Tikigaq: Journey to the Killigvuk whale

The snowmachine and sled ride depicted in my post of two days ago took us to the whale camp of Rex Rock, Sr., where we would transfer to the umiak for the trip to the whale taken by Isaac Killigvuk and crew - as soon as the harpoons and darting guns were made ready. The weapons would not be used on this trip, as a "cease fire" was in place until the Killigvuk whale was landed.

Just before we boarded the umiak, some belugas swam by.

This was the first time not only on the ice and at whale camp but certainly in an umiak for Al Sokaitis (left in white) and Mike Hajdukovich (right in black) of Challenge Life Alaska. The boat rocked a bit when we launched which caused Mike - who in his college days was one of UAF's 10 all-time lead scorer at basketball, to shout out in slight panic. Even when it rocks, an umiak is a very stable boat and there was no real danger that it would tip over.

When the hunters go after a bowhead, they paddle the umiak but this would be a long ride with no hunting be done, so the boat was powered by a small outboard motor.

In addition to his work with Challenge Life Alaska, Sokaitis is the head coach for the Post University men's basketball team in Waterbury, Connecticut. He has also coached at Western State College, University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of Southern Maine, and North Adams State College and he coached the Alaska Dream in the ABA for one season.

Eider ducks flew past as we cruised through the Chukchi.

That's Rex Rock, Jr. His father had things to do onshore, so Rex was in command.

We came upon a seal...

...and a male eider duck swimming.

A bowhead blew and then glided through the water not far off starboard.

Rex Rock, Jr., surveys his country. The Rocks have replaced the bearded seal skins that once covered their umiak with fibreglass.

Shorefast ice.

Another bowhead, in the distance, beyond the eiders.

Eiders over the ice.

In time, we reach the landing site. The bowhead is still in the water. The block and tackle have been attached to its tail. Isaac Killigvuk, the successful captain, is the second person to the right of the paddle. The man standing next to him in blue is Popsi Tingook, captain of the first Point Hope crew to land a whale this season.

Preparations to pull up the whale have been made. The skin-covered Killigvuk umiak is pulled up onto the ice.

Those present join together and pull and pull on the block and tackle, until the whale is pulled onto the ice. For a large whale, this process can take many hours, even a day. This is a small bowhead and comes up quickly.

The whale is landed. Isaac is joined by his wife, Sally. They are very happy to have this whale give them the honor of taking its flesh to feed to their community. They haveprayed for the whale. Of all the many sources of food natural to the Arctic - caribou, beluga, seals, walrus, ducks, geese, fish, berries and such, the bowhead is the most important in every way that one can imagine - food, nutrition, spirit, identity.

Year round, the activities of life focus first and most importantly upon the bowhead.

The flag of the Isaac Killigvuk crew.

We stayed for the early part of the butchering, but with the whale landed and the process of cutting and dividing it well underway, the hunt would soon begin again. So Rex Jr. took his boat back to the Rock camp and I followed.

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We take Jobe home, where he is eagerly greeted by his lonely family; Misty and Kennedy give me a Kivgiq video

It was time to take Jobe back to Anchorage and to his parents, but he was fast asleep in his cradleboard. Margie began to untie him, so that she could take him out, but she did not want to wake him.

Very gently, she picked him up to transfer him to his car seat. He snoozed on.

And then she buckled him in. He slept through it all. He did not stir.

And when his mother came dashing out the door to meet us at the car to retrieve the baby whose first night of absence from her had left her so miserable, she found him just as he had been when Margie had buckled him in one hour earlier: fast asleep, but with a smile upon his face.

Mother and baby, in the house, reunited.

Father and baby, reunited. It had been a long night and day for everybody there.

Even Kalib wanted to hold his baby brother, who had been gone for so long.

Misty Nayakik of Wainwright performs Iñupiaq motion dances in a style of great beauty and grace. She is one of those performers who always draws my lens straight toward her. Until last year she had not missed a Kivgiq in 20 years, but last year she could not go.

Recently, she got a copy of the video made of the 2009 Kivgiq. When she and Kennedy Ahmaogak watched it, they came to the part where Isaac Killigvuk gave me a gift and then brought me out of my shyness and onto the floor without my cameras, to dance with him.

When they saw me dancing, she and Kennedy wanted me to have a copy. Last week, she sent me a message to tell me that they were coming to Anchorage and she was going to bring a copy of the DVD to me.

After we left Jobe with his parents and brother, Margie and I headed over to Residence in where they are staying. As we walked from the car to the door we saw Kennedy, Misty and one-year old daughter Adina waiting for us.

Thank you, Misty, Adina and Kennedy. I will treasure this video always.

Saturday evening, I received a text message from my youngest son Rex, who had joined in a 200 km bike ride on the Kenai Peninsula: "132 miles on my bicycle completed in about ten hours and 45 minutes!"

Melanie drove along to provide support.

Kivgiq: The gift that made me dance; a happy interruption

Isaac Killigvuk is a whaling captain from Point Hope, and when he came dancing toward me at Kivgiq, extending this watch in my direction, I at first thought that he wanted me to take a picture of it before he gave it as a gift to someone.

Then I realized that he was giving it to me. This meant that I had to go out on the floor and dance with him. Despite what I do to make a living, at heart I am a terribly shy person and I do not know how to dance. Every Kivgiq, I do dance at least once, but I pick a very crowded invitational fun dance and then go hide in the crowd.

Now, I had to dance in front of everybody. Worse yet, Isaac dances with such soul, power and grace, that I knew I would look pitiful and awkward by comparison.

But something happened that I would not have expected. I took the watch and then, as I watched Isaac's movements, I suddenly felt something inside me; it started out in my back and then moved into my arms and legs and then they started to move. I danced. People clapped. They cheered, they shouted.

When the dance ended, Isaac and I embraced. I was about to run off and hide but the crowd shouted, "more! more!" And so I danced again, with Isaac, the whaling captain whose father once drifted away on the ice and then, after an amazing experience in which he found himself not so alone as a person by himself on an ice floe would expect to be, drifted back again.

Now I owe Isaac a gift. All I have to give is photographs and somewhere in my hap-hazard, chaotic, 35 mm film archive there are some of his late father. I think I know what I must give to him.

Always, the women of Wainwright dance with such grace and beauty.

Such beauty.

Suddenly, the dance leader's motions are interrupted by the rush of a tiny girl.

The dance continues. You can expect to see the girl in motion in this line in future years. She is Kara and her beautiful mother is Taktuk.

I want to make a good Kivgiq spread, but so far I have still only touched a small percentage of my take, and it is late and I am tired. I will try to get in at least one more sample. Maybe tomorrow, but I don't know. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, but I am planning to take a break to see if I can get Margie into a a movie theatre in Anchorage.

And here is a bicyclist, right here in Wasilla.