30 | New Scientist | 7 November 2020
sleeping whale to harpoon it.
Arctic: Culture and Climate
is a great exhibition. For a few
hours, I could feel something
of Arctic life, through the sounds
of an ice-bound world, light like
nowhere else – and by marvelling
at some incredibly clever clothes
fashioned from sealskin and fur.
The exhibition has clear lessons
about the mindset of people for
whom everything, from animals
to the ice, is a living, connected
part of the daily world, not a
separated-off area mostly fit
for exploitation.
Such shows are the more
valuable for reminding us that
there is a real world out there
to fight for. ❚Shaoni Bhattacharya is a consultant
for New Scientist, based in LondonExhibition
Arctic: Culture and Climate
British Museum
Until 21 February 2021AN ANIMATED globe on the wall
shows a lovely, generous white ice
cap over the North Pole and Arctic
in 1979 that shrinks and shrinks
again until, by 2100, it is a mere
fingerprint, skimming the top of
Greenland and the furthest tip of
the Canadian archipelago.
This apocalyptic introduction at
the start of the British Museum’s
Arctic: Culture and Climate
exhibition is a sobering reminder
of the other emergency we face,
but the show is more about the
hope found in human resilience
and adaptation, and cultural
change in the face of disaster.
Nearly 400,000 Indigenous
people live within the Arctic.
Over 30,000 years, their ancestors
survived extreme and fast-
changing conditions, including
the end of the last glacial
maximum and colonialism.
Amber Lincoln, the exhibition’s
lead curator, wants visitors to
emerge with a fresh appreciation
for the people who live in the
Arctic – beyond the statistics to the
lives affected by climate change.
The show’s historical artefacts,
artworks, starkly beautiful photos
and immersive videos combine
seamlessly to tell those stories.
All this is set against a light and
soundscape that recreates the
changing light and sound of the
Arctic year: each “month” lasts
2 minutes and fades into the next,
producing a sense of flux.
Indigenous communities are
found from the northern reaches
of Scandinavia and Siberia to
Greenland and the northern vistas
of Canada and Alaska. Their way
of life faces upheaval because theUnlocking the Arctic’s hope
A new exhibition reveals exquisite artefacts from Indigenous people
who have thrived in the Arctic for millennia, says Shaoni BhattacharyaArctic has lost 75 per cent of its sea
ice in the past 50 years, and the soil
permafrost that acts as bedrock
has started to melt.
One photo shows an ice cellar
deep in the permafrost, used by
the Inupiat of northern Alaska
to preserve whale meat. Once the
permafrost melts, such “fridges”
may no longer be available.Elsewhere, a 19th-century
belt, a knife and hanging bags for
amulets and tobacco that would
have belonged to reindeer herders
serve as springboards to talk
about the less expected effects on
shrinking Arctic ecosystems. For
example, in 2016, 2350 reindeer
on the Yamal peninsula in Siberia
died after eating anthrax spores
released by melting permafrost.Views Culture
THE^ TRU
STEESOFTHE^ BRITISHMUSE
UMEven one of the most beautiful
exhibits – a commissioned work
by Sakha artist Fedor Markow
showing the spring solstice
celebrations of the Sakha people of
north-east Russia – resonates with
this theme. The miniature model
is chiselled from mammoth ivory
(with special permission). Ivory
from mammoths is becoming
more available as the Arctic’s
frozen treasures are exposed
by the melting permafrost.
Most striking is the incredible
sustainability and respect for
nature of the communities.
While caribou, walruses, seals
and whales are still hunted, every
scrap of flesh, bone, baleen, skin
and sinew is used.
A whaling suit that belonged to
a Kalaallit hunter in Greenland in
the 19th century – the only one of
its kind – shows what people could
do with sealskin. Waterproof and
inflatable, it would have provided
warmth and buoyancy to the
wearer as he jumped (according to
the caption) from his boat onto aLeft: an Inughuit sledge
made from bone, ivory,
sealskin and driftwood;
right: a Sami woman’s
“horn hat”“ Most striking
is the incredible
sustainability and
respect for nature of
the communities”