A Dancing People "Yupiit Yuraryarait"

Dedication: "With Love and Respect, this Program is dedicated to the Elders of the Nine Villages."

The KYUK TV Productions Collection: A series of informative TV documentaries spotlighting varied aspects of life among the Yup’ik people of Southwestern Alaska. These films were produced by television station KYUK (Bethel Broadcasting) in Bethel, Alaska, which has kindly made them available to the American Indian Film Gallery.

Named locations: Negeqliq Qaariitaarvik (St. Mary's) village; the nine Yup’ik villages from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

Major themes covered: Dancers and musicians from nine Yup’ik Eskimo villages gather in St. Mary’s in the fall of 1982 for the first major regional dance festival in more than 50 years. The video documents three days of dancing, gift giving, and contests.

Native activities shown:  Dancing, gift giving, and contests. Four children from local schools receive awards; Catharine Hart wins an award for a food contest.

Individuals Named: Catherine Hart,

Native language spoken: Fully bilingual: onscreen speakers use English and Yup'ik interchangeably; English voiceover narration by Lillian McGill.
 
Noteworthy elements:  Yup'ik dancing, singing, and drumming; subsistence activities (hunting, fishing, gathering); Yup'ik language; relationships between young, old, and ancestors; merging of new and old traditions

Other Notes:

Transcription of Text from "A Dancing People"

"I have seen the hunters when they danced: the old men, the hunters, and the boys. I have heard the songs of the hunters and the beat of the great drums when they danced for the people."

"I have seen the ladies when they danced: the old ladies, the young women, and the girls. Brave and stately, quick and graceful, their fans like sea grass, like wings, like snow, when they danced for the people."

"We are the Yup'ik, the Inuit of the great river deltas and the sea. We are a dancing people. We are a singing people. We remember the old stories and the great festivals."

"I have seen the greatest of the festivals that the St. Mary's people gave for the nine villages in the fall of the year."

"I have seen the three days of dancing and the giving of gifts and the feast."

[NOTE: NARRATION CONTAINS YUP'IK NAMES AND PLACES THAT I AM UNABLE TO TRANSCRIBE]

"I have heard the hunters singing in our own language: the old songs and the songs that they made, songs about hunting, fishing, and gathering, songs about travelling and their daily work, songs about the animals and the birds."

"I have seen the ladies dancing, crowned with beads and manes of reindeer hair, the colors of their headdresses, the finest of the their fans, the skill of their hands."

"And I have laughed with the people until the tears came, laughed at the antics of the jokers, the faces they made, the hoots and howls, making fun at the community."

"I have seen the strength of the hunters when they danced: the old hunters, the young men, and the boys; the things they've seen, the dangers and the hardships. I have seen the joy of the young men when they danced. I have seen the great humility of the old hunters."

"I have seen the grace of the ladies when they danced: the old ladies, the young women, and the girls; the things they've seen, children born and work shared. I have seen the beauty of the young women when they danced. I have seen the serenity of the old ladies."

"I have seen the people sharing, giving, working together. I have seen the respect they showed, honor to the elders, love for the children."

"We are the Yup'ik, the Inuit of the great river deltas and the sea. We are a dancing people. We are a singing people. We remember the old stories and the great festivals."

"I have seen the greatest of the festivals."  ~~Transcription by Emily Thomas, 2013

Print Resources:

Bogeyaktuk, Anatole and Charlie Steve. Taprarmiuni Kassiyulriit: Stebbins Dance Festival.    Trans. Sophie Shield and Marie Meade. Ed. Ann Fienup-Riordan. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2004. Print.

Fienup-Riordan, Ann. The Living Tradition of Yup'ik Masks : agayuliyararput = our way of making prayer. Seattle : Anchorage Museum of History and Art in association with Univ. of Washington Press, 1996. Print.

Meade, Marie and Ann Fienup-Riordan. Agayuliyararput : kegginaqut, kangiit-llu = Our way of making prayer : Yup'ik masks and the stories they tell. Seattle: Anchorage Museum of History and Art in association with Univ. of Washington Press, 1996. Museum Catalog. Print.

Williams, Maria Sháa Tláa. The Alaska Native Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Durham: Duke UniversityPress, 2009. Print.

See also on AIFG:

Just Dancing

Cama-I Dance Festival 1993 Series (Part I-III)

http://www.aifg.arizona.edu/film/cama-i-dance-festival-1993-part-i

http://www.aifg.arizona.edu/film/cama-i-dance-festival-1993-part-ii

http://www.aifg.arizona.edu/film/cama-i-dance-festival-1993-part-iii

St. Mary's Potlatch

--Emily Thomas, 2013