Within Inuit cosmologies and epistemologies, uncertainty, unpredictability, and change are foundational. The world is understood to be ambiguous and to elude full comprehension and thus change is both expected and accepted. However, not changed by man. The term ‘climate change’ in Inuktut is ‘silaup asijjiqpallianinga,’ and it directly translates to “Sila being made to change.”
Sedna warns of the effects of climate change on the ecology of the Arctic are inextricably entwined with the lives of those who have lived on the land for thousands of years. For centuries, Inuit have maintained a close relationship with ice (siku), land (nuna), sky (qilak), and wildlife (uumajut). We have cared, respected and honoured all life.
Sedna warns “we are on thin ice”.
