Majik_Imaje
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off
|
 p.2 #23 · Arctic Models @ 30 below zero! | |
Life in the Arctic is at best .., totally unpredictable, even something as ordinary as walking to work.
Clyde Harris from Kotzebue was walking to work, one day,(2004) same as always, walking along the beach. (Kotz has a pop. of 3000+ It is not a whaling village).
Just walking along any of the beaches up here, that is all it takes.
Clyde saw something small sticking out of the mud, he kicked it and almost broke his foot. He bent over and grabbed it and the earth moved, ten feet away. He jumped, ran home, got a shovel, and dug this monster out of the mud.
Ancient fossil Mastadon tusk 20,000 years old or older. These beaches and tundra are invested with this type of material. From Kotzebue, clear up to Barrow and beyond. Fossil Ivory is a way of life here above the arctic circle.
Clyde was immediately offered $15,000 for this one tusk
Point Hope has an unemployment rate of perhaps as much as 75%.
Arts & Crafts are the means which enable many families to generate an income.
Bea Lisburne in Kotzebue, found two mastadon teeth, sticking out of the mud, a great distance away from the village, these two teeth were the size of a "brick" . she received, $1000 from the Northwest Arctic Borough.
Here is a tiny piece of a mastadon tooth, actual size. You can see the layers of the tooth and the crushing action of the tooth as it grew.
Artifacts are found on many of these beaches also. some strange things wash up on these beaches, especially during the violent storms we have, frequently in the fall time.
This old artifact, appears to be a "saw" of some type, the handle fits neatly into the palm of the hand and a unique placement spot for the index finger, is expertly hand crafted, it is ivory, very thin and flexible. It is obvious by the size that this was made for the hand of a young woman. Perhaps it was used to cut frozen fish. Grayling is eaten raw & frozen. It is delicous.
We found this on one beach, 50 miles north of the village. It is heavy, It is black fossilized ivory, This appears to be a weapon of some sort. it is blunt, thick, and we are wondering, what are the patterns on the inside. This is very valuable just as it is. So we decide, to cut it open and make ear-rings out of it.
Fossil Ivory has magnificent patterrns on the inside from being bashed around in the ocean, absorbing all of the elements of the ocean. It takes many thousand of years, to turn ivory black and penetrate deep into the core.
No two pieces are ever alike.
This stuff is extremly valuable and commands very high prices when sold.
some people do not carve, or create arts & crafts, they make their living just selling what they find, to other artists. I have seen baseball size fossil tusks sell for as much as 5,000.
For some people, this is a full time job, walking the beaches, especialy when the storms arrive, You call them hurricanes, we are out there on the beaches, waiting, watching as these huge waves come crashing in, over flooding the banks of this village. You can hear, the ivory in the surf, the distinctive ping as gravel hits a piece. Some hunters have a rope tied around them, So they can run into the waves and grab a huge piece or a head set from a walrus that has perished from eons ago.
Here are some cross cut sections of fossil ivory.
And some bracelets My sons have made.
I pulled all four of my Inupiaq sons out of high school 4 years ago. I enrolled them in the YOU-niversity of D.A.D ! "Disclipine and Deternination"
My sons stay @ home, and they work, all day, every day, long hours.
In fact: Majik Imaje are the initials of my four Inupiaq sons !
MarkAndrew, Jesse, Isaiah, Khristopher = MAJIK
same names, same initials for IMAJE, using our last name for the E !
Now lets see just how these people manage to gather their food, many miles out on the ocean ice. At temperatures you can't begin to imagine. 50 below zero, sleeping outside for 2 months.
My model for this portion is Irma Oktollik she taught me much of the Inupiaq way and tradition.
We wait.. .. for that whale to give itself over to the captain of its choice.
The whale will always match the captains personality. NO matter which year a captain receives a whale, that whale will do the exact same thing, every year for that specific captain.
Some captains will never receive a whale because of their (bad) personality.
for instance when such and such a captain harpoons a whale, that whalel will always go south, and for another captain that whale will always go north, and for one particular captain, that whale will always hide under the ice, This captain has to find his whale,.. .. by using his nose.!! No. I would like someone to tell me how, it is possible for a person to smelll through 10 feet of ice @ 50 below zero. This is no coincidence, It takes a massive amount of effort for people to dig down through 10 feet of ice and locate a whale.
I have seen and witnessed things up here that do not make any sense what so ever. Not only will that whale do the same thing for that particular captain, each and every time he recieves a whale, SO DOES THE WEATHER.
This is difficult to explain, even more difficult to understand. These people's whole lives revolve around that whale. They are truely one with nature.
Irma could tell I wan't buying any of this as she spoke with me, and she laughed, .. "you watch she said.. This year it is warm..(20 below ha !!).
This is Joe's weather, you watch she said, When Joe receives a whale, it happens quick, He always receives that whale close to the ice.
Whales are like little children, some are timid, some are boastful, and some like to make a big show of their gift to us. When Joes strikes a whale, it is over, that whale always gives up quickly. But she laughed, be ready, for when that whale dies, the wind is going to come screaming in at over 100 miles an hour, and the temperature is going to drop 100 degress also!. she is laughing. She can see the expression on my face.
A friend of mine from Boston was up here to witness this hunt of 83.
When Irma had told me all about Joe, I moved my tripod and camera(s) over to his locaton, high on a ridge above him in back of him, my friend, Brad Parker and I were playing chess.! Stupid stupid stupid me, I never saw Joe slip his umiaq into the water at the edge of the ice.. I am concentrating on the board and I hear Boom !!! (exploding harpoon), I look up to see a dead whale in the water, next to Joes umiaq, Just as I was getting up, THAT WIND, came sceaming in. Everyone is running for clothes, Joe is standing into the wind with both arms outstretched, smiling !! How did that woman know, what would happen and how it would happen two weeks before it ever did happen,?? She called it 100%!
Edited by Majik_Imaje on Feb 10, 2008 at 02:03 AM GMT
Edited on Feb 10, 2008 at 11:03 AM
|
