The elders and youth conference ended last night with an Eskimo dance held at Ipalook Elementary School in Barrow. Among the drummers was Vernon Elavgak, who was featured on this blog in September on Cross Island when he helped to apply the skin from the liver of a bowhead whale to a drum frame.
The first to step onto the floor and begin to dance was Billy Kenton.
Eighty-nine year-old Edith Rowry had not danced in 15 years, but last night she did. She was born and raised in Barrow in the Panegeo family but long ago moved to Santa Cruz, California, with her husband. After she danced, she told me that she had come back to Barrow for a variety of reasons, but mostly because she wanted to dance Iñupiat style again.
"I enjoyed it," she said. "It made me feel so good."
Edith Rowry, feeling good, enjoying the dance.
Afterwards, she accepted a "welcome home" hug from Savik Ahmaogak.
Edith smiles for the crowd - which, thanks to a basketball tournament being held at Hopson Middle School was a little smaller than it otherwise would have been. It was an enthusiastic crowd.
Kennedy Elavgak follows the motions his older brother, David, at right. Freddy Okakok.
Charlie Elavgak motion dances.
Molly Kignak carries a young dancer who has worked up a sweat.
Molly exhanges smiles with Elaine Solomon.
Jane Brower leads a women's kneeling dance.
Molly Hopson during kneeling dance.
Isabelle Elavgak, mother of Kennedy. Isabelle is a founder of Tagiugmiut, a dance group that with the help of doctors Aaron Fox and Chie Sakakibara, has brought life back to a set of songs and dances originally recorded by Laura Bolton in 1946.
Young people enjoy an invitational fun dance.
;)
Christina Aiken and her son, Marchie.
I hope to publish a summary of the Uqapiaqta!! Lets Speak in Iñupiaq Elders and Youth Conference on Monday, but I am having horrendous problems with my laptop computer. Due to flashing lines, images that hop rapidly up and down and colors that reverse themselves, I can hardly see my pictures when I edit and process them, I am finding it very difficult to blog.
It took four times as long to put this up as it should have and the number of images that I had to sort through was small compared to those from the conference itself. Still, I will try. I will come up with something.