The beginning was a sound, then a rhythm, then a word.

Last weekend Alaskan Natives from all around the state gathered at the Charles Davis Concert Hall for the 31^st annual Festival of Native Arts, filling the hall with the sights, smells and sounds of an Alaska village: little children ran everywhere, playing hide-and-seek under tables or behind adults; vendors displayed ivory bracelets and barrettes, or handmade cloth pullovers called qaspeqs; fried bread thickened the air that mingled with fresh Akutaq, a sweet mixture of vegetable shortening and local berries.  From the Great Hall continual cheers replied to the chanting and the drums in a rhythm that was steady as a heartbeat.  

This year's theme, "Many Drums, One Heartbeat," reflects the unity in diversity that comes together at the center of the University.  UAF is proud to continue the traditions of Troth Yeddha, where people from every village come to this hill to share knowledge and respect.

Spanning three days, the Festival offered far more than I was able to experience.  Among the highlights I was able to catch were the Tlingit Haida dancers of Anchorage.  They seemed to focus on the chant as a means to convey meaning, while their vibrant costumes and whirling dancing created a mesmerizing effect.  They were one of the largest groups and drew much applause because a number of their members couldn't have been more than eight years old.  They stressed the importance of teaching the old traditions to future generations.

The Miracle Drummers and the Kuskokwim Native Dancers danced Yup'ik-style.  Elders played drums in the background while younger members stood up front performing intricate patterns with hand held dance fans.  Each dance was a highly stylized pantomime meant to represent any number of things, from spiritual searching to the events of a hunt, to contemporary issues in native life.  The Miracle Drummers had a particularly masterful lead singer with a beautiful voice and a knack for putting the audience and his dancers at ease.

"Does anybody have any candy," he asked in a pause between dances.

Together for the first time since the end of World War II, the ARSD Unangax Dancers put on an amazing performance.  They performed many different dances, moving all around the stage in a polysemy of patterns, as many of their dancers moved with captivating energy.  At the climax of their performance, in front of a packed house, from somewhere on the stage a plume of feathers erupted, shooting to the ceiling, enveloping the dancers and inspiring the crowd.  It was sight to see.

For me, the most revealing part of the Festival came on Thursday night when, after only a few drum beats, a man from the audience jumped up on stage and danced the exact dance that the group was performing.  I realized I was missing a subtlety of meaning. 

Each group always performed at least one "group dance," where they invited everyone from the audience to join them on stage.  I found myself continually amazed at how each group was able to fill the stage with audience members.  It seemed less like a performance where the audience watched the performers and more like an event where everyone watched each other.  It is about convergence.

On Saturday night, the Master of Ceremonies mentioned the importance of preserving Native languages.  Language in its multiplicity is the only method we have to preserve the past and give it to the future.  Words are to a language as notes are to a song; arbitrary units in their interaction create meaning where the many become one.  Think of time represented as a horizontal line intersecting a vertical line that represents the variety of the world's cultures.  If you condense each line to the point where they meet then the gift of the present is the center of the cross.

Of course, I would like to thank the Athabascan people for their generosity in allowing the Festival to take place in their territory.

photo by Heather Taggard / Sun Star

Sophia Anderson, left, Marion Austin, center, and "Uncle" Walter Austin drum during the final hours of the Festival of Native Arts around 1 a.m. Saturday morning. The drummers, of the group "Midnight Sun" are mostly from Kenai. In the background audience members dance around the circle as part of the invitational dance. 

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