Jestem Inuitą

Jestem Inuitą, czyli kim? Rdzennym mieszkańcem takich terenów, jak Alaska, Kanda czy Grenlandia. Inuici na Alasce dzielą się na dwie główne wspólnoty: Inupia i Yupiit. Fotograf Brian Adams pokazał, że choć są tak ważną częścią tego stanu, nikt nie uwiecznia ich kultury.

Pewnego dnia zauważył trzech mężczyzn, sprzątających drewnianą chatę. Wiedział, że to Inuici, nie miał więc śmiałości poprosić ich o możliwość zrobienia zdjęcia. Później jednak uświadomił sobie, że jeżeli nie zapyta, będzie tego żałował do końca życia. Ku jego zdumieniu, mężczyźni nie tylko się zgodzili, ale zaprowadzili go do „swoich”. Tak zrodził się pomysł na niezwykły projekt I AM INUIT.

“I am 20 years old. I love to hunt here for birds. In the next five years, I would like to be working here. I have to do training in Anchorage. I would like to work with water and sewer here in Tuluksak-I want to stay here.” – Randy Kashatok is Yup’ik and lives in Tuluksak, Alaska.

Post udostępniony przez I AM INUIT (@iaminuit) 22 Lut, 2016 o 11:40 PST

“I am originally from Kotzebue [Alaska]. I married a man from Noatak [Alaska]—that’s what brought me here. I had 13 kids, one adopted. My brother arranged my marriage even though I was going with someone. I have been in Noatak since 1948. I like Noatak. We would go hunting just across from Kotzebue, every summer we would go down there to hunt ugruk [bearded seal] and stuff for our food—that’s how we live, we go around the world. I like to go berry picking. I like to do things, but I can’t do anything anymore, but my boys are taking good care of me. I am 85 years old, some people can’t believe it! I can still understand English and Eskimo. That’s how I was raised. My dad was a pastor in Noatak and Kivalina [Alaska]. We would travel to Kivalina with dog team. That was the good life. I love the outdoors.” — Martha Burns is Inupiaq and lives in Noatak, Alaska. Marriage, in traditional Inuit culture, was a necessity and not a choice. Often times, marriages were arranged at birth to ensure the survival of the family, because every individual had to rely on a partner to survive.

Post udostępniony przez I AM INUIT (@iaminuit) 1 Lut, 2016 o 1:54 PST

“I lost my twin sister in 1988. My daughter in there [inside the house] is named after her. Her name is Lucy.” — Linda Soplu is “amaq-ing” (Inupiaq for packing) her Grandson George Soplu. Both are Inupiaq from Kaktovik, Alaska. Both Inupiat and Yup’ik have traditionally named newborn babies after people who have recently passed away. It is believed that those who have been named after those who have passed on take on characteristics of their namesake.

Post udostępniony przez I AM INUIT (@iaminuit) 6 Sty, 2016 o 2:24 PST

“I was born in 1922 on March 31. I was born in a sod house here. There is a lot changing—more and more changing. That’s the way it is. Today, our young people don’t have much work. We have got to do something for our young people; they need to think of who they are. They need to work together, and be reminded of their culture. That’s what we want, that’s the way we should be. I worked with the Council and for the school, for so many years, I retired from there. The pictures {referring to the pictures behind him in the portrait} are important for your family. More history for your background.” —Issac Akootchook is an Inupiaq Elder from Kaktovik, Alaska.

Post udostępniony przez I AM INUIT (@iaminuit) 31 Gru, 2015 o 10:11 PST

Każde z wykonanych zdjęć ma swoją historię, jest osobną historią, która została opisana na Instagramie. Właśnie taki był cel – powszechnie dostępna galeria!

“I am Inupiaq. I grew up in Kaktovik [Alaska] my whole life. I work here at KIC [Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation] as the general manager, and I am the wife of a new whaling captain. We just started a crew this year and we caught the biggest whale. It was 50 feet 9 inches. The tail was 16 feet long! But it was really good muktuk (whale skin and blubber). Our whaling crew is called Silver Star, it was [my husband’s] dad’s whaling crew name so we just used it. My favorite part about living in Kaktovik is the peace and quiet, all the people here. We all know each other. We share our food. The best part is the food we eat is off the land and the ocean, and we share it with each other and we are not stingy. That’s what I like about living here. My part [as a whaling captain’s wife] of the whaling crew, it’s a lot of work, it’s a lot of organizing and making sure everything gets done the way it’s supposed to get done. I am happy to have my friend Fannie and the other crew members’ girlfriends. When we catch the whale, it’s really hard work, because you have to feed the village at lunch and at dinner in one day! That’s hard work, especially when you only have three cutters. I am lucky—I had my cousin come over and cook everything while we cut. And all the men, they make sure the meat is cut and get it ready for us to cut it into smaller pieces. It’s hard work, especially for a first time catching a whale. I have been through it; I was on my dad’s crew growing up. I knew how things were and we had a lot of elders teaching us. We would go help them and they would teach us how to do things like clean the intestines, cut the heart, cut the kidney and how skinny to cut the mukluk for boiling and how small to cut the meat and tongue. Then everybody is welcome into your small tiny home to come eat!”— Alicia Solomon is Inupiaq from Kaktovik, Alaska.

