Seventy-nine-year-old Atrilnguq Joseph Asuluk Sr. had the Cama-i crowd in stitches as he accepted his Living Treasure award. The Toksook Bay Elder did a complex series of handshakes and fist bumps with presenter Linda Curda, dropped into a flamboyant bow with his new plaque, and picked up a pair of feathered dance fans to stage a brief and spectacular yuraq performance to the nursery rhyme “This Old Man Came Rolling Home.”
“This yuraq is our tradition from way back,” Asuluk Sr. said in an interview the next day. He said that at first, he didn’t feel like the right person for a Living Treasure award. He said that he feels “pretty new” in the long history of yuraq, with a lot left to learn.
“Well you know, when I first heard I was kinda embarrassed,” Asuluk Sr. said, “Because you know, to me, I'm not that much of a man to be honored. But then I thought of when the late Traditional Chief Paul John used to tell us: ‘Be present. If someone asks you, don't refuse.’”
Asuluk Sr. said that he accepted the award thinking of how younger generations might be motivated to continue in yuraq and become Living Treasures themselves.
“I thought of my younger people looking at me as an example,” Asuluk Sr. said.
Yuraq is deeply important to Asuluk Sr. He said that yuraq is like medicine and can lift a person out of a dark place.
“When I lost my grandson to suicide, that yuraq was lifting me up, really,” Asuluk Sr. said. “I used drum and singing along with them. And also when I had cancer back in 2007, I was joining the groups even though I had cancer. Here I am, still alive,” he said with a laugh.
Asuluk Sr. was the sole Living Treasure who accepted his award in person, but was far from the sole honoree.
A legacy of dance
Each year for decades, except during the COVID-19 pandemic when there was no festival, the Cama-i Dance Festival has dedicated the dozens of hours of dancing, drumming, singing, and celebration to Elders who have passed on, and honored Living Treasures who keep the beat of yuraq thriving in the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta.
The first evening of the 2024 Cama-i Festival was extra full of those sentiments as the festival committee chose to honor two deceased Elders and two Living Treasures. It’s been more than a decade since Cama-i honored two Living Treasures in the same year.
Cama-i coordinator Linda Curda said that the decision of who to dedicate the festival to and honor as a Living Treasure doesn’t have a set process. Dedications and Living Treasure honorees often come as the committee discusses the theme and dives into planning the next Cama-i festival.
“We always find our Living Treasures and our dedication in the [Y-K] Delta. It's not a state or national, international. It's us. It's right here. It's Bethel, and it's the communities that are coming to the festival,” Curda said. “And so I just listen, and literally the answer comes, and that's how we choose. It's not very scientific, but it is what it's supposed to be.”
Dedications
This year, Cama-i dedicated the festival to the late Inuguarpak Stanley Anthony of Nightmute and the late Seliksuyar Bob Aloysius of Bethel.
“One person on the committee, it was her father, Bob Aloysius,” Curda explains, “And so she felt a little kind of, ‘Should I even consider suggesting it?’ And once she did, we were all: ‘Absolutely yes.’ And then Stanley [Anthony] actually died since we started planning Cama-i. And so it was just – and his community was already coming. So it just was: Yes.”
The Cama-i Committee presented the dedications during the dance performances of the honorees’ home communities.
Curda read the dedication to Stanley Anthony with the Nightmute dancers on stage.
“Throughout Stanley’s life, he worked tirelessly to ensure that youth in our communities were instilled with a knowledge of our ancestors. He used humor to engage youth to learn the important aspects of our culture. Through his work he was able to pass on the legacy of dance," read Curda.
For Bob Aloysius, Curda read the dedication during the Qasgirmiut dancers’ performance.
“Bob showed us that there is tremendous value in sharing freely, sharing from your heart and sharing freely. His life was full because he knew who he was and he did what he loved to do. Yuraq is not merely done for entertainment purposes, but in celebration, giving thanks and healing. We thank Bob for his contribution to our legacy of dance,” Curda read.
Living Treasures
As for this year’s Living Treasures, Curda said that the committee started out with the idea of honoring Levi Hoover of Kasigluk.
“We honored the whole Kasigluk community as Living Treasures in the past, and [Levi Hoover] was one more that we wanted to honor,” Curda said. “And then Joe Asuluk Sr., just – it was the right time.”
Ap'alluk Levi Hoover of Kasigluk was unable to attend Cama-i this year, so his community accepted the award in his place.
Addressing Hoover, surrounded by Kassiglurmiut Yurartait, Curda read: “Tonight the stage is filled with people who brim with pride from the knowledge that they are maintaining the cultural traditions that you selflessly passed down to them. He’s been a teacher to all these folks. His work in maintaining the Yup’ik language and love of dance has inspired many to continue and build on the solid foundation of your legacy. Thank you Levi Hoover!”
“It’s the entire Delta”
Curda said that while Cama-i started out with dedications, the addition of Living Treasure awards since the 1990s has become an important way to say thank you to the people and communities who carry yuraq forward.
“For those folks who come now to the [Y-K] Delta, I would say that it's hard when you see all of this. It's hard to remember that there was almost no dance,” Curda said. “I mean, we had in the early years, we could find four to five dance groups and communities dancing, you know, and now it's the entire [Y-K] Delta.”
After receiving his award, Living Treasure Joseph Asuluk Sr. took to center stage, sitting amidst the generations of Toksook Bay dancers as their dance fans flew up and down with the beats.
It’s his favorite song, Asuluk Sr. said. He loves the motions. The song brings him joy. Plus, he said with a laugh, it’s an easy one.
