Farewell, safe travels, may we meet again

On the final night of dancing, with all the dance groups seated in a half-ring around the gym, a lot was going on in different places and I missed a special moment that took place between Canada and Nuiqsut. Nellie Nukapigak of Nuiqsut presented Aklavik dance group leader Andrew Gordon Sr. with an ugruk hide (bearded seal). Eva Gordon, Andrew's wife, then gave Nellie her dance parka. That's Eva on the left with Nellie next to her wearing her new Aklavik dance parka. Then there was a gift exchange between Eric Leavitt and Eva and Andrew's son, Alexander. That's Eric standing next to Nellie in the new parka that Alexander, with his arm over Eric's shoulder, gave him. 

Just before the Canadians boarded the plane that would take them to Fairbanks, from where they would drive east into Canada and on north towards home, a very long drive, much of it over gravel road, they posed for their Alaskan friends. Now that he had the dance parka Alexander had given him, Eric felt like he was a Canadian, too. He pranced into the picture.

Woodrow Oyagak is originally from Nuiqsut, but is living in Atqasuk with his wife Sherlene and their young son Mark. She was returning to Atqasuk but Woodrow was remaining behind to be of assistance to his ailing father, his family and whaling crew. Woodrow and Sherlene say their farewells.

Before the Canadians left, Bernice Kaigelak gathered everybody present at the airport together and all joined hands in a circle. She offered a prayer for their safe travels. This ends my iPhone/Instagram/blog coverage of Kuukpik Corporation's 40th Anniversary celebration for the village of Nuiqsut. There will be much more comprehensive coverage of the celebration in the 96 page document, shot with my "real "cameras, I will make for Kuukpik. I expect it to include a much better picture of this prayer. I still must post my "Logbook" entries of my travels from Nuiqsut to Anchorage, via Barrow, and then on home to Wasilla. The Logbook entries will be up before the day ends. 

Caroline sang to her comatose son

Nearly two years ago when Margie was recovering from surgery at the Alaska Native Medical Center, I stopped to check in on a friend in the Intensive Care Unit. There I saw another friend, Caroline Cannon of Point Hope. Her adult son, Leroy Oenga, was in a coma - word was that he had been declared brain dead. Caroline was not giving up. She was praying and asking for prayers. I recall looking at Leroy as he lay comatose in bed and feeling so bad for him and bad for his mother. The situation appeared truly hopeless. Yet his mother clung to hope – futile hope, it appeared. On this night in Nuiqsut, Caroline recalled the ordeal of being told Leroy was brain-dead and that she should pull the plug. Instead, she sat at his side, prayed, and sang hymns to him. Here, she sings one of those hymns: "We've got the power in the name of the Lord..." While he has some health problems to deal with, Caroline told us how her son recovered mentally and physically and today is building a life with his wife and young family. 

Marie, Annie and Saaniaq sing gospel at the closing singspiration

Marie Rexford, Annie Tikluk and Elizabeth Saaniaq Rexford of Kaktovik sing gospel at the Nuiqsut singspiration, broadcast across the Slope by Isaac Tuckfield of KBRW. This singspiration was the last event of Kuukpik Corporation's 40th Anniversary Celebration to commemorate the founding of the new village of Nuiqsut. There was, however, another singspiration held in the Presbyterian Church to welcome the guests the night before the celebration began. I am going to post one image and story from that singspiration shortly.

Isaac Tuckfield, legendary broadcaster of heavy rock, beams the church service and gospel singing to every village across the Slope

This is Isaac Tuckfield, program director for KBRW, Barrow's public radio station, relayed to all villages on the Slope. Although I have lived in Wasilla for over 30 years, back when I was publishing Uiñiq on a regular basis, I often spent more time on the Slope than I did at home with my kids and Margie, who can hardly tolerate the relatively mild cold weather of Wasilla and has always refused to go much farther north. For a time, I had an excellent darkroom and an office in Barrow and would often work there until the wee hours of the morning or even all through the night. "Seismic Isaac" had a late show and played mostly 60's rock and roll. He gave me the energy to keep going through many a long night. He always closed with Jimmy Hendrix's version of the Star-Spangled Banner. Over the past year or maybe even longer, Isaac has made a point to get out and broadcast Sunday night church services and singspiration from all eight villages in the North Slope Borough live Slope-wide. He did so in Nuiqsut, beginning his broadcast in the community center at 9 PM until after 3 AM. This is Isaac during the opening prayer. 

Close together in a vast, spread out, land and seascape

This is an iPhone panorama I took at the Eskimo dance finale of Kuukpik Corporation's 40th Anniversary celebration to honor Nuiqsut. Seven dance groups, two from Nuiqsut, plus one each from the five other villages that sent drummers, singers and dancers, took their chairs in a 180° arc facing the audience in the bleachers at Trapper School and then in turn each performed songs and dances common to all, until finally they sang and danced together as one. The distance between Aklavik, Yukon Territory, Canada, the farthest east village to participate, to Point Hope, the farthest west, is as great as that between Ensenada, Mexico, and a point more than 200 miles north of San Francisco. A traveler starting in Aklavik and working his way by plane, boat, or snowmachine through the mostly roadless country to Point Hope will touch a maximum of nine villages ranging in size from just over to 200 people to about 1000, plus Barrow, the big city at 4500 - 5000. If the traveler is native to the region, it does not matter what village he or she enters, he will not be a stranger. People will know him – If not personally, then by his family; she will have relatives in each village. There will be a house to sleep in, a table to eat at. Most of the food will likely come from the land, the sea, the rivers and lakes.