Alaska News

Translators stay busy at AFN for Yup'ik-speaking elders

A rotating cadre of fluent Yup'ik speakers is translating speeches and panels at Alaska Federation of Natives convention for elders from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta who speak little English.

The Association of Village Council Presidents sends bilingual employees to the convention, the big annual gathering of Alaska Natives, every year to keep elders connected.

The translators sat at the back of the main ballroom keeping an eye out for Yup'ik-speaking elders in the crowd.

Hilda Oscar said she's translated at the AFN convention for about five years. She works for AVCP as an accountant, as does another of this year's translators, Doris Mute. Joann Andrew, who works as the administrative secretary for AVCP, is the most experienced of the group, Oscar said.

"The most important thing is that the elders who depend on us are able to keep up and get the whole message," she said. "You have to be very precise."

The translators must stick to the speeches and avoid getting sidetracked or caught up emotionally. That's hard when difficult topics such as sexual abuse come up. Last year, one translator had to turn the job over to another when girls from the Tanana 4-H Club spoke of abuse and neglect in their village. This year, the translators were ready when the Tanana group returned, Oscar said.

All day, the women spoke quietly into microphones that transmitted their translations to wireless headsets that AVCP loans to elders.

Only a couple of elders were using the headsets so far this year, Oscar said. The number has dwindled over the years.

Lisa Demer

Lisa Demer was a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch News. Among her many assignments, she spent three years based in Bethel as the newspaper's western Alaska correspondent. She left the ADN in 2018.

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