The Royal Norwegian Embassy and the University of Alaska Fairbanks host the Helge Ingstad Memorial Symposium on Arctic Change, to be held at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus on September 8 – 9, 2006.
When Helge Ingstad left Northern Alaska in 1950, after having spent the winter with the Inupiaq Nunamiut Eskimos, a caribou hunting group residing in Anaktuvuk Pass, he brought with him a wealth of information that would prove valuable both to the outside world and to the culture in which it was recorded. Ingstad was one of the first Westerners to visit the region. He learned their language and participated in their caribou hunts and fishing expeditions. With him back to Norway, Ingstad brought facinating information about this at the little known people in Arctic Alaska; recordings of their legends, their songs, film footage, and the outline of a new book - “Nunamiut – Among Alaska’s Inland Eskimos”, first published in 1954.
Upon Ingstad’s departure from the area, the Nunamiut people named a summit in the Brooks Range after the Norwegian explorer as a sign of their appreciation of his friendship. It would, however, be another 56 years before the mountain could officially take Ingstad’s name and become a landmark on the federal US map. On April 17, 2006, the US Board on Geographic Names unanimously approved the petition to name the 4,880 ft (1487 meter) tall summit in the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve within the Endicott Mountains of the Brooks Range after Helge Ingstad.
Gerd Vold Hurum was until her death pivotal to the process of Ingstad Mountain officially acquiring the name it had been given decades before. In the 1970s, it was the Norwegian World War II partisan, Hurum, who had located Ingstad Creek on Canadian maps, a river that had been named after Ingstad during his time as a trapper in Barren Lands in 1926-1930. US Law, however, prohibits landmarks from being named after living persons, and commemorative names require the individual to be deceased for at least 5 years. Helge Ingstad passed away on March 29, 2001.
On September 10, 2006, the Nunamiut people of Anaktuvuk Pass will celebrate ‘Ingstad Mountain’ with a naming ceremony and traditional Eskimo feast. To commemorate the famous author and explorer, the Royal Norwegian Embassy and the University of Alaska Fairbanks will co-host the Helge Ingstad Memorial Symposium on Arctic Change at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus on September 8-9, 2006.
The Symposium will explore evidence of a changing Arctic and seeks to highlight the impact of such challenges and opportunities on the human dimension in the Circumpolar North. Over the course of the two-day symposium, Norwegian and American scientists and scholars will join forces in an effort to explore and further strengthen the transatlantic ties on Arctic research.
Robert Sørlie, the Norwegian musher and 2-time Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race champion will participate at in the celebrations of Helge Ingstad in Alaska. Sørlie was inspired by his childhood hero Ingstad. Having read Ingstad’s book about his experiences in the North American wilderness, Sørlie dreamed about an opportunity to experience it himself. Robert Sørlie was 9 years old when he borrowed his first dog from Helge Ingstad, a Siberian Husky that descended from a litter that Ingstad had received as a gift from the legendary musher Leonard Seppala, who became a national hero after his central part in the original serum run to stop the outbreak of a diphtheria epidemic in Nome, Alaska, in 1925. Sørlie credits Ingstad for introducing him to the sport. “When I was 11, I bought my first dog, Storm, a Siberian Husky, from Helge Ingstad. From that point until this day, dog-sledding has been my passion”. He claims that Ingstad has been a great influence to the establishment of the sled dog racing community in Norway.
It was Leonard Seppala, who left his native Norway to seek his fortune in the Alaska Gold Rush in 1900, who introduced the Siberian Husky to the sport of dog-sledding. Seppala received his first dogs when Roald Amundsen chose not to use them for one of his expeditions. At the most, Seppala ran 15 kennels, a tradition that he passed on to Helge Ingstad, and through him to his family. In 1958, he gave Ingstad the first dog he imported to Norway, a Siberian Husky that would form the pedigree of the Ingstad family’s still active kennel.
An exhibition of Ingstad’s photographs from his time with the Nunamiut people, curated by his grand-son Eirik Ingstad Sandberg, will be presented at the symposium and mountain naming ceremony. Selected items from the Seppala-, Amundsen-, and Nunamiut-collection at the Museum of the North will be on display at the opening reception at the Museum on Friday September 8, 2006.
The Helge Ingstad Memorial Symposium on Arctic Change will conclude with a free concert with the internationally acclaimed Eskimo/Inuit band PAMYA, hosted by the Norwegian Embassy at the Charles Davis Concert Hall, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Saturday September 9, 2006, at 8 p.m. The concert will feature Norwegian composer and musician Sigvald Tveit, and Sámi joiker Magne Ove Varsi from Kautokeino, Norway.
A special commemorative edition of “Nunamiut – Among Alaska’s Inland Eskimos” (ISBN-10: 0-88150-761-X, ISBN-13: 978-0-88150-761-4) will re-published United States in September 2006, by The Countryman Press, W.W. Norton & Co, to coincide with the naming of the Ingstad Mountain.
For further information, contact Trude L. Paulsson, Cultural Affairs Officer, tel. (+1) 202-944-8925, cell: 202-468-8857, e-mail: tpa@mfa.no, or Erling Rimestad, Minister Counselor, tel. (+1) 202-333-6000, at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The Helge Ingstad Memorial Symposium on Arctic Change is a free event and open to the public, but pre-registration is required through the following web site www.uaf.edu/ingstad. Invitations to the naming ceremony in Anaktuvuk Pass are limited, and interested parties can contact Ms. Gruo Wiik at the Royal Norwegian Embassy at GIW@mfa.no, telephone (+1) 202-944-8988 for further information about reservations and discounted airfares
WHEN: September 8-10, 2006
WHERE: University of Alaska Fairbanks/Anaktuvuk Pass