Aksik is a Siberian Yupik term called out by captains to turn the boat quickly, as if to avoid danger or move in a new direction, by placing an oar against the bow and down in to the water and pulling back using the gunnel as a fulcrum point. Aksik is also an Inupiat term meaning “do not touch.”
We believe humanity must aksik away from climate change quickly and aksik, or do not disturb, traditional subsistence cultures in these efforts. AKSIK is also an acronym for Alaskans Sharing Indigenous Knowledge.
AKSIK is a multi-year scientific and advocacy project to create an online library of videos that:
- Document what native people in the Bering Sea area of Alaska are witnessing with climate change;
- Communicate their adaptation needs via the internet.
We work with two communities in the Bering Strait:
- Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island; and
- Shaktoolik on the Norton Sound.
Image credit:
Photo courtesy of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder (right).
