BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Life on the edge: language and story telling in a cold place - Ste
 phen Pax Leonard
DTSTART:20150314T193000Z
DTEND:20150314T210000Z
UID:TALK57585@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Naomi
DESCRIPTION:In 2010\, Leonard set off on a journey to document the languag
 e and spoken traditions of a small group of Inuit living in a remote corne
 r of north-west Greenland. This group call themselves the Inugguit (the 
 ‘big people’) and they speak an exceedingly complex language understoo
 d by few outsiders. The Inugguit number 700 and live in the northern most 
 permanently inhabited place in the world\, occupying four different settle
 ments scattered across an area the size of Germany. Leonard lived with the
  Inugguit for 12 months\, learning their language and living their way of 
 life\, not leaving the region at any point. As a teenager\, Leonard had re
 ad about the Inugguit through the accounts of the explorer\, Sir Wally Her
 bert who lived in the region in the early 1970s and who had been a motivat
 ion for his journey.\n\n \nTravelling with hunters out on the Arctic sea i
 ce\, he followed in Herbert’s footsteps and discovered another world ent
 irely\, a way of life more or less unchanged for a thousand years. Living 
 such a simple life in a pre-industrial society at the top of the world\, L
 eonard came to understand the Inugguit’s privileged take on the busy\, o
 verpopulated world that lies beneath them. Back in the settlements\, tradi
 tional life was juxtaposed with a modern\, consumerist lifestyle that has 
 now made it to every corner of the planet. Some of the Inugguit may live i
 n tiny\, wind-beaten wooden cabins with no running water\, but Amazon deli
 vers. \n\n \nThis lecture is a story of a year spent documenting the langu
 age and stories of a small group of Arctic hunters whose ancient way of li
 fe is now in sharp transition. Affected directly by climate change\, their
  quiet corner of the planet is melting. Their white\, Arctic universe is a
 bout to become the epicenter of a geo-political battle over the remaining 
 finite resources left on Earth\, a place where polar bear fur clad Arctic 
 hunters and their dog teams meet precious metal prospectors with satellite
  based spectroscopes and hundreds of millions of dollars to spend.
LOCATION:SPRI Lecture Theatre\, Lensfield Road
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR