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Program Mission and Overview
The Arctic Circumpolar Route has as its long term purpose to identify, develop and present Arctic community projects by means of electronic communication, in order to demonstrate and reinforce circumpolar commonalities and history, from an international and intercultural perspective. It fosters capacity building; and stimulates community participation, expanded scholarship and better policies and practices in the North.
The Arctic Circumpolar Route (ACR), involving the heritage of peoples in Russia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark (Greenland), Finland, Iceland and the USA (Alaska), was recognized by UNESCO in 1999. The ACR is sponsored by UNESCO and the Arctic Institute of North America, and joins UNESCO’s Silk and Spice Route, the Slave Route, and others, to illustrate conceptual pathways by which information travels and cultures interact. Her Excellency, the Governor General of Canada, is Patron of the ACR. The ACR is a Full Observer at the Arctic Council.
ACR partners are autonomous, community-based projects in the eight Arctic countries. Participants, related by electronic media and presenting information they choose to share, are the circumpolar “route”- a network of community-led initiatives. The ACR adopts and supports significant cultural heritage projects which have been launched by communities, and therefore directly reflect their values and priorities. Some partner projects are also conducted in partnership with institutions in the “south”. Linked together by the Internet, they create wider awareness and to disseminate information about Arctic peoples, their traditions and priorities, from their own perspectives and in their own words. The ACR website (www.circumpolarRoute.org) is increasingly interactive, and aims to be multilingual.
The ACR’s mission is to connect and benefit Arctic peoples and to collect and conserve their stories. The goal of the ACR is to facilitate information development and exchange in all media, to reinforce interrelationships among peoples of the Arctic and with the global community.
Contact Mary Stapleton at mary_stapleton [at] circumpolarRoute [dot] org, or by telephone at +1.403-931-2453, or by fax at +1.403-931-2454.
| Canada: University of Calgary 2500 University Drive N.W. Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4 Telephone: (403) 220-7515 Fax: (403) 282-4609 |
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USA: University of Alaska P.O. Box 6808 Rasmuson Library Fairbanks, Alaska USA 99775-6808 Telephone: (907) 474-7450 Fax: (907) 474-7290 |
