My dad would take the whole family to Shishmaref every June so that he could hunt, providing food for us for the rest of the winter. I learned different things each year, but most of all, how important my mom is to me. She became the central part of my experience, engaging in the preparing and butchering of the seals and walruses that were caught in each hunt. Since I wasn't usually allowed in the hunt itself, I was exposed to this time of preparation. To prepare the meat and preserve it for the following winter is very important.
Family is important.
The subsistence way of life is important. The passing of knowledge from one generation to the next is important. I share by taking photographs and drawing from those photographs to create visions or insights of what I see, thus allowing others to share in the atmosphere and the feelings involved in conducting the subsistence activities. The time spent at the racks, where the seal-cutting took place, involved all the members of the family, from the older members cutting and doing all the work, to the children playing around the racks. The way I see it is that each drawing I do for my thesis is a window into these type of activities, activities that I usually don't see drawn in pencil, graphite, and presented in this manner.