When this year’s Alaska Federation of Natives convention gets underway in Anchorage this week, you’ll see pictures of children everywhere at the Dena’ina Center. From posters on the wall to signs at the entrance of the main convention hall, to the cover of the program guide, you’ll see lots of round, sweet faces smiling at you.
Proud parents from across the state submitted these snapshots to AFN’s annual subsistence photo contest, which showcases the wide variety of wild foods that are gathered year-round.
The contest is not so much a competition as a celebration of the Alaska Native subsistence lifestyle.
This year’s AFN conference coordinator, Nikki Stoops, said every photo is sure to bring a smile.
“We had over a hundred entries,” Stoops said. “They were all phenomenal pictures that captured our convention theme.”
Stoops said the photos are meant to tug at the heartstrings, to bring about a serious reflection on the status of Alaska Native children who struggle at home, at school and in the community for a variety of reasons. Some of those include historical and intergenerational trauma, the lack of health and social services to address the high rates of suicide and mental health problems, as well as inequities in education funding, especially for rural schools.
The theme is inspired in part by the late Dr. Walter Soboleff, a Lingít leader who championed education.
A national commission named in memory of Soboleff and another Great Plains tribal leader, Alyce Spotted Bear, produced “The Way Forward Report.” Its recommendations which will be taken up at the convention.
Before Soboleff died at the age of 102, he often encouraged young people to “take care of the older person you are going to become.” He told them their own Native culture could help them do that.
The photos are intended to inspire convention-goers to think about this message. The challenge for the judges — after hours of sifting through pictures of kids picking berries and catching fish — was to decide which one best spoke to that progression from childhood to elderhood. They finally settled on 4-year-old Austin Redfox, who sat on a tree stump with his hands firmly planted on his knees, as he watched his parents build a smokehouse for their salmon.
“He looked like a little old man, a little grandpa, sitting there watching the smokehouse,” Stoops said. “It just made us all so happy, just emulating probably what he sees in his hometown,” which happens to be Emmonak on the Lower Yukon River.
Austin’s mother, Lila Redfox, said her son constantly asks to help the family put dinner on the table. She listed off some of the foods her son has helped to gather.
“Fish, whale, seal, moose, birds,” said Redfox, who appreciates Austin’s help kneading the dough for her home-baked bread.
Although Yup’ik children are taught to learn through observation, Redfox was surprised that her son, at the age of 1, had seen enough and was ready to pitch in.
“I was tanning a sealskin hide,” she said, “and he came up to me and grabbed the tanning tool — and tried to scrape the seal skin hide.”
Redfox said it’s important to teach children early about the sacred role subsistence plays in Native culture. She said she’s discovered that with some support and encouragement from the family, it becomes second nature for children.
“It makes me and my husband proud,” she said. “It makes us feel like we’re raising them right, doing a great job as a parent.”
For her winning photo, Redfox received two roundtrip Alaska Airlines tickets. She said she'll use one of them to bring Austin to the AFN convention this week.
She wonders what his reaction will be when he sees his face all over the place.
And there will be many others to see. Each, like Austin’s, tells a story.
The two other top finishers are from the Lower Yukon River. Jacklyn Andrews, also from Emmonak, won second place for her photo of her six-year-old daughter, Halle, cutting fish.
“All summer I was cutting fish to put away for the winter,” Andrews said. “Every time I'd be cutting fish, she'd ask to help. But I didn't let her.”
Finally, Andrews gave in.
“She was crying her lungs out to cut fish,” she said. “She got so happy when I told her to start cutting. She said, ‘Mom, I’m so busy.’”
Third place went to Tanya Chikigak from Alakanuk. Her photo shows her 2-year-old daughter, Christine, squinting her eyes almost like a little elder as she proudly presented her berries to her mother.
Chikigak said the picture was taken in July, after a two-hour boat ride to a spot where you can find lots of cloud berries.
“It was her very first, time picking berries, and those were her very first berries,” Chikigak said. “When we were done picking, she kept asking to pick more.”