alaska culture exposed: 08.2007

Yukon River Healing Journey to Begin on June 22 Opening Ceremony Hosted by Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation in Moosehide, Yukon Territory

1,500 mile canoe journey aims to unite cultures, protect environment, and address climate change concerns.

LINK TO: YRITWC HOME/WEB PAGE

At 1 pm on June 22, 2007, the Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation will host opening ceremonies at Moosehide, Yukon Territory, to initiate the Healing Journey, a celebration of culture, a call to action, and an urgent message to the world. The 1,500 mile canoe journey will head to St. Mary's, Alaska to celebrate the 10th Anniversary YRITWC Summit from August 9-13.

Moosehide, a traditional village, is located near Dawson, on the Yukon River.

Fulfilling an ancient prophecy of uniting the indigenous peoples through water travel, the Healing Journey participants will shove off with traditional canoes and contemporary boats and paddle for approximately seven weeks, visiting all indigenous communities along the way.

Visits will include a traditional meal and cultural exchange, dancing and drumming, and a talking circle to begin to mend the past and forge a commitment to a common future based on environmental stewardship and healthy communities. In honor of the Healing Journey, a traditional T’lingit dugout canoe has been carved by the Yakutat T’lingit Tribe and will be dedicated to the YRITWC in July during the nearly two month long Journey.

As the Healing Journey travels downriver, each participating community will share observations and concerns related to climate change, which will be documented and brought to the Summit in St. Mary’s. The Healing Journey will also draw attention to innovative solutions such as renewable energy and resource management based on traditional knowledge. One of the canoes will have a water quality probe that will take a continuous water chemistry profile of the entire journey as it travels downriver.

Harold Gatensby, a founding Board member of the YRITWC from Carcross-Tagish First Nation, stated, “The Healing Journey is the result of many years of hard work and commitment to clean water and healthy communities. We could not carry out this Journey without the support of all the First Nations and Tribes who are part of the Watershed Council.”

LINK TO: YRITWC BROCHURE (.pdf)

Jon Waterhouse, YRITWC Assistant Director and lead paddler in the Healing Journey, is from the Jamestown Sk’lallam Tribe in the coast Salish region. He said, “We hope to feed the interest of the youth to carry on this tradition of traveling by water and protecting our environment. The Healing Journey is for the whole watershed and beyond.”

The Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council is an indigenous grassroots organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of the Yukon River Watershed. The YRITWC conducts research, provides technical assistance and training to facilitate the development and exchange of information, and strives to raise awareness about opportunities to promote the health of the watershed. The YRITWC is comprised of 65 Tribes and First Nations in Alaska and Canada who rely on the Yukon River basin for survival.

LINK TO: YRITWC STRATEGIC PLAN (.pdf)

The Healing Journey and Summit are being sponsored in part by National Geographic Society and IBM’s Genographic Legacy Fund, First Nations Development Institute, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Alaska Conservation Foundation.

Text originally published by John Graham
Photos from YRITWC website
View more photos from Matt here!

==============================

Listen to an audio transcript...Associate Director, Alaska Region, of the YRITWC speaking of the Journey...YRITWC appearing on Native America Calling, Aug. 2007.

Labels: athabascan canada, yupik alaska Yukon Kuskokwim

A Tribute to Miisaq Frank Andrew who passed away this April, 2006. One of the last of the GREAT Kayak masters...Miisaq's legacy lives on!

____________________

Slide-show Miisaq's 'Angyaq Revived'
Music: Aerial Boundaries, Michael Hedges

_____________________

REPRINTED FROM: Anchorage Daily News

Yup'ik elder who revived vanished art of kayak making dies at 89
FRANK ANDREW: A man with a powerful memory kept the skills alive for others.

By ALEX deMARBAN
Anchorage Daily News

(Published: April 5, 2006)

Frank Andrew built traditional Yup'ik kayaks with sealskin, driftwood and ochre, using homemade knives and adzes and a blueprint in his head.

