Three months in Norway with Tukuuludaa: A Recap Part 4: When we came back

We are eternally grateful to everyone who made this trip possible, including (but not limited to): ULU of Norway, the Ulakaia Center, Native Movement, Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, Norwegian Handicraft Institute, TDX Corporation, and the Central Bering Sea Fishermen’s Association. It takes a village to manage a project as big as revitalizing reindeer and fur seal crafting on St. Paul Island, and we are thankful for ours.

Aang Tukuuludaa followers! 

In June, we launched our blog series, Three Months in Norway with Tukuuludaa: A Recap. Our previous installments focused on our trip, why we went, and how we planned for it. In this final installment, we will discuss how we brought back and shared the knowledge we gained abroad with our community.

Culture Camp Origins: Grant Commitment

When we first accepted our Native Movement grant, we committed to doing a culture camp on St. Paul Island that involved both seal and reindeer tanning/crafting. Additionally, when the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island tribal government sponsored Garrett to go to the International gathering of seal hunters and handicrafters, they asked him to find a way to share what he learned with the community -- which we wanted to do through the culture camp.

We had a lot of ideas for the culture camp – most of them were huge! The issue became that we were thinking about what we wanted, not what was best for the community. We consulted with a local expert handicrafter who has taught at many culture camps about the best kind of projects we can do. She suggested that community members want quick crafts – the kinds of projects that can be completed in a single day’s work. She also urged us to consider other factors, like how summer is a busy time, and it’s hard to commit to longer programs when you’re not sure when the weather will be nice or how long someone wants to be in a “classroom” setting.

With this in mind, we imagined and then planned a culture camp that would be “drop-in.” We organized activities to welcome the community into our tannery and introduce them to some of the traditional tanning and crafting techniques we use in our work and that we learned in Norway. Our biggest message was: you can stay for as little or as long as you like, and no sign-ups are necessary! 

It was the best way we could think of to be inclusive. So, we decided to have two tannery days: one committed to seal and one committed to reindeer. We would also have one day just for crafting, where we would create hybrid-seal fur and reindeer leather products. 

Youth and Elder Engagement

When we accepted Movement Fund funding, we committed to creating a project that engaged youth and elders specifically. So, we created incentives for youth and elder participation. We designed door prize crafts for each group. By being a youth or elder and showing up to a culture camp event, you were automatically entered to win a prize. So, if you showed up to multiple events, you were entered into the raffle multiple times. 

Elder gift of Bering Sea style reindeer leg pouch (taller pouch)

Some of the harbor seal fur plush keychains we had as prizes for culture camp youth participants

Culture Camp 

Day 1: Reindeer

On our first day, we guided culture camp participants through scraping and de-hairing Pribilof reindeer hides in the yard behind our house (our summertime tannery)

Desta tries her hand at skinning and scraping a reindeer hide

Day Two: Crafting

On our second day, we had a guided crafting session in utilizing both reindeer and seal. 

Full-house for community crafting. We counted 25+ in attendance!

Our 5-7-year-old participants made ornaments of balsa wood twisted with a reindeer leather cord. 

Culture camp participant Gen shows off an Antler and Balsa wood ornament she made.

Our 8+ aged participants made antler, leather, and bead charm bracelets!

Charm bracelets made of antler and leather from local reindeer

Our 13+ aged participants made Bering Sea-style seal and reindeer pouches. We made a set of instructions for each participant so they could take them home and make more pouches whenever they wanted 🤗.

Seal fur and reindeer leather pouch crafters in action

Evvie and Sienna with reindeer and seal pouches they made at our drop-in crafting session. These two were the first to complete their projects in the whole group!

Garrett Igayux shows his niece and culture camp participant Evvie how to do a running stitch on seal hide.

Day Three: Seal 

On our final day, we welcomed people back into our tannery to try their hands at fleshing fur seals, collected from the community harvest. We were inspired by the youth who came to the event and how talented they were at fleshing. 

On our drop-in seal tanning day, local youth learned about salting seal skins to preserve them!

Kalani is skinning a seal and showing Khova and Avery how to do it, before both of them get a turn. All three boys got an impressive amount of seal fat off all by themselves!

4. Feedback 

We are grateful to the 30+ people who participated in our culture camp, and for the kind words we heard from participants. The positive feedback we got on the culture camp was an honor.  We even received a satisfaction rate of 100% on their culture camp feedback form :)

Here are some of our favorite comments: 

“The best cultural event I’ve ever been to on St. Paul Island.”

“Working with Tukuuludaa makes me proud to be Unangan.”

“It’s clear to me … Tukuuludaa is leading the way for cultural revitalization on St. Paul Island.”

Final Thoughts: 

What started as an idea to repurpose reindeer hides and antlers that would have otherwise been thrown away into textiles we can make clothing and storage from, became a movement to restore community crafting and self-sustainability, using local materials to make our own things, like pouches, as we did at culture camp, instead of buying them from somewhere else.

What's next? Unfortunately, we won't be able to offer any drop-in courses anytime soon as we work on applying for new grants and financial opportunities that will allow us to bring them free of charge to communities -- but we have some exciting new projects in the works, including: a book, an international art installation, a short film, a knowledge exchange project, and working more with weaving (a technique we hope to be able to offer a culture camp about in the future).