Whaling boat on the ocean among floating ice.

The Citi exhibition

Arctic
culture and climate

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The films below explore various aspects of life in the Arctic, from collecting and preparing food, to herding reindeer and dealing with the changing environment. They are shown here in the order that they appear in the exhibition. 

1. Summer greens in Chukotka, Russian Far East, 2015 and 2017

© Igor Pasternak and Sveta Yamin-Pasternak for their research project 'Aging with Change: Food Arts in the Bering Strait'.

This film shows Rhodiola rosea being harvested to make Arctic sauerkraut, Rumex arcticus being mashed to make a savoury condiment and a family sharing a meal. 

Duration: 1 minute, 10 seconds 

2. Inupiat food values, 2017

© Sarah Betcher of Farthest North Films for a research project 'Birnirk prehistory and the emergence of Inupiaq Culture in Northwestern Alaska, archaeological and anthropological perspectives'.

In this film, Felicia AukaDee Nayokpuk of Shishmaref, Alaska, prepares seal meat and oil.

Duration: 1 minute, 10 seconds

3. Nenets reindeer herding in the Yamal Peninsula, 2015

© Research film by Dmitry Arzyutov.

This film shows herders as they instruct and herd reindeer.

Duration: 1 minute, 10 seconds

4. Nenets herder Anisii Okotteto driving reindeer sled, 2018

© Robert Losey, Tatiana Nomokonova and Dmitry Arzyutov for their anthropological and archaeological research project in the Yamal Peninsula.

In this film, Anisii drives his sled, pulled by reindeer, across the snow.

Duration: 1 minute 

5. Inupiat Elder Delano Barr talks about climate change in Shishmaref, Alaska, 2019

© Sarah Betcher of Farthest North Films for a British Museum curatorial research project 'Climate change and its impacts on the material lives of Inupiat in Northwest Alaska'.

Here, Delano Barr talks about the impact of climate change on seasonal hunting and food gathering.

Duration: 2 minutes

6. Packing babies, 2019

© Nancy Wachowich and Amber Lincoln for the British Museum curatorial research project 'Material weather strategies: an analytical framework for circumpolar collections'.

In this film, Georgina Pewatoaluk, Sheila Katsak and Skylar Katsak demonstrate how babies and toddlers are placed in, and removed from, amautis. An amauti is a parka with a baby carrier built into the hood.

Duration: 2 minutes

7. Seamstress knowledge in Mittimatalik, Nunavut, Canada, 2015–16

© Produced by Sheila Katsak and Nancy Wachowich; camera by Sheila Katsak, Nancy Wachowich and Gro Ween; edited by Melisa Costinea.

Since 2015, women in the Canadian Inuit community of Mittimatalik, Nunavut, have been working to document on film sealskin processing and sewing techniques. This film shows them at work.

Duration: 2 minutes, 15 seconds 

8. Piita Irniq making this 'Inuksuk', 2019

Here, Piita Irniq talks about Inuksuk and describes the making of an Inuksuk displayed in the exhibition.

Duration: 2 minutes, 45 seconds 

The British Museum is thankful to the High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom and to Gallagher Group Ltd (quarry) for their support of this project.

This film shows the making of the parkas displayed in the final section of the exhibition.

Atigiit, Silapaat, 2019–20

© Embassy of Imagination.

The parkas you can see at the end of the exhibition were made as part of a collaborative and inter-generational project between young artists and knowledge-keepers from Kinngait, Pangnirtung, Toronto and Winnipeg, Canada. They sewed printed, thin paper into silapaas silapaat, thin outer parkas. Each one has a different design.

The film shows the many stages of the project, and all of the people involved.

Duration: 3 minutes, 51 seconds

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