Soleica representatives have just come back to Montreal from the 5th Arctic Leaders Summit (ALS) – a Forum of Arctic Indigenous Peoples’ organizations (Permanent Participants) working jointly on the international arena as active members and associates of the Arctic Council.
This year, ALS was held and hosted by RAIPON (Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North). It started on Wednesday, 14 April in the conference hall of Cosmos Hotel, in Moscow, Russia.
The official organizers represented by Aleut International Association, Arctic Athabaskan Council, Gwich’in Council International, Inuit Circumpolar Council, RAION, and Saami Council got together with politicians, diplomats, and officials of the Arctic states, the UN, and EU in order to discuss the most acute and topical issues concerning aboriginal peoples in the Northern regions.
The leading theme of the 5th Arctic Leaders Summit was "Industrial development of the Arctic under climate change - new challenges for indigenous peoples." During the plenary sessions, the participants discussed the common issues, concerns, and new challenges in the Arctic regions related to indigenous peoples. Our company took an active role in discussion such issues, especially in the questions concerning the innovative tecnologies for people living in the Noth.
Soleica has twelve years of experience in providing IT technologies and communication solutions to aboriginal peoples of Canadian north. This substantial practice and expertise became a great asset to the company during the Summit. Soleica representatives made a successful and contributive presentation on the topic of “IT solutions for aboriginal peoples of the Canadian North” during the 1st day of the Summit. We have offered a new and deep insight into modern and innovative IT solutions that can be applied and used by people living in the tough winter conditions.
It turned out that lots of the projects Soleica realized for Nunavik and James Bay are interesting and needed for the indigenous peoples living in Russian northern territories. Because the Canadian and Russian North have very similar weather conditions (which create similar challenges for aboriginal people) the representatives of the Republic Saha (Yakytia), Taimir, Yamalo-Nenetski okrug, and Chykotka invited Antoine Monnier, the manager of Soleica, to visit their regions this summer for discussing how Soleica’s IT experiences can be applied to their regions.
It was also a great pleasure for Soleica to meet with Shhykin Gennady (the president of the “Union Regional Development of Indigenous Peoples of Taimyr” – “Labikta”), Omripkin Alexandr (the president of RAIPON in Chukotka), the representatives of the evenki group, and the Russian representatives of ICC in Chykotka, with whom Soleica plan to work on future IT projects.
The Summit was closed with a celebration of the 20th anniversary of RAIPON. The day was marked with various concerts, shows and special events dedicated to the occasion. In addition, the opening of the EXPO "Treasure of the North" was linked to the last day of the Summit and its closing ceremony.
During the EXPO exhibition, a number of educational conferences, practical workshops, and round tables were organized for the benefit of all participants. Soleica took part in two round table discussions and made two presentations. The first round table discussion was dedicated to the issue of “Innovative technologies for nomadic schools”, and our presentation was linked to the subject of IT solutions for distance education (“Soleica. IT solutions for distance education”). The second round table discussion dealt with “Tourism and media for aboriginal people of the North” and the presentation we made was on media solutions for indigenous people of the North (“Soleica. Media solutions for indigenous people of the North.”)
All of the above mentioned conferences, discussions, and workshops were very educational, interesting, mind-broadening, and highly contributive into our present and future work, development, and expansion into the Russian northern region.
History of the Arctic Leaders Summit