PROJECT
Stories for the Arctic Refuge brought together 40 photographers, writers, filmmakers, and visual artists to participate in an international multimedia story-telling project in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The Refuge— a 19,286,722 acre wildlife reserve, who’s protected status has been contested heavily since the late 70s— has recently been opened for oil exploration and drilling under the Trump Administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The refuge is sacred First Nation’s land, as well as the traditional calving ground of the Porcupine Caribou Herd who migrate there each spring from Alaska, the Yukon and the North West Territories, to give birth to nearly 40,000 calves.
As an act of resistance, and in solidarity with the Gwich’in Council’s efforts to keep the oil industry out of the refuge, this project aims to educate through a variety of storytelling methods. Participants took part in one of five different expeditions to create works that tell stories about the about the interconnectedness of the caribou and other wildlife, the land and the people.
I joined a team of 9 others on the second expedition, “The Great Migration”. We began in Fairbanks, AK where we met the head of the Gwich’in Steering Committee. Then we took a plane to the Gwich’in community of Arctic Village and a bush plane into the Refuge. Finally we began a 10-day hiking trip in hopes of witnessing the caribou’s migration as they moved through the passes that separate their calving grounds on the North Slope, and the interior mountains.
Images from this project can be found at IG #arcticrefugestories
My contribution to the project can be found here
Tundra, in bloom.
Trails from years of the caribou’s migrations.