Cama-i Dance Festival

Mother of Mukluk dance with mask
and seal gut parka

Every March Bethel is host to the Cama-i Dance Festival.  People come in from all over Alaska to attend and participate.  Cama-i (pronounced ch-a-my) translated means "warm welcome."  Many of the villages have dance teams, and Cama-i is a chance for them to show off their skills.  One village that danced hadn't had a dance team in 100 years!  Most of the dancing Cama-i weekend is native dancing, but really any kind of dancing is fair game.  The weekend started Friday evening with events scheduled till midnight.  Saturday kicked off around lunch time and again went till midnight, and Sunday too was packed with dances.  Many of the groups performed 2 or 3 times over the weekend.  My favorites were the dances that included masks.  Almost as much as I loved watching the dancers, I truly enjoyed watching the elders watch the dancing.  The front row was reserved for elders, but people could sit on the floor in front of them.  Every single elder I watched was absolutely glowing. 
We had patients all week trying to use medical conditions as excuses to come into Bethel so they could be here for Cama-i.  (Most insurances will pay for travel and lodging if medical care isn't available where they live.)  Convenient when your asthma just so happens to flare up the weekend of Cama-i. 
In addition to the dancing, people set up booths to sell their crafts.  There were ivory carvings, jewelry, dance fans, seal skin hats and gloves... all kinds of beautiful artistry. 
The festival is run entirely by volunteers and donations.  Saturday evening there was a huge native foods feast.  First served were the elders, followed by the dancers and finally everyone else.  The feast included beaver, moose, caribou and goose stews, walrus, halibut, salmon, berry akutaq (Eskimo ice cream) and several other goodies all donated and served to over 850 people! 

A friend's mother, a 94 year old elder from Nightmute, was honored this year for her lifelong support of native Yup'ik daning.  She in turn honored all of us with a dance.  
Overall it was a really nice, really crowded event.  I'm glad I got a chance to get out of the house for a few kid free hours and get some nice pictures and experience something new!