Mar 26, 2011 | Honoring Others, North Tide |
The Barrow Dancers performed for a full audience at Juneau's High School Auditorium
Lis, Greg and Leif pulled me out of the house last Saturday night, March 19th. I could have continued weaving on my robe, finish my homework due on Sunday, prepare for my business trip this week, or gone to the movies with my mother and brother; even though I love the dances of the Far North people, I was reluctant to go to the performance because of my stack of responsibilities. Of course, I was glad to have gone. The way of “Eskimo” dance is very different than any other kind of dance I have seen or have done; a happiness is reflected in the dances and songs of these people. The first time I had seen Eskimo dancing was about 25 years ago when the King Island Dancers performed at the ANB Hall here in Juneau. I was pleasantly surprised at how my spirit was uplifted by this kind of dance and song. I hadn’t heard anything like it. There is a quality that is highly spiritual – those are the only words I can find to describe the experience, a happy, spiritual experience. Watching the Barrow Dancers was as equally another spiritual experience.
A young man dances solo this story while the men drum with women sitting behind them singing the chant.
The Barrow Eskimo Dancers are all Inupiaq Eskimo. They are the oldest dance group in Barrow, Alaska and love to pass down their traditional motion dances that tell stores of life long ago and modern times. They are an all-ages group with over 60 members varying in age from two years old to almost 100! Some begin training while still toddlers and others join when they are in their 60’s.
The women wore purple, cotton kuspuks (traditional dress) and the men wore white shirts with bolo ties; every member wore black pants tucked into the traditional mukluks
The locally-derived songs of the Barrow Dancers were composed largely by original dance group members the late Walter Akpik, Sr. and Warren Matumeak and their forebears, and have their roots in the north central North Slope of Alaska. Other, more recently composed songs and motions were composed by some of the other dance performers. May of the recently-composed songs are performed with a smile (one dance, for example, mimics the pre-flight briefing of airline stewardesses). Some songs have been borrowed and exchanged with groups from as far away as Savoonga and Chukotka in the Bering Sea and Arctic Canada.
Dancing the famous "Walrus" dance!
“Even though most of our elders have passed on, what they taught us still lives on in many of the dances we do. Especially during practices when we are learning new dances or bringing back old dances. Teaching the young ones the songs and dances makes me feel like we are passing down our culture and the knowledge so that it lives on when we are gone.” Fred Elavgak.
Grandma Priscilla and grandson dance in friendship
Barrow is the northernmost city in the United States being 320 miles above the Arctic Circle. It is a desert averaging less than 5 inches of rain a year, a land of harsh extremes with extended darkness, strong winds, dense cloud cover and unforgiving temperatures. Archaeological sites in the area indicate the Inupiat lived around Barrow as far back as 500 A.D. Some remains of 16 dwelling mounds from the Birmirk culture of about 800 A.D. are still in evidence today on the shore of the Arctic Ocean.
Priscilla's son has created some of the dance groups new songs and dances
The Barrow Dancers participated in the inaugural parade for President-Elect Obama on January 20, 2009 in Washington, D.C. They have performed as a group as far away as China and are very excited for their first performance in Juneau.
This was such a cool dance, I just had to add another image of it!
The Barrow Dancers performance in Juneau was sponsored by Alaska Airlines and co-sponsored by the Driftwood Lodge.
Alaska Governor Sean Parnell dances with the Barrow Dancers - it was one of the highlights of their performance - you can see that everyone was digging it!
Governor Parnell's wife was also asked to join the dance - such an honor!
During the audience invitational dance, I got to take a close-up of the drummers
Backstage you can see a small portion of the big crowd who joined the dancers on stage during the audience invitational dance
A surprising number of audience members joined in the invitational dance - so much fun!
The Barrow Dancers stood for their Honor Song as the Tlingit Dancers joined them
Lyle James leads his Tlingit dancers to welcome the Barrow Dancers
The Barrow and Tlingit dancers merge as one
Mar 25, 2011 | Health and Wellness, North Tide |
A view from the md-way walk across frozen Mendenhall Lake looking towards the Glacier (in the foreground are icebergs landlocked in ice)
My friend Jan and I walked the frozen Mendenhall Lake to reach the Falls; me walking on ice, no matter how thick the ice, is NOT something that is easy – I have never been comfortable with my imagination of falling through into icy water and drowning! Yet, I wanted to taste one of the rare things unavailable to most of us in “civilized” nations: wild water.
