Stanislav Ksenofontov, IASC Fellow and member of IASC's Action Group on Indigenous Involvement, submitted the following report. If you are interested in representing IASC at upcoming meetings, please contact the IASC Secretariat.
Indigenous leaders from the Arctic states, as well as observer states and organizations to the Arctic Council, gathered in Rovaniemi, Finland on 13 to 15 November 2019 to discuss strategies, current issues, and the future of the Arctic. Themes of the summit spanned across the history of the summit, Arctic Indigenous languages and environmental change, coping in the changing Arctic as well as a dialogue between Arctic Indigenous Peoples and the Arctic Council Observers. Indigenous leaders and youth from Canada, Finland, Greenland, Norway, Russia, and the USA expressed their concern about climate change significantly affecting their environments and livelihoods, endangered Indigenous languages and the necessity to revitalize them, sustainable development in the context of extractive industries. During a dialogue between Indigenous Peoples and the Arctic Council Observers, both parties exchanged their strategies, activities and future plans. IASC has been an observer to the Arctic Council since 1998. One of the main strategies of IASC is to involve Indigenous Peoples in its activities. Thus, the IASC Action Group on Indigenous Involvement was suggested in 2017 and created in 2018 for that purpose. Currently, the Action Group is working on the development of recommendations to IASC which will be delivered in 2020.