A weather-ish week sent the snowline further down the Hillside - we had the first snowshowers out by the DeBarr Rd-Merrill Field area, nasty cold stuff, but it didn't stick. It gave us an excuse to do a mall-walk through the Northway Mall - in Anchorage's northeastern side, since we were at the Regional Hospital for tests anyway. (Everything came out ok enough) And we ran (literally) into some friends we hadn't seen for two decades - a quick reunion at the elevator bank. We're all getting older, but otherwise they haven't changed a bit - except that the little kids are now full-grown fine adults.
Thursday was AFN day - the (Alaska Federation of Natives ) 1999 convention is in full swing at the Egan Center - the convention center named for Alaska's first Statehood governor, Bill Egan.
There's a great deal of serious debate in the convention meeting halls - the future direction of Alaska's government is of great concern to people here. But downstairs, inbetween conferences, there's a handcraft marketplace and visits between people who only see each other at these conventions. I ran into two friends from Yakutat, while browsing through this exciting room- where you can purchase, directly from the artist, the masks, drums, kuspuks, beadwork, baskets - the treasures of the four major cultures. They are so different.
The Cedar House Co-op from Kake, in Southeast Alaska, features the stylized
Tlingit clan totems we've come to know - Eagle, Raven, other creatures of
legends, in their art. These are the Alaskans who create totempoles.
Interior Alaskans (Nunamiut - Inupiaq Eskimo) from the village of Anaktuvuk Pass are famous
for their Old Man and Old Lady masks. These are created from caribou hides.
Lela Ahgook created these Old Man and Old Woman masks. - We had one of Roosevelt
Paneak's Wolf Man masks for 25 years; I added Old Lady to the family's collection
this time. - she has little braids which caught my eye...
Alaskan Author Velma Wallis has written a small book called "Two Old Women" which really struck a chord, and is worthy of a read.
The convention is all about people. Alaskan people.
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