A couple of hikers on an iceberg
I grew up on wild water. Of course we had running water, and of course I drank water from the tap using my cupped hands or putting my mouth a few inches below the faucet like the methods I would as if catching from a water fall. While growing up on South Franklin Street, we would take walks out to Thane Road with waterfalls to quench our thirst. And when I had children of my own, we would fetch wild water from the same areas until we moved away from Alaska in the Spring of 1993.
Getting closer to our destination: Nugget Falls - Where and what is Nugget Falls? It's the big waterfall to the right of Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska. You didn't know it had a name, eh?
Since 1993, I have missed drinking wild water. On occasion, while visiting someone or even passing through Haines, I make a point to hit the Mud Bay Road Wild Water Station” – that little pipe on the left side of the road about 2 miles out of town heading South. I can taste, smell and feel the difference!
The frozen waterfall with a narrow opening
Jan and my journey started a couple of weeks ago when we had watched a video on the Kangen (Japanese for “returning to the source”) Water where the host had tested the PH balance of various bottled water in comparison to the Kangen ionized water. We did a little research about ionized water online. One of the sources had said the most pure, potent, alkaline water came from our glaciers. Oh heck, it doesn’t take a scientist to tell us that! Yet, Jan and I wanted to know for ourselves.
We wanted to test the antioxidant power of our near-extinct wild water. Why? Because according to doctors who have proven that all, or at least most, diseases can only live in an acidic as opposed to an alkaline system. And since we are made up of 80% water, if our water content in our body is alkaline we can avoid diseases including diabetes, gout, Alzheimer’s and last but not least, cancers. Generally, one of the methods for those of us who want an alkaline system, is to drink and eat foods high in antioxidants.
When we reached Nugget Waterfall, most of the surface was thick, frozen ice with an opening where we could see the falling water. We were not sure about the thickness of the icy threshold – was it as thick as the lake ice? Would it hold our weight? There was only one way to find out.
We shoved the red ladder over to the edge
Nearby we borrowed a Forest Service red-painted ladder. We dragged the ladder towards the Falls where we hung about a foot of the ladder over the Fall opening. Jan placed herself at one end to keep the ladder from sliding and to keep my end from tipping, while I carefully walked out to the Falls stepping cautiously on each rung. I looked down under the ice into the dark hole of an icy-cold rock face; I quickly reached out and snatched a cup of water and backed down the ladder. So far so good! (No I do not have a photograph of the hole cuz I could only fetch the water – however, Jan took a photo of me while handing her the cup of wild water!)
Of course I took a swig of that delicious water before handing it to Jan for the test!
We immediately put our little machine called the to work. Immediately the numbers worked themselves up above 200. What did this mean?
The meter read 256
By no means are we experts on any of this information, however, we just wanted to find out for ourselves the level of antioxidants our wild water was on this day at this source. According to this meter,
Mar 25, 2011 | Honoring Others, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Local silversmith, Ed Kunz presents his silversmithing and carving at UAS - Juneau campus
Last Thursday, March 17th, Ed Kunz gave a presentation on silversmithing and carving at the University of Alaska Southeast Juneau. The presentation is part of the “Art of Place” artists series. Son of the late Ed Kunz, Sr. and Cecilia Kunz, Ed began carving while living in Haines. His mentor was the late Ed Kasko. Although most silversmiths use an engraver’s block, Ed uses a wax to hold the strip of silver to a modest-sized, wooden board. When he began engraving the Tlingit design into the silver, he said he wanted an engraver’s block like he’d seen other silversmiths use, but with all of its accessories it came close to $100; then a few years later when he thought he could afford finally afford an engraver’s block, the price had risen to almost $500 so he said forget it.
Gold and Silver bracelets carved by Ed Kunz
ANS (Alaska Native Sisterhood) pendant carved by Ed Kunz
Ed has made many pieces of jewelry for his wife, Percy Kunz like the bracelets and pendants above. He usually works on a commission basis and sometimes does trades. I was real tempted to ask Ed if he wanted to trade a small Chilkat bag for one of those gold bracelets. Both of my parents liked jewelry and they both liked gold. I would have a golden bracelet in honor of my parents. Someday.
