Earlier this month, a dozen teenagers gathered in KOTZ’s studio in Kotzebue to listen to gospel music. Fifteen-year-old Edward Ochoa was one of them. He lives in Arizona but has family ties to the Northwest Arctic.
“My mom and aunty used to come down here all the time to sing for the radio, actually,” Ochoa said. “So it’s good to connect to a place where my mom and aunty came all the time.”
It was Ochoa’s first time hearing some of the recordings of his family singing. He was in Kotzebue with a group of 14 kids for a cross-cultural program.
Like many of the Alaska Native students in his group, Edward’s week in Kotzebue was full of firsts — the first time seeing cotton grass on tundra, the first time riding four wheelers, the first time eating Iñupiaq food.
Andrea Moses, whose Koyukon name is Nolteeł, was also part of the program. She is from the Interior community of Allakaket, with family ties to Bettles and Evansville. She said that Kotzebue is similar to her home, but with a few exceptions.
“There’s more sea animals here, obviously, because I’m more from the Interior. And I don’t think I’ve ever had seal,” Moses said.
Helen Panrak John is the Youth Program manager for the Alaska Humanities Forum.
“Traveling in Alaska is so expensive that a lot of the time they wouldn’t have the opportunity to go to these places,” John said. “We’ve had kids that experience the beach for the first time, we’ve had kids to walk on tundra for the first time. And that’s like a really crazy thing to watch. Someone experienced that for the first time and they’re in high school.”
The Ilakucaraq program is a partnership between the Alaska Native Heritage Center, the Alaska Humanities Forum, and Mount Edgecumbe High School. John says Ilakucaraq is a Yup’ik word that translates to “being together.”
Ilakucaraq is in its third year. The program has several components, but its primary goal is for Alaska Native students to learn about other cultures and communities in the state. John said that another important aspect is for students to see their own cultures as a source of strength as they grow up and finish high school.
“We strategically choose kids from different cultures, different regions, different grades, and different levels of knowledge about their culture so that they can really learn from each other as well,” she said. “We have kids from Alakanuk, Utqiaġvik to Tununak, Emmanok, all over the place.”
This year, some of the program participants traveled to the rural hub communities of Bethel, Kodiak, and Dillingham. A group also went to Utqiaġvik during Nalukataq, or the summer whaling festival. In Kotzebue, the teens learned about edible wild plants, cut and jarred dried, black seal meat in oil, and helped build drying racks for hanging fish. The group also learned Iñupiaq dance from a local dance group. John said that many of the activities include Elders and culture-bearers.
“We like to pay those people because they’re sharing knowledge with us and taking time out of their own, usually busy, like, subsistence season and weekends,” John said.
But John said that the Ilakucaraq program, which is funded through the Alaska Native Education Program under the United States Department of Education, might be losing its funding next year. Without the program, the students wouldn’t have opportunities to travel to other rural communities, or to bond with teenagers from other Alaska Native groups.
Some of the program’s participants say that could be a real loss.
Jaime Twitchell introduced herself in Yup’ik: “Waqaa, wiinga Yugcetun Qasqanayuk. Kasiglurmiunguunga tamani-llu cali anglilua. Angayuqaagka Cungassaq Iiguaq-llu. Ilakluki Kasiglurmiut yuralartua.”
Twitchell is from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta community of Kasigluk. It’s her third year participating in the program. “I’ve learned a lot from this program,” she said. “I mostly… I get social anxiety. So it’s helping me get through. And, like, meet more people.”
Her fellow program member, Jayden Lampe from Utqiaġvik, agreed.
“It’s a really great experience,” Lampe said. “I enjoy meeting a lot of new people. And that’s what I did, especially people from all throughout Alaska. It’s it’s nice to know that, like, I have a sense of community, not just where I’m from, but everywhere throughout Alaska.”
The program did not receive funding this spring, so this round of Ilakucaraq will end this fall. However, a representative from the Alaska Humanities Forum said that they are conducting similar youth programming statewide.
Julia Jimmie contributed Yugtun translation for this story.
