before we bring this meeting to order
we want to acknowledge ourselves, the Kaktoviġmiut
yes, Siliun, this is how they are doing things nowadays
we are doing it right
we acknowledge ourselves, the Kaktoviġmiut
we are the people of this island and of the mountains and lands around us
and all our traditional hunting areas
since before the military came
and bulldozed our old sod houses our entire village
so they could make a runway and yes we are still angry about that
and we are still wanting reparations for what they did
they finally did take that hangar down and it
looks better without that big old thing on there
and I know we are still looking for
what was lost in the nuna on that day
what they did was wrong
and we are still here
and even though the military still today has that huge other hangar
on the other side with that
military man
who lives in there that we have
never met
and the other that relieves him every three weeks or so
we were here before
they put those big humongous radar ears up
and then took them down
and yes they left many barrels and still never got all of them
we all want all their residue
to be
off our island forever
we were here before
the government started drawing arbitrary lines
encasing us into this wildlife refuge
without our full knowledge or consent
where strangers break into our cabins on our own land
up in the mountains each and every year
no matter how many signs we put or what kind of locks we use
and because of these borders not our own
we cannot hunt the way
our relatives in other
villages hunt
we have more restrictions and regulations than the others
yet we still are able to get the food we need
around the land we care for and know
ii, we are still fighting these arbitrary borders and lines today, thank you Ekowan
and also thank you aŋaaluk for those letters you put out
they needed to see that
and all of us fighting for our ways of life and as we continue to fight
even in this strange language
we had to learn to fight them with
arii, piliaqsuŋa taniktun uqaġama
we acknowledge our Elders that are still on this land
and our Ancestors buried just over there and over there too
and our own people who are still living here
especially the little ones like Uqumaiḷaq here
and all our future relatives yet to be born
we acknowledge and remember
that the military did experiments without our consent
on our Elders when they were kids
and the government has never owned up to these injustices
but we remember what was done
and yes some Elders did get compensated for that radioactive iodine they put in their veins
yet not for the other forced experiments
and we remember how we were also made to send our young people away
to go to school
and how they came back
having to relearn their own language
and many of them left right away again
yet many stayed home
and the others always return
and belong home here
we the Kaktoviġmiut remember how we have always been whole
nakuurugut
we are good we have always been good
living here in the ways taught to us by our Elders
and our Elders’ Elders’ Elders
and even though there were two waves of diseases that we didn’t know
how to fight
naturally
we lost many of our people
yet many of us survived
those waves
and since we are talking about these things in a community hall meeting
might as well mention the alcohol that came to kill us
and the cancers that we can guess where those came from too
and the fog of smoke and qaaq that has stayed and lingered
and I know that we aren’t used to acknowledging ourselves
but when me and Fannie went to the big meeting in Anchorage
they did one of these
land acknowledgments
so apparently everyone is starting to remember
and we remember too
how to acknowledge one another
and how we remember our relatives and how we are related
we remember how to sing and dance and how to take care of
the land
because we need to acknowledge our young people too
even the ones who are pretending they don’t understand
or can’t talk yet
we know you are paying attention
yet we also want to say the young ones have also been having a lack of
listening
and they need to fix that right now
oh and of course
our relationship to the animals
the aġviq, the tuttu, the fish, the nanuk, the qavvik
oh yes and the aiviq and the beluga whale
and I know I am forgetting some animals thank you Ukpik
and we were here before the tourists started to travel here to see our
polar bears
without giving back to our community
and yes we are starting to regulate those tourists too
as a community
working together
yes the amaġuq and I know we have too many animals to mention right now
and we need to get started with these door prizes soon
yet let me say one more time
because I see that Michael just came in the door
we the Kaktoviġmiut acknowledge ourselves
sovereign here on our own land
sovereign here forevermore
despite all of these other ways
in which they thought they could make us forget
or think we were broken
we are whole and good and we remember all of it
an unbroken line
going all the way
all the way
all the way
back
from the time before the time before
nakuurugut
we are the Kaktoviġmiut, the original people of this place
we have never ceded our lands
we always remember our long long long ago ways
that we are living even today and even though we are thankful for many
modern tools
that we put to use in the ways that our Elders agree with
the outsiders’ ways are not our ways
we belong here
and on our mountains and all the places near that we travel for food
and on the ocean
we remember who we are
today and forevermore
we acknowledge ourselves
in our power as Iñupiaq
aulayaiqsimarugut Kaktoviġmiut
tavra!
now Alasuuraq will draw the first prize because I believe he is our oldest
Elder here
we will draw a couple few more door prizes
now at the start
and then the rest at the end of the meeting
I know we have a lot to talk about
Notes:
Audio version performed by the author.
Source: Poetry (July/August 2022)
Allison Akootchook Warden (aka AKU-MATU) is an Iñupiaq poet, installation artist, and performance artist and a tribal member of the Native Village of Kaktovik. In 2022, her poem “we acknowledge ourselves” was featured in the Land Acknowledgements issue of Poetry Magazine, Alaska Quarterly Review published her poem “portal traveler,” and her poetry was part of Insidious Rising, a hyphen-labs project for Google Arts and Cultures. At the 2022 Time Based Arts Festival at the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, she debuted “taigruaq,” a performance art piece with collaborator Aqqalu Berthelesen. She is the recipient of a 2019 United States Artist Fellowship in traditional arts, a 2022 Art Matters Artist2Artist Fellowship in interdisciplinary arts, a 2022 Rasmuson Individual Artist Fellowship in music composition, a 2018 Rasmuson Individual Artist Fellowship in new genre, and a 2018 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation National Artist Fellowship in music. She is currently working on an album, writing poetry, and is scheduled to open her social practice installation The Inuit Futurism Center at the Anchorage Museum. She lives in a cabin in Fairbanks, Alaska.
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