Reading group: ‘Arctic Dreams’ (Barry Lopez, 1986)

In this reading group session we will focus on the Epilogue from Arctic Dreams by the nature writer Barry Lopez, introduced by Sam Shaw (Lecturer in Art History), one of the founding members of Open Ecologies. Sam is currently making a short documentary film, Polar Bears of Perth, that examines the significance of the polar bear through an art history lens.

In the extract, Lopez describes and reflects on the experience of hunting and butchering walrus with Yup‘ik people in the ice near St Laurence Island in the Bering Sea. The reading touches on themes previously discussed at Open Ecologies, about multiple and/or competing ways of understanding the extraction of natural resources, and western and indigenous approaches to landscape debates. In addition, for those attending the Open Ecologies Cambridge gathering on 1 March, the theme of hunting (and questions about how hunting is represented) will be relevant to objects in the Polar Museum.

Please note: this reading includes mentions of blood. Published in 1986, it uses the outdated term ‘Eskimo’. Debates on hunting, landscapes, and indigeneity, too, have moved on since then; nevertheless, we hope this reading will provide thought-provoking starting points for discussion. A copy of the reading can be supplied to attendees and we hope you will feel free to attend whether or not you have the opportunity to read in advance.