果冻传煤

I鈥檓 wondering where these are gonna go. She鈥檚 not cutting them up for no reason. And either she鈥檚 cutting it up for herself and her family to put into smaller bags to cache away to have throughout the year, or she鈥檚 putting it all up to bring to a celebration.

Uva艐a Qannik. Utqia摹vi艐miuguru艐a. A艐ayukaaqak Richard-lu Arlene-lu Glenn.

I鈥檓 Alice Qannik Glenn. I was born and raised in Barrow or Utqia摹vik. My parents are Richard and Arlene Glenn. Savaktu艐a Rasmuson Foundation-mi. So I work at Rasmuson Foundation right now as a Program Fellow.

So this is an image called Marie Rexford taken by Brian Adams. And it鈥檚 a photo of Marie. I think she鈥檚 standing in front of her house in what looks like to be winter with little squares of maktak urrounding her on the snow. And it鈥檚 a lot. It鈥檚 a lot of maktak. And they look like perfectly little cut squares. And she鈥檚 holding, I think, driftwood鈥攎aybe to separate the pieces. It looks chilly but she鈥檚 wearing a parka. She鈥檚 ready. She鈥檚 got mittens on. She鈥檚 got a really endearing look on her face.

When I see this food, it does evoke a sense of celebration for two reasons. I think the first is hard work. Like, the relationship between hard work cus you could see all of these squares.

We were cutting up a huge box, like one of those boxes in the back there. It was filled with maktak to the top and so my sister and my mom and I鈥攚e were spending all afternoon cutting up the maktak. And I was like, man, Patuk. My sister鈥攈er name is Patuk. How small do we have to cut up the pieces? And she said, think of how small you would want to have the maktak cut up into pieces. And she also said, we have to think of our elders too, who might not have all their teeth so you need to have the pieces cut up for them to comfortably chew as well. So that鈥檚 the first thing that I associate with the food is I could see that took a lot of time.

We have various cultural, seasonal celebrations throughout the year and the first one that it makes me think of when I see this much food in one place, 滨帽耻辫颈补辩 food, is Nalukataq. Nalukataq is the whale harvest festival that鈥檚 done during the summer. Most people associate Nalukataq with the blanket toss. But what I really think Nalukataq is about is the food, is sharing of the food and the resources from the successful whale hunt. And so, there鈥檚 this idea hard work, sharing, celebrating, and I think nourishment. Our traditional foods are so healthy for us.