Food security in a time of huge change

Believe it or not, I did not come to Barrow this time to do a photo shoot - but of course I shoot photos wherever I go and whatever I do, even if only on my iPhone. I came to do research. Today, I have been doing research at the Iñupiat Heritage Center where, it happens, a food security meeting is being held, sponsored by the Inuit Circumpolar Council - Alaska. Participants invited me to listen in and join them for lunch - bowhead whale maktak, dried bearded seal soaked in seal oil and caribou soup - the very food the people here seek to keep secure. The challenges are great, due to climate change, offshore oil development, and a big increase in shipping in the Arctic Ocean - Tagiuq in Iñupiaq, with a dot over the "g," - as the Northwest Passage becomes ever more navigable in summer. 

On this map, Barrow is Utkiagvik, also with a dot over the g - the place to hunt snowy owls.

Barrow elder Wesley Aiken blessed the food. William Leavitt of Barrow and Caroline Cannon of Point Hope stand alongside him.

Text added at 3:48 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues - day 54 and counting.