Oct. 12
By Julian Fuerte
On October 2, the Spanish Geographical Society organized the conference “Travels into the Unknown. Science and Research”. The Siberian Arctic, an area located above 60 ° north latitude and beyond 60 ° East longitude, is a region completely unknown even to the Russians themselves. A remote and hard-to-reach area where indigenous peoples have lived for centuries, who have learned to survive in extreme natural conditions and who now seem destined to disappear as a result of globalization and climate change. Among the organizers of the event was researcher and ethnographer Miguel Angel Julian, who devoted almost two decades to exploring these extremely remote territories and studying the indigenous peoples of the Siberian Arctic in order to try to keep them in oblivion. He said that he was able to meet unusual people living in forgotten and unknown territories, with stories that deserve to be heard. According to Miguel Angel Julian, Russia is “a unique and beautiful country with kind and sympathetic people who are ready for a complete stranger to come to the rescue, in other countries people have come across more closed …”. Russia also has programs for the development of the north, and the state has a fairly wide range of standards to support the indigenous peoples of the North.
One of the participants of the conference was the head of the Ramon Areses Foundation, Raimundo Perez-Hernandez, who, on behalf of the foundation, expressed his readiness to provide all necessary assistance to the Spanish Geographical Society and Miguel Angel Julian in the study of the Siberian Arctic. Raimundo Perez-Hernandez suggested that Carrillo M.A.H. organize a number of similar conferences in order to continue discussing the Siberian Arctic, taking into account the experience and knowledge of the latter traditions and customs of the peoples of the North.