ABSTRACT
A major contribution comes in the Arctic Council, which is an international institution made up of all of the states with Arctic territory that facilitates co-operation on a variety of issues, mostly centred on environmental protection and sustainable development. Existing literature, beyond the international level, examines the influence and tactics of Indigenous peoples in negotiations at the domestic level, sometimes called internal diplomacy. This chapter accords with previous works that Indigenous peoples frequently make rights-based arguments in their paradiplomatic work. Indigenous peoples’ organizations gained a special permanent participant status in the Arctic Council through successful negotiation as well as historical precedents that suggested they should have a special role in the organization. The distinction between an Inuk in the United States and an Inuk in Canada is largely a colonial one. The fact that these groups operate in the Arctic Council as paradiplomatic actors and have a say in regional governance as a supranational representative is a postcolonial action.
