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| CAMP QUNGAAYUX (Culture Camp) |
| Camp Photos1 Camp Photos2 |
Today there is a heightened awareness to maintain and reclaim as much of our Unangan culture as possible. A Native culture camp is held each summer in August for the children of the Aleutians on Unalaska Island, in Humpy Cove, where elders and other instructors teach the old ways. The purpose is to re-introduce Unangan cultural values, introduce Unangan language and promote awareness of Aleutian natural resources as well as passing on the knowledge of the elders. Instruction may include Unangan basketry, food gathering, tide pool study, skin sewing, Unangan hunting visor, asxux, iqyax(kayak) and boat safety, Unangan story telling, Unangan dance, plant lore, Aleutian archeology, and ulax.
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Pat Lekanoff-Gregory and Jerah Chadwick
teaching how to construct bentwood hats. |
Painting a bentwood hat |
Above left is a table where people are constructing bentwood hats using chisels. These hats are highly decorated, and were used by the Aleuts while fishing and hunting to keep the sun out of their eyes. People with more status had more elaborate hats.
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| Learning to throw the Asxux |
Traditional Dancing
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The Culture Camp is a deliberate attempt to pass some elements of the traditional ways of doing things on to the campers. A seal is caught and dressed and cooked as well as various other forms of seafood. Traditional dance and language is taught along with many native crafts.
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| Kayak Instruction |
Blubbering a Seal |
On the left, a camp instructor gives a talk on kayaking skills to the assembled campers, describing the various elements of a traditional kayak in an interesting and informative way. The Aleut made excellent boats with several features only adopted centuries later by westerners. On the right, a participant is scraping the fat off the hide of the seal that has been killed. The sealskin is draped over a stand while the participant is scraping off the fat with a knife. It takes over ten hours of scraping to prepare the hide properly.
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| Camp Qunqaayux |
| The camp consists of a group of tents in the back of a clearing in Humpy Cove. The kids are about an even mixture of native and non-native children, entering grades 4 through 12. There are about as many boys as girls from the nearby villages of Atka, Akutan, Nikolski and Adak as well as from Unalaska. A number of native elders participate and help transfer their skills and knowledge to the campers. |
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