# On the edges of extinction: Indigenous whaling governance, the 1977 “bowhead controversy” and its legacy

## TL;DR

The paper examines how Indigenous whaling practices and extinction are understood in international environmental governance through historical and recent IWC testimonies.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of Indigenous whaling governance by linking historical and contemporary testimonies to the concept of entangled extinction.

## Key findings

- Indigenous whaling governance is shaped by complex interactions between human and non-human communities.
- The IWC's approach to extinction often overlooks Indigenous perspectives and practices.
- Comparing testimonies reveals ongoing struggles in recognizing extinction's multifaceted nature in environmental governance.

## Abstract

In its nearly 80-year history, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has shifted from a “whalers club” to an international governance body chiefly focused on the protection and conservation of global cetacean populations. Drawing on recent scholarship on extinction and its entanglements, this article compares two addresses given by whalers at IWC meetings 40 years apart to problematise the way whaling and its relation to extinction is conceptualised in international environmental governance. Guided by practice-oriented document analysis and recent theorisation of extinction as an entangled process, this article analyses the personal stakeholder testimonies from two different representatives of the North Slope whalers of Northern Alaska to the IWC – one in relation to the 1977 Alaska bowhead whaling controversy and the other in the context of the 2018 negotiations over streamlining Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling management and supporting greater flexibility and Indigenous autonomy. By comparing these two statements from very different points of history for the IWC and the governance of Indigenous whaling, this article illustrates some of the ongoing struggles for environmental governance to recognise extinction as a complex, multifaceted process that reverberates throughout human and more-than-human communities.