Post udostępniony przez I AM INUIT (@iaminuit) 23 Gru, 2015 o 12:40 PST

“These are my dad’s old sleds. The runners are bent, so I am taking it apart to rebuild it. I have been building sleds for quite a while. My dad taught me; he would watch me and when I would make a mistake, he would straighten me out, which was good, you know. He would watch and tell me, “you’re not doing it right, right there” and either I would take it apart or just keep on building. I would try not to get mad. Then I had to do it right, which is good. The airfare is getting pretty high here and the gas. So, it’s better off to get some dogs I think, and a lot cheaper. We have seven of our own kids and we adopted five more girls. We have a big family.” —Oscar Griest Sr., is Inupiaq from Shungnak, Alaska. He is working on a handmade sled to pull behind his snow machine. Similar types of sleds are used for dog mushing.

Post udostępniony przez I AM INUIT (@iaminuit) 22 Gru, 2015 o 2:43 PST

“My favorite thing to make with silvers is soup.”—Darryl Small Jr is Yupik from Quinhagak, Alaska.

Post udostępniony przez I AM INUIT (@iaminuit) 21 Gru, 2015 o 2:06 PST

“We met in Anchorage. We both worked at Red Dog [Mine], but I never noticed George at Red Dog. He saw me though! {Laughs} We moved to Shungnak [Alaska] in 2010. My mom was getting up there in age so we decided to move here to take care of her. She passed in 2013, and we are still here. Now we have got three kids here to take care of from the state—we took them in. Our favorite thing is to go to spring camp. We drag our boat down and stay there for three to four weeks. It’s about three bends down from Shungnak. We have a cabin there. Half dried fish is our favorite, we can never get enough. We have a big family, but we give the to the elders first—they are priority. That’s why we do subsistence, so we can give to the elders, so they can eat what they grew up with, and they are always appreciative and it makes you feel good. The younger generation is way different. All over Alaska, the respect for the elders has changed. It’s like when the younger generation learned to do subsistence, they tend to just do it for themselves or their family, nobody else, when they should learn to give to the needy first. You’re more successful in what you do when you give to all the elders or people that need help.” —George Goldy Sr. & Hannah Cleveland are both Inupiaq from Shungnak, Alaska.

Post udostępniony przez I AM INUIT (@iaminuit) 17 Gru, 2015 o 12:08 PST

IAI. Do you think technology is helping or hurting your community? PT. It’s helping in one way, I mean, you can go to college on the internet now. And in another way, it’s hurting, because it’s keeping the young people from their culture, from fishing and camp. —Paul Tickett is Inupiaq from Shungnak, Alaska.

Post udostępniony przez I AM INUIT (@iaminuit) 15 Gru, 2015 o 12:56 PST

Adams odwiedził 20 wspólnot, wracając z każdej podróży z kilkudziesięcioma portretami. „I Am Inuit” został opracowany z myślą o mediach społecznościowych, a konkretnie o Instragramie i udostępniania zdjęć. Ostatecznie jednak zdjęcia zostały pokazane również na wystawie w Anchorage Museum i przyciągają tłumy.

I like this village. We started living at fish camp year round when I was 6 years old. We needed food and there was no work. We were raised in camp until I was 17 years old. When I was 17, they sent me to school. It was during the winter, so I was there for six months, then the next year for three months. Then we went back to camp. Someone told me that “you won’t have a job if you’re not educated” and I sure worried about that because I never learned anything {at school}. At camp, my siblings and I learned how to make mukluks [fur boots], fish, pick berries, hunt, trap—we learned those things. Mom taught us how to make baskets, sew, and make nets. Back then there was no welfare or monies—they never gave us money, and we had a hard time living. So I was raised in camp. When I was 12 years old, I went to the school to visit. I spent the day there. Everybody was speaking English, and I didn’t know how to speak English. I never learned. I started speaking to them in Inupiaq, and they complained about me to the teacher, and then the teacher wrote down my name. When we all got ready to go out to play, the teacher said, “Mildred, you talked Eskimo in school.” He gave me a sheet of paper and a pencil, and he told me to write “I will not talk Eskimo in school anymore” 100 times. So, I wrote “I will not talk Eskimo in school anymore” 100 times. After I finished I gave that paper to him, I went out, and never went back to school. I started thinking that maybe I could sell baskets and make money. Then, my husband and I were in town with our three kids. He said, “Mildred, you can get birch bark for those girls so they can make baskets. You can teach them.” So I started teaching for two hours and later four hours a day at the school. I taught the boys and girls Inupiaq and what I learned at camp. I worked there for 20 years. — Mildred Black is Inupiaq from Shungnak, Alaska.

