The Antarctic Cities Youth Expedition
Cape Town (South Africa), Christchurch (New Zealand), Hobart (Australia), Punta Arenas (Chile) and Ushuaia (Argentina) are the cities that are most connected to the Antarctic in the world. They are formally recognised international gateways through which most travel to the region happens. In these cities, Antarctica has exercised a powerful hold on the urban imagination since the late nineteenth century and it’s an important factor in how these cities imagine their futures.
As members of an international research project called ‘Antarctic Cities and the Global Commons’, we believe that these cities can also play an important role in Antarctica’s future, acting as custodians for the region.
Supported by the Chilean Antarctic Institute and other partners, the Antarctic Cities Youth Expedition took five young people to the Antarctic Peninsula in early February 2020, coinciding with the bicentenary of the first recorded sightings of Antarctica.
Over the months of August and September, project participants and partners in each of the five cities selected a young person to represent it and travel with researchers to Antarctica. We looked for young people who are interested in this adventure, but who will also remain committed to fostering a sense of connection between the five cities and Antarctica. We envisaged like-minded young people across the Antarctic cities developing a network of custodian cities towards the Antarctic.
Rudzani Silima
Caleb Fraser
Chloe Power
Katia Macías
Florencia Garro
The Expedition
Participants of the Antarctic Cities Youth Expedition (ACYE) travelled from Cape Town, Christchurch, Hobart and Ushuaia to Punta Arenas, where they met as representatives of the five Antarctic ‘gateways’ and with researchers from the Australian Research Council funded project ‘Antarctic Cities and the Global Commons.’
The group travelled with the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH) to Julio Escudero Base on King George/ 25 de Mayo Island, Antarctic Peninsula for 7 nights. INACH has been taking students to Antarctica since 2004 as part of their annual School Antarctic Expedition in Chile.
While in Antarctica, expeditioners experienced what it is like to live, work and do research there and visit a range of international research stations. They took part in discussions about how the ‘gateway’ cities can together act as custodians of the region; and made a commitment to work on thinking about how to develop an Antarctic Youth Coalition with other young people in other countries when they return home.
Follow the journey on Instagram
The experience
Find out what the expeditioners had to say about the encountering Antarctica.
Our Partners
‘Antarctic Cities and the Global Commons: Rethinking the Gateways’ is an international research project funded by the Australian Research Council and Linkage partners. It is led by Western Sydney University, in partnership with the University of Tasmania, Hobart City Council, Antarctic Tasmania (Dept. of State Growth), the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH), the University of Magallanes, the University of Canterbury and Christchurch City Council/The Antarctic Office.
Here you can see a video of Project Leader Associate Professor Juan Francisco Salazar introducing the Antarctic Cities and the Global Commons project: https://vimeo.com/184802722
We are grateful to our project partners for their ongoing support of the project, and, specifically for the ACYE, to:
- INACH (the Chilean Antarctic Institute) who will host the expeditioners at the Chilean Antarctic Base, and support their travel from Punta Arenas;
- QUBE and The Bookend Trust for their support of the Hobart expeditioner;
- The Antarctic Office and Latin America - Centre of Asia Pacific Excellence for their support of the expedition from Christchurch;
- the South Africa National Antarctic Programme (SANAP), Antarctic Legacy of South Africa (ALSA) and the Department of Science and Innovation and National Research Foundation (NRF) for supporting the Cape Town expeditioner;
- and the Municipality of Ushuaia, for supporting the young person from that city.
Expedition partners
