Visual Stories

Photos: Alaska Native storytelling at UAA

While the speakers at an annual Alaska Native storytelling event on Saturday stuck with traditional forms of oration, the added category of "new media" offered glimpses of change in their cultural expression.

The theme of Saturday's event was "Let Your Spirit Speak: Finding Our Voices." The University of Alaska Anchorage's Alaska Native studies director, Maria Shaa Tlaa Williams, said the theme focused on allowing the state's indigenous peoples to discuss their identities, or "spirits."

The event featured orators from UAA, Kenai Peninsula College and the Lower Kuskokwim School District. The participants offered humorous stories about fishing with elders and lessons from elders told in Yup'ik.

Read more: Alaska Native storytelling event embraces technology as 'new tool'

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