Yupiit Yuraryarait 40 Year Anniversary A festival celebrating Yup’ik Dance in St. Mary’s, AK

by Tim Troll

Young girls make dance movements with their hands while intently watching the yuraqing at the St. Mary’s Yupiit Yuraryarait dance festival in 1982. (Photo by James Barker)
Paul Agimuk and Frances Usugan (at right) performing at the St. Mary’s City Hall at the first Yupiit Yuraryarait festival. In back is Martina John, Frances’ daughter. (Photo by James Barker)

Forty years ago this month an armada of small planes from around the YK Delta descended on the village of St. Mary’s bringing guests to participate in a grand gathering of Yup’ik dancers and singers. It was called Yupiit Yuraryarait, the Yup’ik Dance Festival. The first of its kind – nothing on this scale had been attempted in the region before October of 1982.

The idea for the event came from Andy Paukan, then a bi-lingual teacher and a member of the St. Mary’s City Council. Andy, like many of the elders he knew, feared that Yup’ik dancing was likely to disappear because so many villages had stopped dancing, and many young people in the villages that still danced didn’t seem to care much for the tradition. His vision was simple: assemble as many village dance groups together as possible for a big blowout – a Yup’ik Woodstock, if you will. Three days of dancing, food, and steambaths.

Andy also wanted to make sure villages around the YK Delta, especially those that no longer danced, would see great photographs showing Yup’ik dancing at its best – full of zest, laughter, joy and reverence for tradition. That meant getting Jim Barker to photograph the event and Rosie Porter, the publisher of the Tundra Drums in Bethel at the time, to make it a big story. Jim came, and the Tundra Drums gave it the front page and a special section for Jim’s photographs. KYUK also produced a documentary about the festival in 1983 called “A Dancing People.”

The Yup’ik Dance Festival in St. Mary’s was a great success and was followed by several more over the ensuing decades hosted by different villages about every third year. Each subsequent festival included more villages that had revived dancing. Then in 1989 the Bethel Council on the Arts launched the Cama-i Festival and a large gathering of dancing villages became an annual event.

Now forty years after that first festival in St. Mary’s, what elders in 1982 feared for the future of Yup’ik dancing – did not happen.

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The following is the English Translation of Narration by Lillian McGill from “A Dancing People” about Yupiit Yuraryarait produced by KYUK in 1983

“I have seen the hunters when they danced: the old men, the hunters, and the boys. I have heard the songs of the hunters and the beat of the great drums when they danced for the people.”

“I have seen the ladies when they danced: the old ladies, the young women, and the girls. Brave and stately, quick and graceful, their fans like sea grass, like wings, like snow, when they danced for the people.”

“We are the Yupiit, the Inuit of the great river deltas and the sea. We are a dancing people. We are a singing people. We remember the old stories and the great festivals.”

“I have seen the greatest of the festivals, Yupiit Yuraryarait, that the St. Mary’s people gave for the nine villages at freeze-up in the fall of the year.”

“I have seen the three days of dancing and the giving of gifts and the feast.”

I have seen the beluga hunters from Stebbins; the sea people from Chevak, Emmonak, Kotlik, Toksook Bay and Tununak; the people of St. Mary’s, Pilot Station and Marshall, hunters and trappers from the Yukon.

I saw them dance at Yupiit Yuraryarait.

“I have heard the hunters singing in our own language: the old songs and the songs that they made, songs about hunting, fishing, and gathering, songs about travelling and their daily work, songs about the animals and the birds.”

“I have seen the ladies dancing, crowned with beads and manes of reindeer hair, the colors of their kuspuks, the finest of their fans, the skill of their hands.”

“And I have laughed with the people until the tears came, laughed at the antics of the jokers, the faces they made, the hoots and howls, making fun at the community hall.”

“I have seen the strength of the hunters when they danced: the old hunters, the young men, and the boys; the things they’ve seen, the dangers and the hardships. I have seen the joy of the young men when they danced. I have seen the great humility of the old hunters.”

“I have seen the grace of the ladies when they danced: the old ladies, the young women, and the girls; the things they’ve seen, children born and work shared. I have seen the beauty of the young women when they danced. I have seen the serenity of the old ladies.”

“I have seen the people sharing, giving, working together. I have seen the respect they showed, honor to the elders, love for the children.”

“We are the Yupiit, the Inuit of the great river deltas and the sea. We are a dancing people. We are a singing people. We remember the old stories and the great festivals.”

“I have seen the greatest of the festivals, Yupiit Yuraryarait, that the St. Mary’s people gave for the nine villages at freeze-up in the fall of the year.”

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Tim Troll was the city manager of St. Mary’s in 1982 and helped organize the first and five following Yup’ik Dance Festivals. Andy Paukan was a good friend.