacted by climate change, to shine through in his writing.

Sheila Watt Cloutier

Exciting and hugely important. Raygorodetsky listens to the voices of those who are so often unheard and overlooked: the world’s indigenous peoples. These people are also in possession of deep knowledge that will be needed for us to heal ourselves and the planet. Archipelago of Hope will be an important resource in the tumultuous years ahead.

Scott Wallace

The Archipelago of Hope is at once a clarion call for action and an inspirational compendium of steps that indigenous peoples around the world are taking to address the world’s changing climate. We have much to learn from the peoples whom Gleb Raygorodetsky has met and his elegant, evocative writing will immerse the reader in the places and experiences of those peoples.

Eleanor Sterling

Few writers, anywhere in the world, know and understand the complex relationship indigenous people have with climate as well and deeply as Gleb Raygorodetsky. I am so gratified, and they should be as well, that he has finally put his knowledge and wisdom in one concise and ever-so-readable document.

Mark Dowie

Indigenous people around the world are the only ones with a track record of living in relative balance with their surroundings for thousands of years. There was never a more important time in human history for their perspective and wisdom. The Archipelago of Hope is extremely timely and informative as we confront the reality that the growth imperative of the technologically-driven global economy must be abandoned as we embrace the health of Mother Nature as the source of our survival and health.

David Suzuki

As this fine book shows, indigenous communities and lands have been among the places hardest hit by climate change—so it should come as no surprise that around the world indigenous people have been in the absolute forefront of a fight for a liveable planet. I take real comfort from the fact that the oldest wisdom traditions on the planet and the newest are on the same page, that scientists and shamans are telling much the same story. Now it’s time for the rest of us to pay some attention.

Bill McKibben

There could be no more accurate or prescient way to see our climatic future than through the eyes of Indigenous culture, people whose survival depends directly on the intimacy with which they interact with living systems. In Archipelago, longtime inhabitants of earth give us their eyes and ears, and we, who can be dumbfounded by an overwhelming onslaught of information, find a precious wisdom that is bestowed to those who patiently abide in the life of the world.

Paul Hawken

With a storyteller’s gift, Raygorodetsky recounts visits with indigenous peoples from the Arctic to the Amazon, Southeast Asia to Canada, noting that the people who have had the least impact on the earth are suffering the most from human-accelerated climate changes. Raygorodetsky hopes that we can learn from their ways of living in sync with nature and forge more intelligent and compassionate public policies.

Booklist

★ 10/15/2017
Raygorodetsky, a specialist in biocultural diversity conservation, records his visits with indigenous peoples in Finland, Russia, Ecuador, Myanmar, and Canada. He shares riveting stories of their lives and different cultures, how they have adapted to harsh environments and are coping with outside entities that attempt to exploit natural resources such as fossil fuels, and how they have lived in sync with the environment for generations, adjusting to lifestyles that are a part of the natural ecosystem. According to the author, these lessons can be learned by all as we face ecological issues, including global climate change. His goal is to remind readers to respect and protect traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples and to learn how to care for the Earth as allies in preserving the planet. VERDICT Filled with admiration for those at the center of his study, Raygorodetsky delivers a valuable addition for all environmental collections and readers interested in cultural studies and international relations.—Patricia Ann Owens, formerly at Illinois Eastern Community Coll., Mt. Carmel

Library Journal

2017-08-30
Indigenous peoples testify to the realities of climate change.For the past 20 years, environmentalist Raygorodetsky—a research affiliate at the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance at the University of Victoria and executive director of the Indigenous Knowledge, Community Monitoring, and Citizen Science Branch of the Department of Environment and Parks, Alberta—has been traveling to indigenous communities around the world to monitor their experiences of climate change. In his revealing debut book, he reports on his findings from visits to Finland, Russia, Ecuador, Thailand, and Canada, vividly portraying the communities' ecologies, livelihoods, and "intimate understanding[s] of landscapes and seascapes." Indigenous peoples, the author writes, although comprising only 4 percent of the world's population, care for more than a fifth of the Earth's surface, environments teeming in biodiversity. Their traditional knowledge has allowed them to adapt to the challenges of climate change. In northern Lapland, for example, changes in ice and snow have had an impact on the Skolt Sámi reindeer herders, who confront shortened snow seasons and freezing rain that encases pastures and leads to reindeers' starvation. Like other indigenous groups, the Skolts rely partly on traditional knowledge and partly on modern tools, such as meteorological radio reports, to track weather patterns. They also collaborate with governmental and nongovernmental organizations to intervene in biocultural decisions. On the Yamal Peninsula of Siberia, reindeer herders and environmental NGOs vigorously protested Soviet plans to build a pipeline through the region. Public hearings led to a decision to construct an elevated pipeline that allowed reindeer herds to pass beneath without disruption. Many advocacy groups, such as the Indigenous Peoples Climate Change Assessment, the Association for Nature and Sustainable Livelihoods, and Land Is Life, press for the development of "culturally appropriate strategies to cope with climate change and to inject local voices into the global climate change discourse." Besides ancestral wisdom, spiritual beliefs, and traditional land use, the communities' participation in influential NGOs and activism justifies Raygorodetsky's message of hope. An encouraging exploration of how ancestral wisdom and political savvy have led to positive environmental policies.

Kirkus Reviews