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Talk at National Geographic Photo Seminar

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It was one of the greatest honors and privileges of my life to speak at National Geographic in Washington DC before an audience of my photographic heroes. I used the platform of the 2019 NatGeo Photo Seminar to speak about my story on the Iñupiaq, and about the importance of representation for marginalized peoples in photography.

The world is full of stories. How many of those stories don’t just repeat what we already know? How many stories teach us to see the world from a truly different perspective? Indigenous peoples are cast as tragic victims, of colonization, of climate change. Yet the views from the inside are not ones of despair, but joy. While the dominant cultures continue to gaze at us as they always have, Native storytellers work to offer our own perspectives through modern mediums.

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Anaiyyun: NatGeo Short Films Showcase

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I’m happy to announce that my short film Anaiyyun: Prayer for the Whale is now in the National Geographic Short Films Showcase. This is the official online release of the film after a year of screening at film festivals around the world. Quyanaqpak to all my Iñupiaq friends that helped to make this film about their lives on the sea ice.

On the sea ice in northern Alaska, the Inupiat wait for the whales. The tradition spans 1,000 years, and a successful catch will feed an entire community for the winter. During whaling season, crew members spend their days watching the icy Arctic water for the right moment to strike. It will take courage and skill to achieve their mission, and they must avoid desperately hungry polar bears along the way. But in the long moments they stand on the ice, protected from the wind inside a fur-lined parka, a timeless gratitude develops. In those moments, the patient act of waiting transforms into a prayer for the whale. Anaiyyun: Prayer for the Whale,from filmmaker Kiliii Yüyan, tells the story of an Inupiat whaling crew that hunts where the vast plain of ice meets the waters of the Arctic Ocean.

Podcast Interview on Hunter-Gatherer Societies

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Recently I spoke with Ted Alvarez, host of the Explorist podcast, a well-crafted podcast on the interaction with nature and people. The first season of the podcast is all about hunting and gathering in modern times, from looking at non-natives those who are involved primitive skills, to subsistence indigenous communities. My interview closes out the season with hair-raising stories from the sea ice, and major themes in my work as an indigenous person from an extant hunter-gatherer culture. It’s one of my favorite interviews.

You can find the podcast page here, or find it through Apple Podcasts.

Exhibition Opening and Talk at Glazer’s Camera

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Thanks to Glazer’s camera for a successful talk and exhibition opening last weekend! It brought a lot of people in from the NW who were interested in the stories of the indigenous Arctic, and I think it stirred a lot of people’s deep curiosity. Special thanks to Will Kutscher and Dana Rasmussen for their efforts, as well as Nikon and Moab Paper for sponsoring the exhibition. The exhibition will be open until the end of December 2019. 

The Arctic Refuge in Sierra Magazine

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Last spring, I got an email from Sierra Magazine, asking if I would like to photograph in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge while paddling a solo packraft for an 8 day expedition on a Class 3 river. Obviously, yes.

The Arctic Refuge, a battleground between oil interests and environmentalists, has become a symbolic struggle over the last 30 years in America. Aside from all of that, it’s of particular interest to me because the people with the most vested interest in the Refuge are the indigenous people that live within it, the Gwich’in, who depend on the caribou for their way of life. This is a story I’ve long been interested in.

Carrying me and my tiny packraft back upstream to camp along the Hulahula River.

There’s no need for me to expound here, as writer Brooke Jarvis has already done a terrific job at weaving together the different perspectives on ANWR and why, at this moment in time, we need to leave at least one corner of this vast wilderness for the caribou and the indigenous peoples who have kept this place beautiful for millennia.

Many thanks to Jason Marks for the story, Sam Murphy for a great edit, and my fellow expeditioners who made our journey safe and brought human warmth to the Arctic.

National Geographic Expeditions Polar Expert

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I’m excited to announce that National Geographic Expeditions has brought me aboard as a Photography Expert for the Polar regions. I’ll be part of the team for NatGeo Student Expeditions in Alaska July 2019, and NatGeo Expeditions in the Russian Arctic Summer 2020. I’m very much looking forward to being able to share my passion for the Arctic and its peoples and wildlife in the next several years.

Exhibition for a HFO-Free Arctic

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It’s increasingly important to help people visualize the Arctic as a living ecosystem with people and wildlife together. This is especially true in the case of the coalition working to ban the use of heavy-fuel oil for ships in the Arctic.

Heavy fuel oil is a cheap, viscous and dirty source of energy for large ships and has long been used as a primary fuel source in shipping. Both the International Maritime Organization and indigenous groups from the Iñupiat community of the Arctic Slope to the Inuit Circumpolar Council. At a meeting late October, the IMO pushed the issue of a ban forward and it’s a great step towards ensuring that marine mammals and the ocean ecosystem of the Arctic will not be decimated by a spill.

I donated photographs for the exhibition ‘The Arctic- On Our Watch’, put on during the IMO meeting in London, and it was heavily viewed by meeting participants. One more step towards listening to the voice of those who understand the Arctic the most– its indigenous peoples

Greenland Renewed: National Geographic Travel

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How Greenlanders preserve their heritage through kayaking

CLOAKED IN SEALSKIN suits, a flock of kayakers cuts across a steely expanse of frigid water. A close observer might catch signs of modernity in the vessels’ construction and the kayakers’ attire, but from a distance, the image appears timeless.

National Geographic Travel has just published my story on reclaiming Inuit heritage in Greenland through traditional kayaking. It’s a story that’s been close to my heart for a long time because I am also a traditional kayak-builder and have long run a traditional kayaking business as well as being a photographer.

After returning from working on a downer of a story on suicide, I found myself in Greenland only to find my spirits uplifted by what the Greenlanders have achieved in their communities. Despite centuries of colonization that has visited horrors upon Greenland’s Inuit population, Greenland is forging ahead with a new and unified national identity.

But I wouldn’t say it’s been easy. Greenland had an anti-colonial revolution in the late 1970s that pushed it achieve self-rule from Denmark. Today’s modern thriving economy and high standards of living are directly the result of farseeing elders and the hard work of the Greenlandic community.

You can find also more images from my Greenland Renewed project. Thanks to writer Abby Sewell for lending her empathy and writing talents to this story, and photo editor Jeff Heimsath for his compassionate eye.

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