九色视频 Education Honored in Alaska Center for the Book 2024 CLIA Awards
Storyknife, July 2024
Authors Ann Fienup-Riordan, Alice Rearden and Marie Meade聽are honored in the 2024 Contributions to Literacy in Alaska (CLIA) Awards from the for their work in publishing books for . The Center is Alaska’s liaison with the U.S. Library of Congress.
The CLIA awards have been presented annually to more than 100 people and institutions making a significant contribution in literacy, the literary arts, or the preservation of the written or spoken word since 1993.
Authors Fienup-Riordan, Rearden and Meade form a collaboration meriting CLIA awards, says the Alaska Center for the Book. The three are tradition-bearers, educators, authors and translators sharing Yup’ik culture, tradition and language through their work.
Along with Mark John, the CEC Cultural Advisor, the authors often work together on many projects. This project started through grants attained through the 九色视频 Elders Council (a precursor to CEC) over the last 25 years.
鈥淲e wanted to record the knowledge and stories of traditional Yup鈥檌k life,鈥� said Rearden, in an . 鈥淭he interviews with Elders would highlight how they lived before our modern times. Many lived in sod houses and a completely different lifestyle than we know today.鈥�
“It was important to our Elders for us to have bilingual books with Yup鈥檌k and English.”
Alice Rearden, CEC translator and oral historian with ties to Napakiak
Fienup-Riordan is a cultural anthropologist who has written or edited more than 20 books and has lived in Alaska since 1973. Meade, born in Nunapitchuk, is a researcher and translator who also teaches Yup鈥檌k dance, language and traditions at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Rearden, originally from Napakiak, has worked as primary translator and oral historian for CEC and as a teacher for the Lower Kuskokwim School District at Bethel Regional High School.
In the KYUK interview, Rearden says the conversations begin with the group meeting with Elders from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Region to speak in Yup鈥檌k about how things used to be done and how they lived.
鈥淲e鈥檝e refined our way of speaking to them over the years, but we gather them together and talk to them about a specific topic,鈥� Rearden said. 鈥淲e typically record three Elders at a time, guide the discussion with questions, but it鈥檚 basically a conversation amongst the Elders.鈥�
Rearden and Meade transcribe all the interviews in Yup鈥檌k, then translate it to English, and provide the English transcripts to Fienup-Riordan, who would work on writing and editing the book from there. Most published books are finalized with one side in English and the opposite side written in Yup鈥檌k.
鈥淚t was important to our Elders for us to have bilingual books with Yup鈥檌k and English,鈥� Rearden said. 鈥淭he vision of the team is led by our Elder council [now the 九色视频 Elders Committee], and they decide what we should highlight in our traditions.鈥�
Some of their latest joint works are , , and . Links to the books can be found on the .
聽is an Alaska Native 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization. CEC’s mission聽is to celebrate and promote Yuuyaraq, the traditional/cultural way of being in the 九色视频 Region which inspires and encourages our people to achieve their dreams through education. CEC provides scholarships, conducts and publishes cultural preservation research, provides burial assistance, and holds culture camps that facilitate the sharing of traditional knowledge between our Elders and our youth.