Raygorodetsky

Award-winning author
Indigenous peoples’ ally
National Geographic Explorer

For over two decades, Gleb has worked with and for Indigenous communities and their allies around the world on traditional resource management, traditional governance, sacred sites, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and Biocultural Diversity.

Born and raised in a small village on the Bering Sea coast of Kamchatka Peninsula, USSR, Gleb immigrated to the USA in 1988. He made his way from New York City to Fairbanks, Alaska, where he continued the wildlife biology studies he began back in the Soviet Union. Since then, he has traversed the Americas, from Canada’s Beaufort Sea to the Brazilian Amazon, from the Andes to the shores of Lake Superior, living and working with Indigenous peoples as diverse as Aleut fur seal hunters, Amazonian Caboclos pirarucu fishermen, and the Gwich’in caribou hunters. After earning his Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution & Environmental Biology (2006, Columbia University), he has continued working with Indigenous groups around the world, from Papua New Guinea and Australia, to Peru and Finland.

Gleb has written and contributed to books, scientific and popular articles on Indigenous issues, traditional knowledge, and conservation in both English and Russian. He wrote Gwich’in Words about the Land – a book on the Indigenous ecological knowledge of Gwich’in people in the Northwest Territories in Canada that was published locally for all Gwich’in families. Gleb Raygorodetsky’s writing has appeared in magazines and journals, including Earth Island Journal, Sierra Magazine, Mongabay, Cultural Survival, Scientific American, and National Geographic.

Gleb is also a co-founder of Conversations with the Earth (CWE) – an indigenous-led multimedia initiative that amplifies indigenous voices in the global discourse on climate change. Over a million visitors saw CWE exhibits at National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC, and United Nations Headquarters in New York.

In The Archipelago of Hope: Wisdom and Resilience from the Edge of Climate Change (Pegasus Books, New York, 2017) Gleb explores the inextricable links between Indigenous cultures and their traditional territories as the foundation for climate change resilience around the world.

Gleb’s current project, the Guardians of Life: Indigenous Stewards of Living Earth, is intended to be a rich, in-depth, storytelling initiative seeking to nurture the global recognition of the critical role Indigenous peoples play in sustaining biological and cultural diversity, as well as adapting to and abating climate change. The initiative upholds the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples to care for their ancestral lands and waters, and seeks to build a movement that would broadly benefit and sustain life on planet Earth for all.

Co-created with an award-winning National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yüyan, the Guardians of Life will take readers on a transformative journey to places and people living “in relationship” with their ancestral homelands. Vivid portraits of Indigenous men and women, youth and elders, hunters and farmers, spiritual leaders and craftsmen will reveal their ways of knowing and working with the land. These are concepts and skills that have been taught for generations and are based on a foundational veneration for life—which is at the heart of caring for a living planet. The Guardians of Life will be a captivating and powerful account that illuminates Indigenous worldviews, stories, and stewardship from Indigenous communities in North and South Americas, Asia, and Australia.

“The future of our planet lies in Indigenous ways of living on Earth. As a global community, we have lost our way… Indigenous peoples have mastered the art of living on the Earth without destroying it. They continue to teach and lead by example. We must heed these lessons, if we want our grandchildren to have a future.” — Jon Waterhouse, S’Klallam, Chippewa-Cree, Indigenous Peoples Scholar, National Geographic Education Fellow Emeritus & Explorer

You can find out more about Gleb and his work on his website, Twitter, and Instagram.