To mark the Arctic Council’s 30th anniversary, we conducted a series of interviews with the people who helped build the Arctic Council, shape its work and carry it through some of its most challenging moments.
In this interview, we sat down with Gunn-Britt Retter, Head of the Arctic and Environment Unit of the Saami Council, and a long-standing Arctic Council delegate that has been involved since the early 2000s.
Gunn-Britt speaks about the Arctic Council’s journey from seeking global attention to managing it, key turning points in its history and the importance of maintaining strong relationships for the Council’s future.
Gunn-Britt Retter: I attended Arctic Council meetings in 2001-2003 where there were many discussions about how to get more attention on Arctic issues. There were so many people who were enthusiastic about the Arctic. But how do we get the rest of the world to hear and listen?
Then in 2004, the Arctic Council published the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, which I think was quite a game changer and turning point because the joint assessment led by CAFF and AMAP Working Groups really got the message out. And a whole lot of attention was turned towards the Arctic Council and the Arctic with the rapidly changing climate. The Arctic Council started to receive a lot of Observer applications from different States and organizations who wanted to be part of the game, where it was cool. So, then we got into a mode where we had to start talking – how do we manage all this attention?
Another turning point was that in the early years, Arctic Council Senior Arctic Official and Ministerial meetings would take place in small Arctic communities. But since the Council was growing and with more Observers being accepted, from about 2015 and onwards, we have been to so many hockey rinks and ski resorts because it's very hard to host ordinary Arctic Council meetings with so many people in very small Arctic communities.
There have been many changes, but in short, I think the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment was a turning point from how do we get attention, to how do we manage this attention on the Arctic?
Gunn-Britt Retter: I think that the milestone is the foundation of Arctic Council. The structure of Arctic Council in itself is quite an achievement. That Indigenous Peoples’ organizations have the status of Permanent Participants and sit at the same table as the States and the foreign ministers of these countries. It's a unique structure – there’s no other category in international cooperation on that level.
There’s a small memory that I often tell, which I think demonstrates the uniqueness of the Arctic Council. The Arctic Council Rules of Procedure says specifically that Permanent Participants are not part of the consensus decision making – it's a consensus among the Arctic States. But in practice, that is not true.
During the 2013-2015 Canadian Chairmanship, we had met in person in Ottawa to negotiate the declaration, and there was an email exchange afterwards where somebody proposed a change in the language. Saami Council was not happy with that proposed change, so, we responded by email that we didn’t like the new text and preferred the agreement that we had before. Then the conversation in the email went on and we didn't pay full attention. But the Canadian Chair actually reached out to Saami Council in the late evening, 10:30 p.m. the Tuesday before the Ministerial meeting, and said, “it's only Saami Council now holding back the consensus. Can you let us know if you can live with his proposed text”, which was a negotiated text between the two options. So, in his mind, and in my mind after that call, we were part of the consensus – even though it's not the rule on the paper. But that little act of the Chair actually demonstrates that we are perceived as having a much stronger status than we have on paper.
Gunn-Britt Retter: After that, I was saying that this meeting will be significant either because it's the last one ever in the Arctic Council, or the first one in the next phase.
I'm happy to say it was the first one in the in the next phase. And that was unique because there was a strategic pause with no political or Senior Arctic Official level or any meetings as such. But Saami Council was able to host that meeting that the Norwegian Chairship wanted to have with the Permanent Participants.
All the six Permanent Participants were able to travel and meet up in Girkonjárga-Kirkenes in Norway to meet with the Chairship. We were very happy to see each other because I think in-person meetings are so valuable. We can only do so much online. To actually laugh together, to eat together, to go for a little stroll together – it's so much different than just sitting online to meet.
Gunn-Britt Retter: For Saami Council, it's definitely still important because it’s a place where we can talk with the Arctic States about what’s important for us – a productive, healthy and protected environment. This is core to our culture and our lives. And that is why the Arctic Council is still important for us. Also, because we as Indigenous Peoples have such a strong seat at the table. And I think we have demonstrated through these recent years and beyond that we contribute constructively at the table. It’s very clear from Saami Council’s position that we value the Arctic cooperation very strongly.
Gunn-Britt Retter: It definitely means friendships. There are people in the Arctic Council family that I have learned to know 25 years ago, and we still meet here. So, it's long-term friendship.
It's also an opportunity to understand my own culture from different perspectives as I visit other places and learn from other people. Meeting with other Indigenous Peoples in fora like the Arctic Council has given me terminology to address the unspoken in Saami culture. We aren’t always trained to speak about spirits or traditional knowledge. So, I have learned a lot of terminology on how to address core issues in Sámi culture.
I have learned – or maybe that was by nature – to be diplomatic and speak with state representatives to convey our messages to people who are very different than us and come from different cultures.
Gunn-Britt Retter: I hope the States can talk to each other, and that we all have equal mutual respect for each other's values and knowledge systems. I hope we utilize the best available knowledge, both science and Indigenous Knowledge, to make the best decisions or recommendations for protecting the foundation for our cultures in the Arctic.
One of my concerns for the future is that now we have had quite a long period where there haven’t been normal meetings. And what we also see is a lot of the Arctic ambassadors and delegates are shifting as they usually do, but very few of them who are at the table now have actually been to normal Senior Arctic Official meetings. So now when we get together, it's so important to share stories and talk about how it used to be, because part of the vulnerable situation as Permanent Participants is if nobody remembers the habits we had made in the Arctic Council such as how we are an informal part of the consensus making.
The geopolitical situation will always shift and swing. So I hope and 30 years from now we are up from this current valley and that cooperation thrives and people are happy.