Qaataaq - flash frozen

From the net of Tommy Nukapigak, Kuukpik River (Coleville), Nuiqsut.

Jane Brower on the bank of the Kuukpik River

Many more things happened at Kuukpik's 40th anniversary celebration for the village of Nuiqsut, and I did my best to photograph it all. There was an Iñupiat fashion show with contestants ranging in age from infant to elder, there was a rock and roll dance with a 60s and 70s dance competition and there was another boat ride, this time upriver. There was a grand finale Eskimo dance. And there was gospel singing. It will all be in the publication I will make for Kuukpik to document the celebration. I did promise to include a photo of Jane Brower in this iPhone/Instagram series and here it is. She sits on the bank of the Kuukpik River (Coleville) at a picnic that was part of the second boat ride - quite a long ways up river from the village, late in the afternoon. I will make another one-picture post from the grand-finale dance. There is a point I want to make about the vastness of this country up here and the closeness of the very few people spread across it and I think this dance picture will help me to do so. I will follow this with a short series on the gospel singing, because it is just too important to the culture to leave out. And then I will make one more small series on the goodbyes and that will be it. I had planned to do this tonight before I go to bed, but I am exhausted. I think I might just try to relax, get a good rest and a decent night's sleep and then post this in the morning. But you never know, I could get restless and post it tonight. It could happen. But I'm going to try to resist and just relax.