As a space historically labelled terra nullius or even terra incognita, the Arctic region has been (and continues to be) marked by exploration, colonization, and definitions imposed from the south. While much of what we today think of as the Arctic is ocean space, it also includes homelands (and homeseas) that have been inhabited from time immemorial by Indigenous peoples. For them, any Latin reference to a lack of ownership or knowledge was and is meaningless; similarly, an imposed Greek name referring to the constellation of the Great Bear (arktos, more commonly known as Ursa Major) is at odds with local stories rooted in lived experiences, ancestral ties, and intimate knowledges (see e.g. Finbog et al., 2025). The stories of the polar north were multiple well before it was given the name ‘Arctic’.