Laka David and Shan Green huddled around a laptop and microphone, rehearsing a rap they just wrote called “Heart In This.” The minute-long song talks about joy and independence.
“I was just trying to be nice,” David rapped over a hip-hop beat. “If that’s how it’s gonna be, your future might be bleak.”
He and Green were among about 50 young Alaska Natives from all over the state who were learning about music production at the Elders and Youth Conference in downtown Anchorage on Monday. They collaborated with Indigenous artists to write their own songs, crafting lyrics about their cultural values, families and homes. The artists hoped the hands-on workshop encouraged the participants to think about pursuing music. They said representation in the music industry is liberating, and there needs to be more of it.
“I love working with the youth,” Artist Tyler Apaquutaq Young, known as 2essentialz, said. “I just love watching them engage and just engage their creativity and creative expression. Like, this is where this starts!”
On Monday, Young mentored David and Green’s newly-formed music group called “Aqpik,” which is Iñupiaq for salmonberries.
He said creating music has allowed him to relate and connect with other Indigenous people, and with his Tsimshian culture.
“Even perhaps with reclaiming our identity as Indigenous people, healing from historical trauma, just having a seat at the table and feeling like that. Just being authentically and unapologetically Native. That’s what I love about music,” he said.
Across the room, Tyler Simunoff and about 10 other kids also worked on a rap, theirs was about subsistence. Simunoff said he struggled to find lyric inspiration at first, but it became easier once he focused on things he enjoyed when he’s home in Kodiak.
“I like to hunt, fish and gather resources to live off the land,” Simunoff said.
He said he’s always liked listening to music, but he’s never created his own so he was eager to attend this session.
“It was the best one on the list that I saw in the first few options,” he said. “I thought it would be a great opportunity.”
A few chairs down, Manu David wrote a list of what she likes to do when she visits her family in Ruby, a village of less than 200 people along the Yukon River.
Parts of her lyrics, she said, drew inspiration from the abundance of blueberries she picks and eats each year.
“I like to go berry picking. I like weaving baskets with cedar, and I like to cut and filet fish,” she said.
Caden Tarkington from Anchorage had the same idea: focusing on what he loves about living in Alaska. He’d already written his verse.
“Getting down, walking up, ready to go hunting, in and out the camp we go,” he said.
Eventually Tarkington’s verse was weaved with the others, with the help of event staff. The group titled their song “Native Life,” and it shares their perspectives on subsisting across Alaska.
Take a listen:
Ava White reports on economics and hosts the statewide morning news at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at awhite@alaskapublic.org or 907-550-8445. Read more about Ava here.
