Elder Voices: Wilfred Anowlic

“Eskimo dancing and singing makes you feel good. It makes you forget all the problems you have in your life, your mind. It’s just like turning everything over to the care of God.” – Wilfred Anowlic Episode 1: Music Episode 2: Subsistence Episode 3: Peace  

Elder Voices: Betty Segock

“Always teaching Always learning An Elder speaks While listeners observe intently Learning from brain to heart…” – Yaayuk Alvanna Stimpfle Episode I: Elim Episode II: Solomon Episode III: Nome, Elim, and God

Elder Voices: Harriet Penayah, Part Three

This series features Yupik Elder Harriet Penayah. Listen to the previous episode here. Harriet Penayah stays active in her community. The 80 year-old elder teaches children native drumming and dance. She also recently opened up her home to her community’s youth. Savoonga has no teen center. After the “hang-out place” closed down, Harriet saw teens […]

Elder Voices: Harriet Penayah, Part Two

This series features Yupik elder Harriet Penayah. Listen to the first episode here. For most of her life, Harriet Penayah worked as a health aide in Savoonga. She tended to the wounded and sick within her community, stitching up cuts, transfusing blood, and even delivering twins. There were no doctors in Savoonga. No nurses. But Harriet says […]

Elder Voices: Harriet Penayah, Part One

This episode is the first of a three-part series featuring Yupik elder Harriet Penayah. When Harriet Penayah was growing up in Savoonga in the 1930s, the Alaska native village looked much the same as it does today. “No igloos,” she says, “no sod houses.” Just wooden-frame homes clustered above the black sandy beach. But, she says, […]

Elder Voices: Vince Pikonganna

On this month’s episode of Elder Voices, hear from Vince Pikonganna of King Island. Vince remembers his youth on the island, and along the way, sharing his knowledge of Inupiaq values and customs his elders passed down to him. Listen to Vince tell his story: