Healthy Humans and Oceans - UArctic Congress, Faroe Islands May 2026 Highlights

Authored by DI Community Scholar Carol Devine.

In May 2026, in my capacity as Chief Operating Officer of SeeChange Initiative and a Community Scholar at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, I participated in the UArctic 'Healthy Humans and Oceans' Congress in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands. I co-organized and moderated roundtable session at the congress - the largest international conference ever held in the Faroe Islands, bringing together nearly 1,400 researchers, policymakers, Indigenous leaders, students and community members from 40 countries.

Our session, titled "Intergenerational Healing, Inuit Leadership and Partnership in Addressing Health Crises in Nunavut" (Indigenous Peoples and Northern Communities track), took place on May 26, 2026. Naomi Tatty, SeeChange's Intercultural Health Lead, and I opened the session with a welcome in Inuktitut and English. Presentations covered intergenerational Inuit healing and TB sanatoria history, lateral violence among Inuit women, Inuit men's sexual health access and education, and the Hamilton TB Sanatorium history and arts-based education.

A final presentation was Dr. Sumeet Sodhi's reflections, she is SeeChange's Medical Advisor, Nunavut programs, a family physician and clinical scientist. Sumeet particularly focussing on the Arctic, drawing from the scoping review on TB, One Health and climate change in the Arctic, she and I co-authored also with Naomi and colleagues from DIGHR and University of Toronto. Following the scoping review, this presentation examined climate change as an accelerant of TB vulnerability in the Arctic, particularly Inuit Nunangat, building on the 2025 WHO framework on TB and climate change by integrating a fourth essential dimension: the enduring impacts of colonial legacies and structural inequities. The sessions generated significant interest and discussion among circumpolar health researchers and practitioners.

The opening keynote by Sara Olsvig, Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, grounded these themes in Inuit relationships with the ocean and Arctic stewardship. In her words: "As a marine People, Inuit see the oceans as part of our homeland. We are intrinsically tied with the oceans... Like in our responsibility towards Sassuma Arnaa" -  the Mother of the Sea in Inuit cosmology - "the Arctic Council requires of us a balanced approach, a deliberate willingness."

The congress itself provided an important platform for health and climate research at the intersection of Indigenous knowledge and Arctic science. Key themes included co-production of knowledge between Indigenous and Western science, the health impacts of changing traditional food systems, toxic contaminants in country foods, climate-forced confinement in overcrowded housing, and the mental health consequences of land and ice loss, all directly relevant to SeeChange and Dahdaleh's shared research agenda on Planetary Health and Humanitarianism and with a focus on Inuit health and climate change, informed by community-led solutions.

Our session was well received: we heard positive feedback from attendees and fellow circumpolar researchers throughout the congress, including, memorably, in a Tórshavn grocery store!

I made great new connections with researchers, Indigenous health leaders and Arctic governance practitioners from across Canada, Sápmi, Greenland and beyond that will inform ongoing research.

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