He died Sunday morning in the Western Alaska village of Kwigillingok, at the age of 89. But not before passing on what he knew.

Traditional kayaks, with their distinctive bow hole for towing, began disappearing from Western Alaska in the 1930s when kayak makers used canvas instead of sealskin. The arrival of motor- powered skiffs finished them off, said anthropologist and author Ann Fienup-Riordan of Anchorage.

By the 1970s, they'd fallen completely out of use.

So had the skills to make them.

But Andrew, raised in a sod house at the knee of his elders, never forgot. Thanks to his remarkable memory and his desire to teach, he revived the art of Yup'ik kayak making in Western Alaska, said his son-in-law, Bill Wilkinson.

He did it tirelessly. Severely ill for the past several months, he couldn't breathe without medicine. Still, he planned to fly to Bethel next week to share his kayak-building knowledge at a workshop, Wilkinson said.

A ceremony marking Andrew's life and death will be at the Russian Orthodox church in Kwigillingok, a village of about 350 people, Thursday afternoon

Andrew was a founder of Qayanek, a kayak-preservation center created in Kwigillingok about six years ago. Qayanek, a Yup'ik word meaning "of and about kayaks," is a grant-assisted center that displays the sealskin kayak Andrew once hunted from as well as handmade arrows, harpoons, throwing boards and other weapons and tools.

Andrew taught at the center, patiently working with Wilkinson, son Noah Andrew Sr. and grandchildren. He showed his family how to tailor-make kayaks as his father once did, measuring the hunter's hands and arms to determine the boat's dimensions.

With his help, they selected driftwood with the right grain and bent it with their teeth to create ribs. They cured seal skin with urine, caulked holes with moss and seal oil and found red ochre to decorate the craft.

Most elders younger than Andrew lack his breadth of traditional knowledge, Wilkinson said. They were educated by non-Native teachers after the Bureau of Indian Affairs opened schools in rural Alaska.

"He gave us a sense of what was lost in the old schools," Wilkinson said.

Andrew had nine children and never raised his hand to them, said his daughter, Mary Ann Wilkinson, who was with him at her home when he died. She called him patient, humble -- and brilliant.

"We just lost a living encyclopedia," she said.

Fienup-Riordan described Andrew as "a mechanical genius."

He was also a wide-ranging storyteller who taught Yup'ik values, such as respect for others, to young people, she said. Many of his stories will be told in an upcoming book.

Andrew, who received the Alaska Federation of Natives Culture Bearer Award in 2000, lived to see the fruit of his labor. Traditional Yup'ik kayaks he designed now hang in museums. And Noah Andrew Sr. is employed building the kayaks for educational institutions in the Lower 48.

"He was an elder among elders," Wilkinson said. "He gave more than anyone could imagine."

Daily News reporter Alex deMarban can be reached at ademarban@adn.com.

Copyright © 2006 The Anchorage Daily News (www.adn.com)

Link to ADN Story:
http://www.adn.com/life/native_culture/story/7599138p-7510312c.html

______________________

http://www.qayanek.com/

Miisaq''s legacy lives on in the non-profit he helped develop

The small community of Kwigillingok lies on the west side of the Kuskokwim Bay. It is home to a quiet renaissance in traditional boat-building and associated traditional technologies.

The effort is lead by patriarch Elder Frank Miisaq Andrew. While the community is prominently known for it's long tradition and knowledge-base surrounding traditional qayaq construction, an old tradition of Angyaqs, or large open skin boats, has existed in the mind of Frank Andrew for some time.

A school / community project, centered around a 21st Century Community Learning Center effort, helped Miisaq bring that knowledge to bear and produce a boat that hadn't been viewed or used in the Lower Kuskokwim region for some 70+ years.

Frank was assisted by Mr. Skip Snaith, shipwright, umiaq historian and builder.http://cronus.rockisland.com/~kyak/index.html

The most memorable moment was Frank taking the Angyaq on the Kwigillingok River. The boat was manned by adult men from the community and the launching witnessed by many of the the youth and other community members.