AT THE EDGE OF THE EARTH
Polar bears, caribou and whales. Alaska’s indigenous tribes are fiercely proud of their pristine land but with Trump pushing to open up its largest protected wilderness for oil exploration, could it be under threat?
In the dying weeks of summer, the indigenous Alaskan Gwich’in people do what they’ve done for millennia. Hunt the caribou, so they can feed their people over the coming winter.
“Our ancestors lived and survived off these animals, off this land, for thousands of years”, says Gwich’in elder Sarah, as she dries the caribou meat in the smokehouse.
Now the Gwich’in tribe fears a new proposal to drill for oil in Alaska’s north could endanger their fragile land and traditions.
As Alaska’s most productive oil field runs low, the Trump administration is pushing ahead with a plan to explore for new supplies in the country’s largest protected wilderness – the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve.
The Gwich’in people worry it could disrupt the caribous’ calving grounds and are fighting to kill the proposal.
Hundreds of kilometers north, some members of the Inupiat tribe, which owns part of the land where the drilling is planned, have voted to support the plan.
“The community are for the oil companies so we can get more, better things”, says Marie, an Inupiat elder.
Alaska is dependent on oil. It provides up to 90% of its revenue, and around one third of its jobs. The Inupiat hope the revenue from new oil fields will help support their remote communities.
In her last major trip as US correspondent and eight months in the making, Zoe Daniel travels to the remote, northern edges of Alaska to see this stunning landscape and meet its remarkable people.
She joins young Gwich’in on a hunt, tastes smoked caribou and whale meat, and flies in to visit the remote wilderness where oil exploration may soon begin.
As these two communities face a difficult debate over drilling, both are aware of the environmental risks. As climate change melts the Arctic ice sheets, polar bears are roaming closer to their villages on the hunt for food.
One young Gwich’in leader is determined to fight to protect what they have.
“I see a lot of people that never usually work together unite. And I have to hold on to that hope.”
Watch At the Edge of the Earth on Foreign Correspondent on ABC TV at 8pm Tuesday 22nd October and Friday 25th October 1.30pm, and on ABC News Channel on Wednesday 23rd October at 5.30am, Saturday 26 at 9.30pm and Sunday 27th October at 5.30pm and iview.
Foreign Correspondent: Tuesday 22nd October 2019 on ABC
