Utqiagvik hosts joyful 2023 Kivgiq celebration

By Megan Gannon
Earlier this month, hundreds gathered in Utqiaġvik’s high school gym for a four-day Kivgiq or “messenger feast” celebration—the first since 2019. The traditional Iñupiaq festival included dancing, gift giving, art and craft trading, storytelling, feasting and visiting with family from around the Arctic.
“It was so good just to be under one roof with my whole family,” said Jessica Russell of Nome. She traveled to the festival with the King Island Native Community. Participants flew in from all of the North Slope villages, as well as Kotzebue, Shishmaref and Inuvik in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Some people from Teller and from Little Diomede also joined the King Islanders’ delegation at the festival, Russell said.
Kivgiq was a longstanding Iñupiaq tradition that was suppressed along with other Alaska Native practices in the early 1900s by missionaries. With the help of Elders, the event was reconstructed and revived in 1988. It now takes place every two years, although the COVID-19 pandemic put it on pause for four years.
As the festivities opened on the morning of Feb. 1, runners took their places for the Messenger Race, which honors the messengers who traditionally were sent to other villages to invite their neighbors to Kivgiq.
David Miller of Nome said he was nervous before the race began. He’s a runner but he doesn’t normally run in his mukluks. And he was competing in the Messenger Race for the first time, representing the King Island group. The short race started at Utqiaġvik’s airport and ended at the high school. About halfway through, Miller started to pull away from the other competitors, but he didn’t want to turn around and look back to see how far they were. “I just wanted to keep going,” he said. The whole time he was thinking about his aaka, Frances Muktoyuk.
“If it wasn’t for her, I don’t think I would be traveling with the King Island group, performing, practicing and learning,” Miller said. His home village is Teller, but in Nome he’s been learning more about his culture through the King Island group. He said Muktoyuk has encouraged him to participate in the group’s activities—whether it’s making drums, processing walrus stomach or learning their dialect—and a few years ago she invited Miller to call her aaka. “That whole run, I just imagined her lighting the seal oil lamp,” he said.
When he crossed the finish line as the first runner, the King Islanders erupted into cheers and chanted his name.
“It was really amazing,” said Steven Oquilluk. “That boy really made me proud.”
After his win in the race, Muktoyuk lit the seal oil lamp with Miller at her side. The King Island drummers and dancers were also given an extra performance in the schedule in addition to the three performances they had already prepared for.
For his performance in the race, Miller was gifted a harpoon that he hopes to use for seal hunting.
“​​My Elders are my motivation for me to go hunting,” Miller said. “I like to hunt. I like to be a provider. It’s very interesting. I get to see what my skills are—my knowledge, my patience—and I get to work on myself.”
This year’s Kivgiq theme was Iñupiaraagnaqsiruq, or “It is time to speak Iñupiaq.” Attending the festival for the first time, Oquilluk said that he was impressed with the amount of Iñupiaq he heard around him and that he felt inspired to work on his own pronunciations and phrases. He also said he got to learn new dances and the meanings behind them.
“It was really cool to meet new people and see how much respect they have for you,” Oquilluk said. “It was a really good learning experience... It was an amazing trip.”