UNSETTLED
STORIES
Communities contending with climate change, determined to protect their way of life
With climate change crashing against their shores, Inuit living in coastal communities of Nunatsiavut holding deep generational and culturally significant connections – to ancestors, land, water, ice, and all living things – now face impacts that have the potential to alter their culture, language, and way of life.
ABOUT OUR PROJECTFor generations, Inuit have resided in Nunatsiavut, the northern-most region of Labrador. Now contending with the impacts of climate change on their livelihoods, this animated short film portrays the respect to history and adaptive nature of their people through the lens of one of its members.
We’re interested in stories of resilience and shifting identities in the face of adversity — exploring how communities become stronger, together under the threat of shifting land, water and ice. If you are interested in sharing your story of resilience please contact us.
A global perspective…
From environmental impacts such as increased temperatures to rising oceans to severe storms and health risks from food security to poverty and displacement, climate change is increasingly impacting the world in which we live and the way we live in it. Communities everywhere are faced with – and often times suffer from – the direct and indirect effects of these changes. Whether you are one person or one people and whether or not you feel it yet, climate change touches everyone.
Coastal communities all over the world are facing what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calls a ‘coastal adaptation gap’. Worldwide, adaptation planning has been mostly reactionary and sidelines poor and marginalized communities in the circumpolar region and Global South. Alongside existing socio-economic issues, communities must simultaneously mitigate and adapt, prepare for extreme weather events, prevent biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, and shift to renewable natural resources. These trends indicate that with a changing climate, evidently, we too must change.
Inuk fisherman, Joey Angnatok, monitoring an ice station outside Nain, Labrador. UNSETTLED is an animated short film about protecting Labrador Inuit way of life in the face of climate change.
Kat Frick Miller 2023
Town of Nain, NL in March
Kat Frick Miller 2023
UNSETTLED shows how communities are contending with these effects but remain steadfast on building community resilience and preserving culture through self-determination. While the impacts of climate change leave people and communities vulnerable, adapting to change is no stranger for Inuit in the circumpolar North.
Like countless Indigenous communities around the world, Inuit have experienced extreme institutional harm by church and state. This film is created in respect to the history of their people and their strength – then and now – to keep moving forward.
…premised on a local, Inuit-led climate adaptation story
Canada is a country of coastlines—the longest on the planet—roughly three-quarters (72 per cent) of which border Inuit Nunangat. The magnitude of that shoreline is overshadowed only by the knowledge of its coastal peoples. This film amplifies the voices of those wearing the boots in boats in harbours, in waterways, and on ice roads, where climate change is happening fast and furiously.
Coastal erosion, permafrost melt, storm surge, sea-level rise and sea ice weakening—these are among the profound changes happening to the coastal communities of Nunatsiavut, situated on the Northwest Atlantic and Arctic oceans, and brought on by global climate change.
Inuit hold deep connections to land, ice, and water. Nature is what connects Inuit communities to one another, to sustenance, to culture, to history—and to a way of life. Alongside changes to the environment, changing plant and wildlife systems are altering the ways in which Inuit have interacted with the world around them for generations.
To address these unprecedented changes, Labrador Inuit are relying on their traditional knowledge, alongside conventional science, to stay anchored in the places they have lived for generations. This is a climate adaptation story built on self-determination and community resilience.
Children skating on Unity Bay, Nain, NL
Kat Frick Miller 2023
Inuk fisherman tackles climate change in Far North
The film shares the life story of Joey Angnatok, an Inuk fisherman and citizen scientist combining traditional knowledge and western science to understand and navigate through climate change in the Far North.
As seasonal sea ice forms later, breaks up earlier and grows thinner, and as ice-free summers become inevitable in the North, this film shows a way forward for coastal communities living on thin ice. UNSETTLED explores universal themes of resilience and shifting identities in the face of adversity — how communities become stronger together, in spite of shifting land, water and ice.
About the filmmakers
UNSETTLED continues the series by producers Kat Frick Miller and Jenn Thornhill Verma (LAST FISH, FIRST BOAT, 2021), now joined by producer Chaim Andersen (read more about the filmmakers). Funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, with production in 2022-23, and projected release in 2024, the filmmakers are currently undertaking background research; seeking ‘community resilience’ examples (contact us); and seeking financial and creative partners to produce the film in multiple languages (e.g., English, French, Inuktitut).
