Oil drilling and the Inupiat people of Point Hope - in pictures

The aurora borealis and lights from the city of Point Hope shine above the Qajamaqtuuk feasting ground. Here the local Inupiat community celebrate their successful whale hunt annually in a three-day spring feast. The remote Arctic village of Point Hope is located on the north-western coast of Alaska, just south of lease 193 in the Chukchi sea where Shell is hoping to extract oil to the value of $2.4 trillion Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

For thousands of years, Point Hope has been an advantageous promontory for the Inupiat subsistence bowhead whale hunters, who catch the whale as it migrates along Alaska’s northern coast. Now, the peninsula juts directly into the path of any possible oil spill from lease site 193, where Shell plans to drill. Backed by 12 environmental organisations, the tribal government of Point Hope have delayed Shell's offshore plans in court until December. The oil company hopes to start its offshore drilling operations next summer Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

Point Hope city mayor Steve Oomittuk with his wife Phyllis. Before Oomittuk was elected mayor, he used to work for the comms centre in the city hall, where Shell is sponsoring the monitoring of sea traffic along the Arctic coast of Alaska. 'They install radios in peoples boats, but some refuse to take them as they see it as a bribe. Some people don’t want anything from Shell even if it would improve life for them,' says Oomittuk Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

Steve Oomittuk inside his aunt's traditional Saad house made from bowhead whale bones. The house lies out by the point where the old site of the settlement used to be. Oomittuk's relative lived here into her 70s until she was forced to move in 1975 when she required a wheelchair. 'Some still believe the Eskimo people live in saad houses, but much has changed,' adds Steve Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

A mask depicting Allinuaq, banished to the moon for raping his sister. 'The story of Allinuaq is one of our traditional Inupiaq moral parables,' says Steve Oomittuk. 'The hunger for oil is on our doorstep again, threatening our subsistence way of life.' He refers to the commercial whalers that arrived in the village in 1871 to hunt whales for their oil. 4,000 people lived in Point Hope at the time, but many starved to death because of the extensive exploitation of their natural resources. 'They almost killed the whole community,' says Oomittuk Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

Josie Oomittuk tries her grandmother’s Kamik boots with help from her grandfather Steve. Clothing imported from around the world is available in the city store, but to survive the harsh winter temperatures the Inupiaq still rely on traditional handmade garments for warmth and durability. The Kamik boots are usually made from caribou hide with a seal skin sole Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

Lydia Nashookpuk is concerned that offshore drilling will have detrimental impacts on the Arctic ecosystem. 'It is putting our subsistence and culture at risk. It will kill the animals we rely on for our survival. The animals are who we are,' she says while carrying her five-year-old daughter, Tatyana. The people of Point Hope have survived in the harsh Arctic conditions because of the nutrition offered by the whale. Maktuuk, which is the skin and blubber of the whale, is rich in vitamins A and C and contributes to good health in a population with limited access to fruits and vegetables. The US coastguard calls a spill in Arctic waters ‘a nightmare scenario’ Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

James Kim with two of his friends celebrate his sister Bryanne’s first birthday. The living standard for the Inupiaq people has risen dramatically in the past 40 years. Since the 1970s, the North Slope Borough has taxed the oil industry infrastructure on native lands. The recent tense run-off battle in the Borough elections has reflected a community that is torn by the plans of the oil industry expanding into the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. Alaska's Arctic people now stand at a crossroads between continued benefits from industry generated revenues and protecting the marine environment they have depended on for thousands of years Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

A man working for a company hired by Shell to install radios in the boats around Point Hope, packs up a truck with charts of the local area. The company say the radios will improve safety for the hunters, but whaling captains refuse to take them as they see it as a bribe. Only a year after BP’s blow out in the Gulf of Mexico, Shell is trying to convince the community of Point Hope that they can deal with an oil spill in Arctic waters. Until recently Shell has cited its ability to drill in the difficult conditions of the North Sea as a showpiece in public meetings. With the North Sea spill still reverberating and the legal challenge in the courts, Shell has kept a low profile in the area but continue to states it can clean up 95% of any oil spilled in the harsh Arctic environment Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

A man grills hamburgers outside the building where the annual elders picnic is held. 'Conoco Phillips have sponsored us with these burgers,' he says. The American oil company will be among the winners if the Hague-based Shell get the final required drilling permits to expand into the Chukchi sea. Conoco Phillips hopes the decision will lead the way for it to win approval to also develop federal leases in the Arctic. As part owner of the trans Alaska pipeline, it will also benefit from revenues generated by oil being pumped through its infrastructure Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

