Kivgiq - a random pull

At the moment, I am pleasantly exhausted and lazy - far too lazy to do any kind of search or edit of my Kivgiq images - not even a superficial one. Plus, my internet connection here is very slow and, couple that with some of the awkward features of Squarespace, my host for this blog, and it makes posting images here a slow, tedious process.

Yet, to have all these consecutive posts with no images troubles me. 

So, I just plug a CF card into my laptop and grabbed the first image that came up and this is it, Robin Jonah Kaleak of the Barrow Dancers.

As for me, I finally got to bed about 6:00 AM. I woke up more often than I wish I had, but still I got some sleep and then finally got up a bit after noon.

Feeling pleasantly exhausted and lazy, I was slow to get moving, but I was also very hungry and I wanted a good breakfast, so finally I got dressed and walked over to Pepe's North of the Border Mexican Restaurant and ordered an Omelet with extra wheat toast.

It was delicious and I took my time, and sipped cup after cup as I finished off the toast, then walked back here.

The temperature was about -13 (-25 C), the wind about 15 knots and at Pepe's, there had been a fair amount of talk about the weather, about how nice it was that it had finally warmed up and was so pleasant outside.

I should do something, now, but I am much too lazy.

Maybe I will take a long walk a little bit later, with my pocket camera, to take advantage of this pleasant weather.

Kivgiq begins - one random image

It is 12:18 AM Thursday morning and I just got back from Kivgiq related activities, which began at 10:00 AM Wednesday. I shot hundreds of frames today... hell... over 1000 I am certain, because there is always something happening during Kivgiq.

I do not have time to edit photos, so I just dropped my cursor into a folder on a file number and opened it up, having no idea who or what it would be. This is what it was - the drummers of the Barrow Dancers, concluding their first appearance.

Now I must do a few tasks, go to bed and be back at Kivgiq at 10:00 AM.

I can't take the time to write about it, except that it has been a great day, one of those days that reminds me where my heart is.

I hear about Chuck E. Cheese and the beautiful bracelet as I fly on Alaska Airlines toward Barrow; Barrow at -43, windchill -68

This is Allie, and the person that she is looking at with the big smile is me. She is telling me how she got to go to Chuck E. Cheese and that is where her mother, Monica, bought her the bracelet on her left wrist.

"And Chuck E. was there!" she told me.

She got a big kick out of it when I showed her this picture on my camera. It also got the interest of her mother, Monica, who takes pictures for the Air Guard out of Fairbanks.

Fairbanks is where they were headed, after a short trip to Anchorage. They have been in Alaska but a short time, having come from Maryland. Compared to their Maryland home, they find Fairbanks a bit sparse when it comes to shopping and dining activities and so they enjoyed their trip to Anchorage.

Monica is enchanted with the beauty of Alaska. Before coming here, she had thought that she would ultimately like to settle in Washington state, where she lived for a time, but seeing how beautiful Alaska is, she feels she must reconsider.

As for the miserable posture, this happened after we got half way to Fairbanks and then the pilot announced that the deicing system had malfunctioned and so we had to go back to Anchorage to get it fixed.

 

Once we returned to Anchorage, they told us it would take a few minutes to get the problem diagnosed and fixed, so naturally it took an hour or more. Of course, we had to stay on the plane and I was very hungry, as I had eaten nothing since my breakfast oatmeal.

Once, this would not have been so bad, because Alaska Airlines would have fed me a decent meal on the flight between Fairbanks and Barrow, but those days are gone.

Yet, we finally landed in Fairbanks. Allie and Monica got off the plane and other passengers boarded. One thing about flying by jet in Alaska that is different than Outside is that you always know several of the other passengers that you see. Sometimes, you know most of the other passengers.

That's Rachel to left, and Vera in the middle, from Anaktuvuk Pass, headed to Barrow to dance at Kivgiq. Vera told me the name of her tot, but I forgot. 

