How Arctic indigenous peoples observe changes in climate and biodiversity ?

Climate change has been observed by Arctic peoples including by the Evenki and Even reindeer herders of Siberia for several decades. They are frontline witnesses of the profound effects that global and climate changes have on the environment and they want their knowledge and observations to be heard. Climate change has reached a crescendo in Siberia from 2005, as observed by both climatologists and nomads. Evenki Ecological Knowledge, just like the Western sciences, questions existing knowledge, performs experiments, produces new knowledge, takes measurements, and uses specialised terminologies shared by only part of the community. The Evenki use their indigenous knowledge system to analyse the environment, norms and anomalies; they use their “typologies” of landscape, climate and vegetal cover.

This special lesson will be conducted by 2 experts:

Alexandra Lavrillier

Alexandra Lavrillier is Associate Professor in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the CEARC (Cultures, Environments, Arctic, Representations, Climate) of University of Paris-Saclay (UVSQ). Fluent in Evenki, she performed around 9 years of fieldwork. Her research interests cover comparative studies of nomadism, hunting, reindeer herding, landscape management, representations of the natural environment, shamanism, lifestyles and adaptations brought by postsocialism, the market economy and climate change among Evenki, Even and Yakut. She has published on ritual, the uses of space and landscape, childhood, ethnolinguistics, ecological knowledge system and environmental changes. She led scientific projects like BRISK, PARCS, POLATIS. Alexandra.lavrillier@uvsq.fr

Semen Gabyshev

Semen Gabyshev is a Evenki reindeer herder and hunter with 28 years of experience in the Amur region and Yakutia (Russia). A native bearer of the Evenki TEK and language, since 2012–2013 he has been an associate member of CEARC and an indigenous co-researcher in scientific projects (BRISK, POLARIS, PARCS, MI CNRS “Changements en Sibérie”, BRISK’s OBS ENV). He is the co-author of scientific book and papers.
Bulchut.metakar@yandex.com