Two women catch up outside the annual elders picnic. 'They can never clean an oil spill here, they lie to us. There is no infrastructure along this coast,' says Caroline Cannon. As president of the Tribal Government of Point Hope she has travelled to political meetings in Washington to lift the voice of her people. 'Our elders always tell me to continue what I am doing. Shell regularly hold meetings in the village and have started pushing them constantly this year. They try to bribe people by providing door prizes, but there is also money involved,' adds Cannon Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

Elders at the picnic pluck raffle tickets out of a hat. BP also sponsors the elder’s picnic with prizes for the raffle. A BP beach bag and fleece blanket is on of the top pickings in the lottery this day. There are many powerful parties that will win in the short term from development, including the state and the residents of the North Slope Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

Retired city Mayor Ronok Oviok sits on the floor looking bemused at his new prize, a tent. An anonymous donor donated the item to the raffle. 'If the oil companies ever find oil in our ocean, we'll never see a dollar. The last few years they've been coming to talk to the people. They say if they ever find oil, the jobs will be there, all these promises to our people are always said but they never come true' Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

Christian missionaries created Point Hope cemetery in the 19th century. Outraged by the scattered ancient graves marked by bowhead whale bones and partly covered remains, the missionaries dug a pit and moved the graves into one square plot. The Inupiaq people who live here are descendants from the oldest subsistence whaling communities and one of the oldest continually inhabited sites in North America. These Alaskan native peoples have for millennia relied on the Arctic ecosystem and the marine resources of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas for their subsistence needs Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

Dorkus Rock works part time in the Shell sponsored comms centre in Point Hope. Rock sees the oil companies arrival as inevitable and welcomes the possible job benefits to the community. 'They will always be looking for the oil. And you know, it is not really the oil companies. It is the MMS who sell the lands and waters to them. You cant predict an oil spill but if it happens it will be a very sad day,' she says. The US Minerals Management Service, MMS, was created in 1982 to manage offshore drilling and other forms of mineral exploitation Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

A boy walks to school through the centre of the city. In October 2005, lease sales to drill in the Chukchi Sea were re-proposed and the Point Hope community has since been involved in opposing the permits. Shell intends to drill up to 10 exploratory wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in 2012. Shell says it can deal with a spill in the difficult Arctic conditions, but the people of Point Hope remain unconvinced. There remains no tested or proven way to remove large amounts of spilled oil from the Arctic marine environment Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

New teachers are welcomed to the school in Point Hope with a performance. Song, dance and drumming are important parts of the Inupiat culture. 'Our songs and dances have been passed down through generations. They have never been written down anywhere or recorded, we teach them to our children,' says Steve Oomittuk who sits in the front row Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

Inupiat songs are often about the animals they depend for their survival. Traditional Inupiat beliefs are a form of animism, according to which all beings have a spirit. Ancient tools, harpoons made of ivory and spiritual masks have all been discovered on the peninsula. Archaeological excavations have shown people have lived on the point for over 2,000 years, making Point Hope one of the oldest continually inhabited sites in North America Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

The skins of the Inupiat drums are made of liver membrane from the bowhead whale. Music is important for the Inupiat people living in the Arctic: most families have their own songs and dances that have been handed down from their ancestors. 'We have hunted whales here for millennia. Without the whale we wouldn’t be who we are, it is the centre of our lives. That is why we fight so hard to protect it,' says Steve Oomittuk Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

Brian Attungana learns the steps to his family’s traditional song. The Inupiat dances mimic the animals and the movements involved in harvesting the whale Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

Dewayne Dirks performs for the camera on his bike. A Shell commissioned study by consulting company Northern Economics and the University of Alaska Anchorage, estimate $176bn in federal, state and local tax revenues will be generated over the 45-year period till 2057. $3.7bn of that total will go to the North Slope Borough regional government, the state of Alaska will collect $4.8bn while the federal government will receive $161.3bn. Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

People of Point Hope dressed in traditional parkas by the Qajamaqtuuk feasting ground. In 1976 the city of Point Hope had to be relocated several kilometres inland because of climate impacts. As the sea ice retreats further from land, heavier storms and land erosion has become a serious problem for villages along Alaska’s arctic coast. 'In the last decades we lost 200 yards of land to the sea,' says Steve Oomittuk Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North

Preparing for the winter storms, a bulldozer piles up a protective bank on the north shore. The coastline has become increasingly vulnerable to erosion as the sea ice retreats. More open water allows waves to build up in the fierce Arctic winds. Point Hope lies south of lease site 193 where oil giant Shell plan to drill in 2012. There is scarcely any other place on earth that present conditions more severe and inclement than the Arctic Photograph: Will Rose and Kajsa Sjšlander/70° North