Elders past and the whale; children present and connected

One of the ironies I face in keeping a blog is the times when I am out and about shooting the heaviest, taking the most pictures, are the same times when it is almost impossible for me to find the time to blog a decent sample of the pictures.

Following Eli's funeral on Monday, I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday covering the Elders and Youth Conference, held at the Iñupiat Heritage Center here in Barrow. It ended last night at about 11:00 when the drummers at the Eskimo dance stood, raised their drums over their heads and brought the final dance to a close.

I have not looked at my take yet and the project I am working on is long term, so I have no immediate need to edit the pictures into a package. I think I will try to work on it a little bit next week to give myself an idea of what I have and perhaps to give myself some material to post here, but a serious edit of a three day take so image-laden as this one could easily take two full weeks and I have many other things I must do, so I doubt I will do a thorough edit.

I took this image during a break. I took the photos hanging on the wall about 20 years ago, along with several others outside the frame. The faces pictured here all now lie under the earth. A couple of times, I found myself just staring into those faces, remembering them as I got to meet them, trying to comprehend still the things I can never comprehend about the experiences they had in life, and the unique knowledge, mental strength and physical toughness it took for them to live as they did and to make it deep into old age.

The styrofoam bowhead whale hanging from the ceiling? In life, they knew the real whale as did no other human beings. The same is true for the ocean it swam in, the creatures in it, particularly the marine mammals, and the land that abutted it and the animals that lived upon it.

Big changes are happening now. While it can still get awfully cold out here, overall the climate is warming, habitat is changing. Shell Oil is punching holes in the ocean floor, seeking to extract great wealth from the traditional territory of the Iñupiat. Much of this conference was dedicated to dealing with these changes, while passing on the knowledge and language in which it is held - the language spoken by the people whose faces hang on the wall, people who are gone now.

So next week, I will see if I can make some small visual summary of what happened this week. I won't promise. Other things, working toward the same end, compete for my time.

Right after I took the top picture, I turned and saw these girls beneath the table behind the whale.