Nalukataq spring whale festival

Nalukataq is the spring whaling festival of the Inupiaq Eskimos of Northern Alaska.After the spring whale hunting season, successful crews celebrate with a Nalukataq festival. These take place in June, and are scheduled to avoid conflicts between villages to allow friends and relatives from distant communities to share the bounty and the fun. In Barrow, for example, Nalukataq is usually in the third week of June. Other villages may be in the week before or the week after. Scheduling depends on how many whales were caught as well as other factors.
Nalukataq serves two purposes: First, it is a celebration of thanksgiving for success. Second, it is the first of several times during the year when quaq (frozen whale meat) and muktuk (whale blubber and skin) are distributed to the community. The ability to produce and distribute wealth amongst the community is highly valued in Eskimo cultures, and whaling captains, who always give away large portions of their whales, gain great stature and respect within the village for every whale they catch.
There are several stages to the celebration. It begins with a prayer, and a raising of the crews' flags at around noon. Then bread, coffee, and initially various soups of goose and caribou are distributed. Following that, all of the food is one part or another of the whale. The flippers and certain of the guts of the whale are offered to visitors.
After a break, filled by singing and story telling, the whaling crews begin to distribute the catch to each family who attends the event. The amount which is given away depends on the size and number of whales harvested. First comes the quaq, which is whale meat frozen raw and cut into cubes. Next is the avarraq, the flukes of the whale cut into thin strips. Once these have been distributed, the various other cuts of muktuk are distributed frozen, with skin on. A hiatus of a couple of hours follows this, in which time everyone feasts on the catch.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Alaska
• Barrow

[146852andree]

@Zorica12 its really good :)

[Zorica12]

Haha. The guy to the left of you (right on film) looks over and probably thinks: Noob! But everyone has to be a noob at some time or other.

I want to try muktuk.

[herrstix]

This was a Festival for the People ... Nalukataq festival. I would have Preferred that you Filmed those People Enjoying their Festival instead of making 'sickening' faces attempting to eat their delicacies .....besides being a wast of food to the person filming, it was also a waste of film . . . .

[RexfordFaye]

haha i see my mom in the background with the black sweater haha kick ass i miss the summer