Photo of MaryAnn Sundown by Christopher Pike.

I was intrigued by the article’s description of MaryAnn Sundown, whose dancing is apparently a highlight of the Cama-i festival each year.

Tiny, bow-legged and stooped, she waves hips and sways arms like a teen, her long wrinkled face flashing between deadpan suspense and wild laughter. . . [Her son,] Harley Sundown said diet’s a key factor in her spunk. She prefers raw fish, and the occasional soup.

“Nothing but Yup’ik food,” he said.

Harley, lead singer for the Scammon Bay Dancers, said she doesn’t think a whole lot about being honored as a Living Treasure.

She’s like most older Natives, who have “almost no pride or gloating of personal achievements.”

“She doesn’t think a whole lot of it, just like Michael Jordan would say it’s the team,” he said. “It’s not even a big part of her day.”

Here’s a video from the 2007 Cama-i festival (found via the Bethel Arts website).

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The Tundra Drums – Delta Diva to receive ‘living treasure’ award.

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Image via CBC

Now that the Olympic Winter Games have ended, it’s time for the Arctic Winter Games, where youths from indigenous communities throughout the circumpolar regions gather to compete.

Like the Vancouver Olympics, Winter Games organizers in Grande Prairie have had to contend with unseasonably warm weather this year, as well as the difficulties inherent in being the southernmost community to ever host the games. Difficulties which seem to include a certain amount of ribbing from the visiting teams:

“Theres things called trees that we’re not used to, and that’s going to be a little bit of a surprise to our dogs,” said John Hickes, a dog-mushing coach from Rankin Inlet, Nunavut

The theme of this year’s event is the Hero’s Journey, and Sunday’s opening ceremony drew upon the stories and traditions of various northern communities.

Good luck to all the athletes!

via CBC News – Edmonton – Arctic Winter Games open in Alberta.

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Next week, the eyes of the world will be on Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Athletes from around will be competing, including Aqpik Peter, a speed skater from Iqaluit, Canada’s northernmost capital city. Aqpik’s official Olypic bio elaborates on the skater’s roots:

Raised by his grandmother, Aqpik is fluent in the Inuit language, Inuktitut. In 2006, he became the first person to deliver the Athlete’s Oath in an Aboriginal language at a national competition. He also demonstrates traditional Inuit games when dignitaries visit Iqaluit. When he isn’t training, Aqpik likes to hang out with his friends and play soccer. He also enjoys playing Inuktitut gospel music and Metallica on the guitar.

We’re going to be watching this year’s speed skating competition with great interest. Good luck, Aqpik Peter!

Aqpik Peter : Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

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via Day 7: The Olympic torch in the Great White North, where the youth shine bright .

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The Canadian government has decided to approve Nunavut’s proposal to declare Inuktitut, English and French its official languages, reports The Globe and Mail.

The territory’s Official Languages Act was passed by Nunavut’s politicians last June, but it needed final approval from the federal government before it could become law.

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Over the next few weeks, I’ll be looking at polar bears in honor of this summer’s bear-centered expedition to Coats Island.

Today, I read an interesting article from the Toronto star about new techniques being used to track the affects of hunting and global climate change on Canada’s polar bear population. In the past, scientists have relied on population surveys that involve tracking bears by air and tranquilizing them. Because of the expense inherent in these sorts of studies — more than $2 million per region, over Canada’s thirteen regions — such surveys can only be conducted every thirteen years or so.

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