My Great-Grandfather Apakark and
his wife, Kagun came with their family and settled in the Mackenzie
delta area the traditional lands of the inuvialuit at the turn of the 19th
century.
They came from the Nelson Island/Yukon/Kuskokwin delta area in Bering Sea,
Alaska
The Yupik Eskimo were the dominant tribes of Bering Sea Alaska long ago,
and lived in an area endowed with abundant sea life and river deltas
teeming with fish and waterfall. Coastal and interior lands were
laden with caribou, bear, and other fur bearing animals.
Yupik were by and large a semi-nomadic, each tribe living within their
designated territories. Carrying on traditional occupations and
cultural and spiritual lives, unchanged over millennia.
The abundance of game allowed the development of a rich cultural life, of
which mask making reached its highest expression.
I am honoured to be able to follow the mask making traditions of my
Great-Grandfather and his predecessors.
The re-making of old masks and incorporating new ideas for the
interpretation of my immediate family's stories, myths, and the legends of
the Yupik of Alaska and the Inuvaluit of the Western Arctic.