Post udostępniony przez I AM INUIT (@iaminuit) 11 Gru, 2015 o 11:58 PST

“I am 25, but look younger. My daughter just turned 11 months old today. I had her at Bethel [Alaska]. It seems scary to have a baby out here {Laughs}. Since I had her, it’s been mostly just me and her. She’s growing a little too fast.”—Kristy and Zoe Mark are both Yupik from Quinhagak, Alaska.

Post udostępniony przez I AM INUIT (@iaminuit) 30 Lis, 2015 o 12:18 PST

We are getting the muktuk ready to serve during Thanksgiving. We caught this whale on September 23rd. It is a bowhead whale. We are allowed three—our quota. We had lost one, so we had asked one of the villages if it was okay to have one of their whales, and we are thankful to Kivalina for giving up one of their whales. In the past we did that with them. We knew we would be short on muktuk if we had only two, so we asked one of the captains to ask them. Ours was 44.6 feet long. I am the captain’s wife, second in authority—actually, first from what I was told. When I found out, I said, you all know what to do, do your thing. My first crew I went on was my dad’s crew. I was 16. Then I married Eddie. I used to go out with his uncle’s crew, then he passed the crew down to Eddie, and that’s when we found out how it really works… Eddie’s uncle showed us how the authority works, how to do this and that. How to talk to new crew members, what not to do out there and what to expect from them. Sometimes you don’t know about first timers—one of our first timers went out and he hollered out there, and that’s not a good thing. We went right over the whale and he was like “AAH!” You’re not supposed to holler when you’re hunting! You keep quiet; you keep your eyes out for the blows. All eyes are always looking out because there is a whale out there somewhere. You will find it, and sometimes there is a bunch of them, all at once, one strike—we go for that one strike. We never caught two whales at a time before. I never want to see that happen because it will drain out everybody, trying to cut them up and get them put away before the polar bears get to them. There is 24-hour Nanuk patrol during whaling, because we’ve got polar bears waiting. You can see one of our pictures over there, one of our guys is bringing blubber to a polar bear that didn’t want to go away, so they brought him some blubber to keep him away from the cutting. — Marie Rexford is Inupiaq from Kaktovik, Alaska.

Post udostępniony przez I AM INUIT (@iaminuit) 26 Lis, 2015 o 11:43 PST

“We call them Quagciq in Yup’ik, I don’t know what we call it in English. I take the stem off, like this first, and this is what I cook. The only recipe I know is boil it really good until it’s mushy, drain it, and then smash it, put a lot of sugar in. Mix it with sugar and milk or seal oil.”–Annie Cleveland is gathering Quagciq (sourdock plant leaves), a wild plant just outside of Quinhagak, Alaska. There are many wild tundra plants and berries that Inuit have traditionally gathered for food and medicine.

Post udostępniony przez I AM INUIT (@iaminuit) 2 Lis, 2015 o 1:16 PST

“I work two jobs—here, at the coffee shop, and evening shifts at the Rec’ center [the Nome Recreation Center- the community gym]. I am saving up to go back to Hawaii and do modeling—well, continue my modeling. I was an import model for maybe four months, then I came home.”—Jessica Gologergen, a young St Lawrence Island Yupik woman from Nome, Alaska.

Post udostępniony przez I AM INUIT (@iaminuit) 29 Paź, 2015 o 12:52 PDT

Zamysł projektu zadziałał. Ludzie Arktyki, spuścizna kulturowa Alaski, w końcu została wyciągnięta na pierwszy plan. Coś niezwykłego!

“My mom made my ruff (fur around the hood of her coat) for me.” — Naomi Oxereok is Inupiaq and lives in White Mountain, Alaska. In 2011, Naomi’s mom, Danitra Oxereok, made the ruff out of wolf and black beaver in a sewing class offered by the village of White Mountain, Alaska.

Post udostępniony przez I AM INUIT (@iaminuit) 21 Mar, 2016 o 8:32 PDT