For Ann Fienup-Riordan and James Barker, it took over 30 years of working next to each other to finally become an official team.
"Yupiit Yuraryarait: Yup'ik Ways of Dancing" is a new book which results from decades of Fienup-Riordan and Barker's interviews and dance photos from the Y-K region.
The authors made an appearance in Bethel for the Cama-i festival to sign copies of the volume. As people stopped by their table they gasped over the pages - seeing familiar faces in many of the pictures, and elders who had long since passed away.
"Yupiit Yuraryarait" draws on materials that Fienup-Riordan and Barker have been collecting through the years of their work in the region. Fienup-Riordan is a cultural anthropologist who has been interviewing the people of the Y-K since the mid-1970s, publishing 15 books and curating several gallery exhibits. Barker was working in the region around the same time. He came up in 1974 as an "ethnographic documentary photographer and photojournalist," starting out at KYUK.
"I came here because I wanted to learn about people whose lives were based upon natural events and such and to learn about subsistence. But frankly I had no idea when I moved here how extraordinary the place was and how extraordinary the people are," Barker said. In 1993 he published "Always Getting Ready, Upterrlainarluta: Yup'ik Eskimo Subsistence in Southwest Alaska."
But while Fienup-Riordan and Barker were familiar with each others' work, they seldom met in person.
"I knew of Jim as a source of great studies. When I was doing those books I would call Jim . . . (because) he does the best photographs in the whole region," Fienup-Riordan said.
"It's kind of surprising when you think back, that as much as we traveled around we seldom ran into each other. I'd heard about her and we'd corresponded and such.
We would run in very different circles but while staying in touch with each other," said Barker.
Fienup-Riordan said she has featured Barker's photographs in almost all her books and in her exhibits, and the idea of writing a book focused on dance has been floating around for a while. They also wanted to involve Theresa Arevgaq John, from Toksook Bay, who was writing her doctoral thesis on Yup'ik dance traditions and their meanings.
"I had transcribed tapes in Yup'ik and English that had been piling up for years about Yup'ik perspectives on dance, with quotes from all kinds of people. Jim had all these wonderful photographs and Theresa in 2006 started her dissertation on dance," Fienup-Riordan said.
Already winning awards
In 2010 it all came together, in a 236-page book filled with glossy black-and-white photographs and a DVD, a forward by John and translations by Marie Meade, David Chanar and Alice Rearden. "Yupiit Yuraryarait: Yup'ik Ways of Dancing" has already picked up some honors, being recognized as the Alaska Library Association's 2011 Alaskana of the Year award winner.
But both Fienup-Riordan and Barker said they created the book not for what they could get out of it, but for what they could give back.
"One of the things I felt is that living out here was an extraordinary experience, a learning experience, when I photographed people I feel like in some ways I owe them something. In part that's been one reason that I wanted to do these two books, to give back to the community what I otherwise couldn't get," Barker said.
"Yupiit Yuraryarait: Yup'ik Ways of Dancing" is published by the University of Alaska Press and is available through the University or on Amazon.
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