On April 27th, Planet Positive invited Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq, an Eskimo-Kalaallit Elder, to deliver the Melting the Ice in the Heart of Man ceremony to raise awareness on climate change to the pupils and parents at Crampton Primary School. The children, aged 7-11, took part in the ceremony which involved encircling Angaangaq while he performed his ceremony by chanting, drumming and talking about the climate change impacts to his homeland, Greenland. The moving ceremony touched many of the students, faculty and parents.
Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq led the children out to the playground to encircle him while he burned logs to ‘create smoke’ as a part of his spiritual tradition. This is a means of powerful cleansing in his tradition, which uses the planet spirit to take away what does not belong to us and restore balance. He also chanted to them with his drum.
As a part of their ‘Act’ pledge, Crampton Primary School hosted the spiritual ceremony, which was conducted by Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq, an Eskimo-Kalaallit Elder whose family belongs to the traditional healers of the Far North from Kalaallit Nunaat in Greenland. The ceremony integrates the wisdom of traditional Inuit teachings with the healing traditions of the Eskimo-Kalaallit people to raise awareness on climate change. Angaangaq describes his ancestors’ experience of witnessing the melting of the glaciers in Greenland, that ‘water was trickling out of the Big Ice at the Big Wall’.
In most parts of the world, the retreat of glaciers has been dramatic, including Greenland’s massive ice sheet. Between 1961 and 1997, the world’s glaciers lost 890 cubic miles of ice and the melt is accelerating. Today there are hundreds of roaring rivers coming off the glacier year round.
Steve Malkin, CEO of Planet Positive, said: ‘We are proud to be working with schools and educating children on the impacts of climate change. The Melting the Ice in the Heart of Man ceremony provides children with a spiritual and firsthand account of the impact of climate change.’