Skinboat Journal: June 2012

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Urban Unangax^ Culture Camp

Urban Unangax^ Culture Camp
Day 8 Friday

The menu of the guy across the hall at the golden Lion.

Chagix, halibut in Aleut/Unangam Tunuu

The little kids come in the boat building tent. We have them loft the kayak so they can see how light it is.

Natalia staining the skin of her kayak.

And progressing.

And progressing some more.

And done.

Drum instructors and students posing for pics.

And the picture takers.

Meanwhile, Ward is done and we take his picture.

Ward, Kolbe, Natalia and her brother all pose.

Later the boys show off their kayaks.

And horizontal

detritus from the guy across the hall.

Urban Unangax^ Culture Camp

Urban Unangax^ Culture Camp
Day 7, Thursday

Rainy day. The peanut farm where we turn off Old Seward onto International Airport road and on to the APIA.

Back in the tent. Good progress. The deck stringers are in place. I have bent coamings for everyone. Used the hot water from the drum making tent to soften up the wood. Used some of the poplar left over from the keelson stock. Not very good stuff. The drum makers are using electric heaters to heat their troughs and keep blowing the fuses so the water isn't that hot when I do the bending. Also, the stock only has spent one night in the pond soaking. But between a few good ones and a bunch of gorilla glue, we salvage enough hoops for everyone.

Konaa and Kolby working at the far side of the tent.

Paul and Konaa rounding off the ends of their stringers.

Photo shoot at noon. Everyone's frames are more or less done.

Konaa is starting to paint his frame with the traditional red ochre. Ward in the red shirt tells us that in his home village of Stebbins, AK they have a source of red ochre. Used to be a trade good since in the old days, everyone used it as a pigment for kayak frames, masks and anything else that needed to be red, the color of blood.

Kitty, Natalia's mom helping out with the sewing. Turned out to be a good thing she was available since she was not only good at sewing, but helped everyone else out on the last two days where we were heading for the finish line.

Kolbe and Konaa. Konaa has started wrapping cutoff strips of cloth from the kayaks around his body to simulate a mummy or zombie.

Meanwhile, back in the building, the dancers are doing rehersals in their regalia. Ethan Petticrew is the choreographer.

Meanwhile, Kolbe has gotten into the act. They have added paint to their arms and faces. Next day, their moms inform us that they don't want any more paint.

The tents.

This bag was in front of our door at the Golden Lion when we got in at night. Every morning there would be a pile of plates or empty pizza boxes or whatever of this guy's leftovers. We assumed that it was a guy because it was always guy food out front. Only this bag looked like the contents hadn't been eaten yet and needed consumption before they could be stashed in front of the door.

Urban Unangax^ Culture Camp

Day 6, Wednesday

Wednesday, 12:30 a.m. the sun has set but the light is still there.

Taxi fleet in the parking lot of the Best Western. Apparently a lot of people here use their services.

At lunch we run over to the Alaska Native Medical Center. John wants to shop for some ivory nicknacks but finds nothing he wants. I take pictures in the hall. Lots of nice stuff there.