Ed's simple tdools of the trade
These are pretty much the two carving tools that Ed uses
Ed shows carving tricks-of-the-trade to UAS student assistant Justin
A reminder from the coordinator of the “The Art of Place” artists’ presentation, Ernestine Hayes: “Hello to all with a reminder that wood-carver Doug Chilton will be our visiting artist for our Spring 2011 Art of Place series tomorrow, Thursday March 24, beginning at 10:00 with a talk and discussion by the artist and a dessert potluck at 11:30, with an opportunity to meet and greet Doug over cake and coffee. The event will take place in the Glacier View Room.
On Thursday April 7, we will be visited by Florence Sheakley, who will share her knowledge on beadwork and button blanket-making and show some of her work (including a button blanket she made for me).
Please come to one or both events, and please remind your friends, students, and neighbors to come as well. We really appreciate your support for this important series!
Finally, please remember that our last event will take place on April 21 with Helen Watkins, and will feature a full potluck. We’re hoping for herring eggs! Gunalcheesh!
Coordinator Ernestine Hayes thanks the audience for coming out and supporting the artists!
Mar 16, 2011 | Health and Wellness |
This Winter was one heck of a COLD one!
How many of you shoveled snow all Winter? How many of you brought out the long johns, thick fleece, sheepskin and fur? How many of you kept the fire stoked consistently? How many of you carpooled cuz your car was stuck or wouldn’t start? How many ice skated, skiied, sledded, snow-shoed? What a Winter!
Clarissa digs shoveling snow cuz she misses her gardening season!
Spring is around the corner, the Equniox is in just a few days with even days and even nights and there hasn’t been any rain.
Winter is a good time to do art - like the Tlingits knew how to handle winter - Clarissa does most of her work during the Winter, yet on occasion she gets her exercise!
The best part about being an artist is the freedom to create in any line of "work!"
Mar 9, 2011 | Honoring Others, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, Uncategorized |
A painting of Eileen Wagner weaving a cedar bark hat
A couple of weeks ago, Della Cheney contacted all of us who have attended the Sunday afternoon gathering of artists at Fireweed Place. She said that the group was invited to display any of their work in a show down at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center. When she asked Fausto and I to help set up the exhibit last Thursday night, I figured we’d have a few things to show – little did I know we would fill up an entire room! And little did I know that I had anything to show until Della asked me to show some of my paintings and prints. Ha-eh!?
Cedar bark hat in display unit by Eileen Wagner, cedar bark baskets by Della Cheney, Chilkat leggings on loom by Fausto Paulo
We were also invited to demonstrate whatever projects we may have on our looms and hat forms, so about 9 of us showed up, set up tables down the middle of the exhibit room and demonstrated the weaving of cedar bark hatbands, baskets and hats, Ravenstail pouches, leggings and bags, and the weaving of a Chilkat robe.
Juneau Arts & Humanities Director, Nancy DeChurney talks with Della Cheney about this evening's Gallery Walk exhibit
There is a feeling of cooperation and inspiration as we all work individually on our own projects sitting side-by-side with a kind of quiet companionship, the stuff that is made of long-term relationships that will most likely last a lifetime whether we are conscious about our efforts or not.
Patrice DeAsis weaves a cedar bark hat while coils of cedar bark soak awaiting to be stripped
Debra O'Gara and Kendra Makaily enjoy Ricky Tagaban's Ravenstail weaving made of plastic garbage bag strips. In the display case are Percy Kunz's first Ravenstail weavings
The beginnings of a small Chilkat robe by Nora Dauenhauer, a pair of Chilkat leggings and Chilkat by Patrice DeAsis, "Totemic Theory" acrylic on canvas by Clarissa Rizal, a pair of moccasins by Percy Kunz, and button blanket bib by Mary Ebona Miller
Percy Kunz weaving a small cedar bark basket - her pair of sealskin and moosehide mittens are in the foreground - Fausto Paulo's cross-stitched Chilkat tunic is in the background
Della Cheney explains her robe design to Melinda Cavanaugh - Fausto Paulo to the left concentrates on his latest Ravenstail weaving
With assistance from his mother Lorraine DeAsis, Joshua prepares cedar bark strands for weaving by running the bands through the "stripper"
Armondo DeAsis and his brother Antonio, are weaving another round of cedar bark headbands
Folk Festival president Greg McLaughlin with wife, Lis Saya and inventor, John Ingalls hang out enjoying all who attended the exhibit
Irene Lampe and her son, Richard, are excited about "digging in" to the wonderful refreshments
Thank you to all who came out on this cold, slightly-blustery evening and joined us for a round of pleasant artistic company and a bite to eat.
