The Arctic regions are inhabited by diverse populations, both indigenous and non-indigenous. Health Transitions in Arctic Populations describes and explains changing health patterns in these areas, how particular patterns came about, and what can be done to improve the health of Arctic peoples. This study correlates changes in health status with major environmental, social, economic, and political changes in the Arctic. T. Kue Young and Peter Bjerregaard seek commonalities in the experiences of different peoples while recognizing their considerable diversity. They focus on five Arctic regions – Greenland, Northern Canada, Alaska, Arctic Russia, and Northern Fennoscandia, offering a general overview of the geography, history, economy, population characteristics, health status, and health services of each. The discussion moves on to specific indigenous populations (Inuit, Dene, and Sami), major health determinants and outcomes, and, finally, an integrative examination of what can be done to improve the health of circumpolar peoples. Health Transitions in Arctic Populations offers both an examination of key health issues in the north and a vision for the future of Arctic inhabitants.

The Arctic, long described as the world’s last frontier, is quickly becoming our first frontier—the front line in a world of more diffuse power, sharper geopolitical competition, and deepening interdependencies between people and nature. A space of often-bitter cold, the Arctic is the fastest-warming place on earth. It is humanity’s canary in the coal mine—an early warning sign of the world’s climate crisis. The Arctic “regime” has pioneered many innovative means of governance among often-contentious state and non-state actors. Instead of being the “last white dot on the map,” the Arctic is where the contours of our rapidly evolving world may first be glimpsed. In this book, scholars and practitioners—from Anchorage to Moscow, from Nuuk to Hong Kong—explore the huge political, legal, social, economic, geostrategic and environmental challenges confronting the Arctic regime, and what this means for the future of world order.

Introduction / Michael Bravo with Nicola Triscott -- Critical art and intervention in the technologies of the Arctic / Nicola Triscott -- Building autonomy through experiments in technology and skill / Michael Bravo -- Traveling through layers: Inuit artists appropriate new technologies / Katarina Soukup -- Trails and tales: multiple stories of human movement and modernity / David Turnbull -- Post-Cold War Arctic geopolitics: where are the people and the environment? / Lassi Heininen.

This is the Final Report of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its six-year investigation of the residential school system for Aboriginal youth and the legacy of these schools. This report, the summary volume, includes the history of residential schools, the legacy of that school system, and the full text of the Commission's 94 recommendations for action to address that legacy. This report lays bare a part of Canada's history that until recently was little-known to most non-Aboriginal Canadians. The Commission discusses the logic of the colonization of Canada's territories, and why and how policy and practice developed to end the existence of distinct societies of Aboriginal peoples. Using brief excerpts from the powerful testimony heard from Survivors, this report documents the residential school system which forced children into institutions where they were forbidden to speak their language, required to discard their clothing in favour of institutional wear, given inadequate food, housed in inferior and fire-prone buildings, required to work when they should have been studying, and subjected to emotional, psychological and often physical abuse. In this setting, cruel punishments were all too common, as was sexual abuse. More than 30,000 Survivors have been compensated financially by the Government of Canada for their experiences in residential schools, but the legacy of this experience is ongoing today. This report explains the links to high rates of Aboriginal children being taken from their families, abuse of drugs and alcohol, and high rates of suicide. The report documents the drastic decline in the presence of Aboriginal languages, even as Survivors and others work to maintain their distinctive cultures, traditions, and governance. The report offers 94 calls to action on the part of governments, churches, public institutions and non-Aboriginal Canadians as a path to meaningful reconciliation of Canada today with Aboriginal citizens. Even though the historical experience of residential schools constituted an act of cultural genocide by Canadian government authorities, the United Nation's declaration of the rights of aboriginal peoples and the specific recommendations of the Commission offer a path to move from apology for these events to true reconciliation that can be embraced by all Canadians.

For many years, concerns have been expressed about environmental issues in the Arctic. While the Arctic region, unlike Antarctica, has been inhabited for thousands of years, it is under unique threat because of its vulnerability toward resource exploitation and the deposition of various airborne pollutants. With its varied populations, and with eight Nations asserting territorial interests, the Arctic needs a careful approach to its protection and development. This report describes the current Arctic environmental legal regime. It also discusses the possibility of negotiating a sustainability treaty for the Arctic with high standards of environmental protection similar to those in the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. It is hoped that this review of the legal and policy contrasts between the Arctic and Antarctic can help in the consideration of future directions for the Arctic legal regime.