FILMMAKER Adam Sébire saw firsthand the effects of global warming when he spent two months in a remote Inuit settlement on a mountainous island in Greenland.

Previously off-limits to outsiders, Sébire was granted access to the small community of 1000 indigenous Inuits on Uummannaq in winter, when the ocean turns to solid sea ice. Except, it didn’t.

Sébire says the lack of solid ice impacted all aspects of settlement life from finding food to travelling.

• Sometimes the ice isn’t thick enough in winter for the Inuit people to travel by sledge

“Some older Inuit told me how as students they would dog sledge home on solid ice to surrounding settlements for Christmas,” he says.

“Nowadays the children must go by boat or if it’s just a mess of fragmented floes on the fjord, by helicopter. 

“This also makes subsistence living very difficult – the ice in midwinter (December to February) is too thick for hunters’ boats but too thin for their sledge dogs, which are another tradition that’s disappearing. It’s not viable to feed them when they might only get a usable couple of months on the ice.”

Sébire says the remote community are now having to import processed food because they can no longer hunt and eat narwhals, a vital source of vitamin C.

• Uncle Nigel has a deep understanding of fire lore in the Tanami Desert.

“There are other problems, like safety on thin ice, alcoholism among people are unable to undertake their cultural traditions related to ice, and shocking rates of youth suicide,” Sébire says.

“I even saw humpback whales around the island; normally they go to the West Indies to mate in winter but lack of sea ice perhaps confused them in 2022.”

The Australian-born Sébire spent two months on Uummannaq during the “polar winter” – when there is virtually no sunlight – filming footage for his immersive audio-visual work Sikujumaataarpoq.

But the temperature never dropped enough for the ice to stabilise and be safe to walk on, so he started using his drone to film stunning arial shots of icebergs floating by.

“The locals are very wary of icebergs, which are increasing as glacial melt rises, and which sometimes capsize and create tsunamis,” says the award-winning filmmaker who works in the Norwegian Arctic.

“But one stunning, translucent berg in particular I fell in love with, and was very sad when it got swept out of the fjord to its death.”

Sikujumaataarpoq is just one of 12 visual works in the exhibition Polarity: Fire & Ice, which examines the affects of climate change around the world.

At the other end of the spectrum is the summer bushfires that have plagued Australia in recent years.

Filmmaker Tim Georgeson travelled deep into the Tanami Desert with the Karrinyarra people to create his film Chanamee, Never Die, exploring their fire lore and traditions.

He says First Nations people should be consulted on major ecological decisions as their fire practices are the “beacon of global sustainability” and they possess crucial knowledge about the environment.

“It was an incredibly powerful experience to be on country with Uncle Nigel and Terrence,” Georgeson says.

“I have been on a fire journey over the last four years around Australia filming and recording how different Indigenous communities practice Fire culture. 

“I recorded Nigel and Terrence in their Luritja voice talking about the importance of fire, what they were taught and how they continue to practice and teach awareness. 

“It’s crucial for all of our ecological survival, says Terrence and how important it is to preserve and continue fire lore, especially as our planet heats up.”

Polarity: Fire & Ice is at the Fremantle Arts Centre from February 10 to April 28. 

by STEPHEN POLLOCK