By Joseph Robertia
Photos courtesy of Paul Gray, Exploring Alaska. The Nanwalek community’s annual Alaska Native Russian program, held Jan. 14, is a celebration of renewal. Performers present the new year and 12 new months, with an old year and three old months trying to sneak back into the performance.
Redoubt Reporter
When it comes to celebrations, the cultural traditions of Alaska Natives are as interesting as they are elaborate. At no time is this more apparent than during New Year’s celebrations in Nanwalek, which is why videographer Paul Gray has chosen to focus on these festivities for his newest show in the “Exploring Alaska” series.
“I want to help people understand Alaska better, so one of the things I’m doing this year is focusing on shows that tell the story from an Alaska Native perspective,” Gray said. “There’s no narration to the documentary by me. I let the people tell their own story. It’s a new and better process,” he said.
Nanwalek is a tiny village located near the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula. Native residents of the area — which number roughly around 200 — are known as Suqpaiq. The ancestry of current Nanwalek residents is a mixture of Alu’utiq (Pacific Eskimo), American Indian, Aleut, Russian, Euro-American and Asian ancestry.
“Nanwalek is close in that it is on the peninsula, but it’s also far removed from the rest of the 
Western-style cities many of us live in,” Gray said.
The focus of the show is an Alaska Native New Year celebration, held every year on Jan. 14. It blends song and dance to tell the story of the changing from the old year to the new one in a lively way.
“The performers are all in costume, some of which are fairly elaborate. The women have long, silk gowns in beautiful colors and with long veils over their faces,” Gray said. “The event is pretty interesting and lasts for about four hours. It’s an ancient celebration, symbolic of
Nanwalek villiage.
change and renewal.”
Gray said the history of the event has been sordid. As Russian culture and religion came to the village, that cultural tradition frowned on the Native shamans, which originally played a role in the event. The new year festivities were even banned for a time.
Native culture is dynamic, though, which is what has allowed it to endure and thrive. The event changed over time and returned. There are no shamans now, but there are still a host of other colorful characters.
“In this Alaska Native Russian program, performers represent the new year and 12 new months,” Gray said.
“There is also an old year, and three old months referred to as three old ladies,” Gray said.
Like the last guest at a party who has long overstayed his or her welcome, he added that the old year and his companions aren’t eager to turn things over to the new year and new months.
“The old year and the old ladies do not want to go, and keep sneaking into the procession of the new year. They hound people in the audience and get really rowdy, resulting in uproarious fun and comical performance,” he said.
After the old year finally succumbs and the main performance comes to a close, Gray said all participants — performers and spectators alike — take part in a Forgiveness Waltz.
“It’s a way for them to renew relationships within the community and move forward into the new year with no hard feelings for anything that happened in the old year,” he said.
Gray said the episode, filmed in Nanwalek, will be broadcast on the “Exploring Alaska” series at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. A sneak peek of the event can also be seen on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eT0gRVdCE0.
