It’s been almost a decade since Nome last hosted the United Youth Courts of Alaska Conference. And with Nome hosting, the conference had a few unique elements, like the lighting of a traditional seal oil lamp known as a qullik to open the event.
The fleshy but sweet smell of rendered seal fat wafted throughout the front of the room.
“This was how we heated our homes, but its also become a symbol that connects us back to our ancestors and to our ways of life,” one of the event’s organizers, Meghan Sigvanna Tapqaq, explained to the group assembled in the Nome Elementary School cafeteria. “So when we light this, we like to think of our ancestors and people who have had a positive influence on us.”
The conference featured students from Anchorage, Kodiak, Mat-Su, Valdez, Ketchikan, Kenai and Juneau. For most, it was their first time in Nome.
Tapqaq is Inupiaq with family roots in Mary's Igloo and Nome. She led the students through a quick Inupiaq language lesson, first teaching them how to introduce themselves followed by a dance lesson.
It was a jam-packed day, with presentations from locals like Rachel Hensley on networking skills. In the afternoon, Alaska Supreme Court Justice Aimee Oravec arrived to deliver the keynote speech.
“You may not know today, and you may not know in a year, and you may not even know in five years the potential good impact you're having on your co-students, other people in the community, and actually larger in the world,” Oravec said. “Youth Court has such a quiet and yet important impact on the work done in the justice system.”
Oravec explained that of Alaska’s 2,100-or-so lawyers, only about 1,300 live in the state. And of those, even fewer want to be judges or represent a business. She encouraged the young audience of about 65 students to get into the field, using some “hip” language along the way.
“If you have any inkling whatsoever that you might like to do this for a career, I'm up-voting, because Alaska needs lawyers,” she said.
Oravec was sworn into office last January, making her the newest Alaska Supreme Court justice. She ended her time on stage by swearing in the Youth Court’s newest members.
The first day of the conference ended with a screening of “Blood and Myth- The Story of Teddy Kyle Smith”. The documentary follows the story of an Inupiaq man that claimed he was possessed when he shot two people. The film’s executive producer, James Dommek Jr of Kotzebue joined virtually to talk about the film. He was followed by John Earthman, a recently retired district attorney who served as prosecutor on the 2012 case.
The next morning, the students gathered at the Nome Courthouse for a tour and mock sentencing. Rather than a traditional sentencing, the students took part in what Tapqaq called “circle peacemaking”. Split into small groups, the students sat in a circle so everyone could see each other’s faces.
They were given a scenario and assigned characters to roleplay.
“It turns out in the fact pattern, that the reason the one boy had beaten up the other one was because the first boy had been making some comments about a dead sibling, and so he was kind of trying to figure out how to process that grief,” Tapqaq explained.
The students went around a circle, taking turns sharing their character’s perspectives on the incident.
“I think we should give him a little bit of grace for that, but also it's just not acceptable to attack someone, a peer, or anyone really,” one student said.
“I think it’s crude that someone was talking about a passed away relative, so I really do understand on that level,” another student added.
By the end, the group needed to make a unanimous decision on a fit punishment. One group settled on 60 hours of community service for the defendant, with the victim also needing to do 20 hours of community service. Another, with the same scenario, found 26 hours of community service for the defendant was sufficient.
“So what I heard in the circle that I was sitting in with was obviously violence is not the answer,” Tapqaq said. “We're trying to hold people accountable with compassion, and that means realizing that this is a much more nuanced situation, and that actually there's a little bit of fault on both sides.”
Through her work as staff attorney at tribal non-profit Kawerak, Tapqaq holds circle peacemaking sessions in villages across the Bering Strait region. She said unlike Western style hearings, where having a relationship with the defendant generally bars you from participating, in circle peacemaking it’s a strength.
“It's not considered a conflict of interest. We want people who are related, we want to pull them in,” she said. “It's not just one person making a decision on behalf of everybody, it's the group coming together and figuring out what is the best path forward.”
The students returned to Nome-Beltz Middle High School for another round of sessions and an election for next year’s officers before returning to the road for a soup contest. In the end, Valdez and its “Valdez Magic” soup took the win.
Reflecting on a conference that “filled up her cup”, Tapqaq said she was even more optimistic for the students’ professional futures.
“Once you go on to be on city council, school board, tribal council, this is going to be a really great experience to have in your back pocket to know like, hey, we can look to our peers and other communities for successes and to be able to learn from them and adapt things as needed to fit the needs of our own community,” Tapqaq said.
As the awards ceremony wrapped, Nome-Beltz’ spring formal was getting underway in the gym. The students traded their dress shirts and blouses for suits and dresses for one last celebration – Nome style.
