All the fish and wildlife are faced with many challenges as they go through stages in their lives. Always searching for food, shelter and safety with their brothers and sisters. Each watching out for oneself and their companions. Always avoiding danger and learning quickly as they face obstacles.
They moved in one spirit with all the instinct they had to venture to different habitat areas as they grew. Some will survive with scars and injuries by the time they return from the oceans. At each time facing challenges along the way, yet always they carry forward their mission to survive despite all adversities since birth.
In the Yup’ik Native belief, the animals would report to Ellarpim Yua – Person of the Universe – how the Yupiit have treated them and if their sacrifice was shared with others.
If Ellam Yua was pleased, he gave them permission to celebrate at their next festival. But if he found that humans are not sharing or fighting over them, he would begin to close his hands. Some mask carvings had hands with holes in their hands representing that.
“Agayuliyararput” Our Way of Making Prayer was in the dance festivals. Sharing their bounties was practiced. All the living creatures were placed specifically to provide sustenance to Yupiit. The ancestors truly believed in the preservation of their surroundings. All their being was off the lands, water and air.
Today, it has changed. It is time that consumers in the world must make individual choices in how things are purchased. The globe must rethink its use of natural resources, which are born out of profit and greed. Our ancestors said, “The resources and weather will change with the people’s behavior, greed and selfishness,” and “disrespect for one another.”
Everything we buy in the market must change.
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