Personal Connection

I come from a Yupik village called Toksook Bay, located on the Nelson Island. It is one of the most recent made villages that were made, relocating from Nightmute to the new site in 1964. People still live in Nightmute but it is not as big and modernized as Toksook Bay. Being a new village doesn't mean the cultural knowledge is less than that of an older village, the cultural knowledge is rich and is growing daily in my home village. There are descendants of healers, or more famously known as shamans, still living in the village that we know of but never speak of for unknown reasons. I have heard stories of the shamans and what they did whether it was for good or bad intentions. It's interesting to hear of magical beings when your just a child, you hold that interest throughout your life, wanting to know more about it until your satisfied. That is why I chose a mask from the Yupik region, to learn more about it until I was sure that was all I wanted to know.