And this is Georgianna, who actually boarded in Anchorage in this seat. However, when the stewardess helped Allie to her seat and showed her mother where she had to sit, Georgianna felt bad, did not wish to separate mother and daughter, and so traded seats with Monica.

Once we got to Fairbanks, she returned to her assigned seat.

Her son, Steve, is a friend of mine and has taken me murre egg picking on the cliffs of Cape Thompson and he took me on other good adventures as well, from seal and duck and goose hunting to fishing.

Some of our adventures are recounted in my book, Gift of the Whale.

Georgianna is hugged by her friend, Sophie, of Kotzebue, who just boarded the plane and is headed toward her seat.

The fellow smiling at the tot is from Greenland. The tot and his dad have origins in Samoa and China, but now live in Barrow. Barrow, the coldest city in North America, has a substantial Polynesian community. 

The kid sees the light and reaches for it.

Inside the Alaska Airlines terminal at the Will Rogers-Wiley Post Memorial Airport in Barrow. Rogers and Post were killed in an airplane crash 12 miles soutwest of here.

The wait for luggage in Barrow always seems interminable. They do not put baggage out until the outgoing flight is fully boarded and roaring down the runway.

So you have to sit and wait for your bags for a full hour, at least.

 

This is Rex Nashookpuk, who did not come to Barrow by plane, but by snowmachine, from the village of Wainwright, just about 100 miles down the coast. The temperature was in the - 40's, the windchill about -70, but actually a whole lot more from the seat of Nashookpuk's speeding snowmachine.

Rex also came to dance at Kivgiq.

These are the buses and van used to take tourists touring about the local area come summer.

The ukpeagvik Presbyterian Church. Not so long ago, it was dark all day long in Barrow. After the sun went down November 18, it did not rise again until January 22. The days are still very short, but getting longer and soon the sun will be up all day long - from May 10 to August 2.

This is Anna, who lives on the east coast of Greenland. Anna came to dance at Kivgiq.

This bus will carry dancers from the many villages who have come to Barrow to dance at Kivgiq. 

Suurimmaanitchuat of Barrow: Another group of Alaskans headed to DC to march in the Inaugural Parade for Barack Obama

I have many pictures of Suurimmaanitchuat dancing, mostly in Barrow at the Kivgiqs that have taken place over the past two decades. Kivgiq, also known as the Messenger Feast, is a great Iñupiat Eskimo celebration of dance, gift-giving and feasting on the real food of the north. Kivgiq was revived in 1988, but its roots are in antiquity.

So I intended to find some of my Kivgiq photos of Suurimmaanitchuat and post them here with this little note about their upcoming trip to Washington, DC where they will march in the Inaugural Parade for Barack Obama. So I typed "Suuri" into my computer's search engine to see what might come up.

None of the Kivgiq pictures appeared - I must have them all stored on disk and out of the computer now - but these five of Suurimmaanitchuat performing at the dedication of the National Museum of the American Indian in September of 2004 did.

This seemed even more appropriate. 

The dancer above is Lia Sakeagak. The temperature at the time was in the 90's - somewhat warmer than it would have been in Barrow.

And this is Alunauq Hepa. 

Darlene Kagak.

This feminine Elvis wearing mukluks is Mae Ahgeak, who spotted the face of the King of Rock 'n' Roll in the mask section of a big store in Anchorage. Now she is the most famous Iñupiat Elvis impersonator in the universe. Dancing to her right is Darlene Kagak and to her left, Molly Pederson and Marie Neakok.

Iñupiat dance always involves invitationals, when all are invited to come and dance with the performers. I am not quite certain how everything will come together in DC, but if they get a chance at any time while they are there, be it immediately after the parade or at some other time, I am certain Suurimmaanitchuat will call up everyone who wants to come up and dance.

So, if any readers happen to be in DC for the Inaugural, keep your eyes and ears open. You will be welcome to join Suurimmaanitchuat in dance. The young man at the forefront is Robert Akpik, Jr.

I'm planning to follow the dancers to shoot some pictures. I will use the images in a Uiñiq magazine that I am working on, but I will also post a few here as well.