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Marti Mueller is Chair of the International Advisory Council of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN). She works with UNESCO and the United Nations on programmes to empower indigenous people; [email protected].
Note: We preserve the spelling of our Commonwealth authors.
Frozen tundra. Birds caught in the immensity of huge skies. Lakes locked with ice and laced with birch and cedar. Black dots of moving reindeer on a sea of snow. A land where animals nudge you, carry tree branches on their heads. A place where raging rivers freeze and snow falls in countless ways and blankets endless stretches of lonely Earth.
I button my parka and wait on a road where cars come by from time to time with long stretches of white in between. The Arctic Circle is freezing cold. Desolate winds blow over fields of white. Yet the skies are some of the most beautiful in the world. Pastel blues. Deep reds and greens. This is the land of the northern lights. Of solar winds and earthly magnetic fields. Of electrons gone crazy as they collide with flying particles to create a celestial tempest of rainbow hues. The ancients say that a fire fox sweeps its tail across the snow leaving trails of swirling light--the Aurora Borealis.
Not so long ago the Sami, or Laplanders, still herded their reindeer on wooden sleds and moved about the Arctic freely. Like the Inuit, the Sami sang the songs that they say guarded their souls on long winter's nights and made the Earth feel good. Clad in skins and furs, with silver-white feathers and long bands of berry-coloured cloth,...