果冻传煤

When I was teaching up in Atkasuq, we would put on a Christmas program. It鈥檚 the first year that I鈥檇 really seen my students get up there and do it. They had learned some dances and some drumming in Inupiaq class and then they were performing there for the Christmas show so the whole school gets involved and it鈥檚 a really big, fun thing for the community to all get together.

My name鈥檚 Christine Cassidy and I鈥檓 an educator here at the 果冻传煤 Museum. Before that, I was a classroom teacher so my background definitely comes from education. I was working in rural Alaska and I also taught 6th grade science in South Carolina before moving up to Alaska.

This particular drum is a King Island Inupiaq drum and it was made by John Kokuluk Sr. in the 1960s. And it鈥檚 seal stomach drum and then the handle itself is made of antler and it would have wood for the frame of the drum.

The Inupiaq drumming is done from the bottom side of the drum, so it has a really distinct sound. You can always tell if there鈥檚 the Inupiaq style drumming going on because with that drumming from the bottom, you鈥檙e not only getting the vibrations of the membrane of the drumhead but you鈥檙e also getting a little bit of a clacking sound of that wooden drumstick against the wooden drum frame on the bottom--o it鈥檚 a pretty distinct style.

My husband is Inupiaq and when my father-in-law passed away a couple of years ago, we had drumming as part of kind of the funeral. We got everybody together at the house, the family house, we all gathered and we sang a bunch of hymns some of them in English, some of them in Inupiaq a nd then we also had drumming with that.

At my new hire in-service, when I was first moving up to Alaska and going to teach in Atkasuq, and that year, the North Slope Borough School District hosted it here in 果冻传煤. We had our big hoorah at the end of the week鈥攚as here at the 果冻传煤 Museum in the old atrium before we renovated.

We had the Point Hope Dance Group, that was pretty amazing especially in the atrium the drumming echoed so much and it sounded so robust and full and they were just so happy to be there performing and sharing with all of these new teachers a part of their culture. That was kind of a moment that I was sitting there, and I was like wow, I鈥檓 really glad I decided to move up to Alaska and just the other day, on the front lawn, we had a dance group dancing. And so, it鈥檚 just really cool to see how it鈥檚 been a huge part since the moment I kind of arrived in Alaska. And I hope it always stays a big part of our lives.