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18 February 2007-Comments:


The following is Cameron's email comment for 18 feb:

Well, there's more than I can say about Kiviug, the gathering of Arctic native peoples that wound up last night; I'l l have to write it all up later. For the moment, imagine drums -- fifteen at a time -- beating out hypnotically and hauntingly, as dancers stamp their boots and lock their arms in postures of shock, or terror; or haul them joyfully inwards, towards the chest as if hauling on a rope that itself is attached to a whale, sustenance for a whole community, death itself staved off once again. I taped over an hour of the nine hours I witnessed, and will put clips online when I get back. You can bet I'll also be writing about this awesome spectacle!

Yesterday I went out to the sea with Craig George, his neighbor, and documentary film-maker Robert Young, who is here to have a look at the location. Young, now 82 years old, made one of the last and most authentic documentaries of native Arctic life in 1970, spending months with the Netsilik of northern Canada, hunting and moving across the landscape as they had for generations, just a year before they settled in modern houses. He shot the film entirely autonomously, wearing silk gloves ("Sometimes," he told me, "my hands were just frozen like stone,") and freezing in the ice-houses where native infants tottered around naked.

At the ice foot, where the Chukchi Sea lapped at the sea ice, we could see trails of blood where two seals had been shot, dragged to the shore, and butchered. At the water, one seal popped up from the sea and watched us. We searched for polar bear tracks, but found none. Riding the sled behind Craig's snowmobile was fun, as it leapt and twisted and bounced across the ice. I tried to film some of this, but my video camera battery died, and foolishly I tried to put in a fresh one, as we tore along, which was about as easy in mittens and the bucking, hammering sled as, say, changing a light bulb with your mouth and one hand while going over Niagra Falls in a barrel. I got about 5 seconds on video and realized later that the microphone wasn't turned on. I'll have to shoot that again.

Riding the sled was fun, but I'm anxious to get going again and pull my own sled. I'm working out the plan, now, for this next trip, and will post it once details are in. I've done six talks here in Barrow, seen Kiviug, gone to the sea ice, will probably go mushing (with a dog team) today, and am ready to get out again. I must be part dog, as I love the feeling of leaning into the harness and taking those steps ahead. The sled is about 90% loaded to go, I just need to buy some stove fuel at the gas station, and I'll be on my way. I'll continue to make daily reports by sat-phone. Twenty below this AM and clear, with no wind; beautiful weather.



All Material Copyright 2007 Cameron McPherson Smith unless otherwise credited.