Mar 8, 2011 | Honoring Others, Latest Art Projects, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Archie Cavanaugh with grandson, Joseph, and Clarissa who is proudly displaying Archie's latest two CD's "Love Birds" and "Alaska Jazz"
Tlingit Singer/Songwriter/Jazz musician, Archie Cavanaugh launched his latest CD titled “Alaska Jazz.” The past two days, I’ve been Chilkat weaving to “Alaska Jazz” along with Archie’s second CD “Love Birds”. The wonderful, upbeat, jazzy, loving energy of these two albums are the perfect sounds for me to Chilkat weave; I kid you not! I can go long stretches of time weaving happily away to cuts like “Sparklin Eyes”, “Amy” and “Love’s The Way” just to name a few. I mean like, I had to move my Van Morrison over for the past few days. I just want to hear Archie. The problem is that Archie has only three albums, and so the repetition is starting to get to me. What to do about it? Encourage Archie, help Archie, assist Archie, in any way, shape or form, to put together another album! In fact, go to his website and buy all three of his albums. This guy has got to catch up to the numbers of albums Van Morrison has put out, that’s all there is to it!
Check out Archie’s album cuts on his website at: www.archiecavanaugh.com
Mar 7, 2011 | Class Act, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
A view of Dinah Hobson's "office" which is used for subjects pertaining to "Indian Studies" which is where I did my presentation - notice the "button blanket" backdrop for the Native news clippings, etc.
Like they are “just” high school students, duh? Why the heck would I be so nervous in front of them? Like I’ve done presentations and performances to audiences of up to 2000 total strangers; why would I sweat over presenting my life’s work before 13 kids in 9th, 10th and 11th grade who are part of the “early scholars” group? – Well, it’s like this: have you ever kept Jr. High and High School kids from being bored?
High school teacher, Karina Reyes and Clarissa meet for the first time; she asked about the last name of Rizal, like is Clarissa related to the Filipino martyr Jose Rizal? The answer: Yes. He was cousin to Clarissa's paternal grandmother, Patricia Rizal Lampe. Rizal was Clarissa's grandmother's maiden name. Clarissa's birth name was Clarissa Rizal Lampe; when she married in 1977, she changed it to Clarissa Rizal Hudson; when she divorced in 2009, she dropped the Hudson
Dinah Hobson, Jamelyn "Jay" Zeller, Karina Reyes, Nicole George and Clarissa Rizal
Jay Zeller shows Clarissa her drawing pad full of sketched characters and their names.
Leandrea Makaily, Taylee Escalante, Jay Zeller, Nicole George, Clarissa and Karina Reyes hang out and talk "artists talk!"
Mar 5, 2011 | Honoring Others, Tlingit Culture Accentuated |
Northwest Coast Native-influenced aerial sculpture in the modern entry way of Juneau-Douglas High School
I graduated from the Juneau-Douglas High School on my 18th birthday in June 1974. I haven’t been in the school since the City & Borough of Juneau had it remodeled years ago. I wasn’t living in Juneau when it was remodeled so I cannot tell you the date. Today was the second time I had been in the high school since I graduated. I did a presentation to the “early scholars” class of 9th, 10th & 1th graders. Directly before my presentation, I quickly took shots of the public art within the vicinity of the path from the front door to Room 214 where i was doing my presentation – I am sorry I did not have the time to get the names of the artists. Yet, judging by the style of art, I recognize some of the artists’ style. Do you know any of the artists?
The remodeled entry of Juneau-Douglas High School
I am impressed with all the public art within a minute from the front doors of the school. Public art was not something to be had anywhere in Juneau when we were in school. Then art teacher, Max Lewis would have loved to see this kind of progress. He tried to plaster the walls with our art any chance he could. If I had photographs of the school halls back then and compare them to what this school has now, we would think that we used to school in a slum.
No doubt a seal among salmon!
Several of these paintings line the upper walls of the cafeteria/commons room off the entry forum.
Even artwork along the stairwell walls!
Very large mural above the forum entry
I am reminded that I’ve been known to do some public art in various places throughout Alaska. With my Ex, back in the late 1980’s into the early 2000’s, we had created a variety of public art in various mediums. Our first one was in Sitka, then several in Anchorage, one in Fairbanks and at least three in Juneau, and one on the ferry to Bellingham, the MV Kennicott. I think I’ll gather up what images I may have of those works and post a blog about them. I’d like to see them all clustered in one public place…like this blog. Stay tuned…
