Elder Voices

I may have taken my last village trip as a KNOMer. Six years ago, Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island was my first jaunt around the Bering Strait, and now my third visit to the "Walrus Capital of the World" is probably the last trip too. I traveled there the other week to record with elders for the program I've produced the last five or so years. It's some of my favorite radio work. Friend, lgt, came along for her job too and set us up with the oldest elder on the island: Ora Golgergen. She's 92 with a sharp memory and sense of humor. A card is taped to the wall facing opposite us. It has a picture of her with an important Congratulations printed in fancy font and the real signatures of President Bush and the First Lady. They had wished her a Happy 90th Birthday.

lgt snapped these photos of a work in progress

I asked Ora how she's lived a long life and if she had advice for others to stay strong and keep going. She laughed loudly and said excitedly, "I never told them! I never tell them!" Ora's keeping the secret all to herself. She ended the recording with a message in her traditional Siberian Yup'ik language, a smile, then a hug. Thank you, Ora, for sharing your amazing life (or just a sliver at least) for a radio legacy. I'm producing the feature right now and will have it finished to air the end of August before I leave.

To get a sense of how neat it is to spend an hour or so listening to an elder and asking him or her about all sorts of life things, I want to include this poem I've had posted in my work area for years now. It's written by a wonderful King Island woman (a few years back she recorded her poetry with me and I produced those writings into spots for our listeners), Yaayuk Alvanna. As an outsider to Native culture, this is the closest I can describe to the Elder Voices experience.

Always teaching

Always learning

An Elder speaks

While listeners 

observe intently

Learning from brain to heart

Lessons given

Lessons learned

Through oral speech

Knowledge passed

Knowledge gained

Through listening carefully

Stories told

Stories hold

Such treasured wisdom 

That can only be passed

From an elder to younger ones

In the Native language

Quiet settles as she speaks

A world created

In the minds

Of each individual

Always learning

Always teaching