Well, students are beginning to test drive the on-line site. As expected, we have had some glitches and some gaps, but that is the purpose of test driving the online site. My computer keeps on crashing while I am trying to create the short video tutorials. Spending an hour or more with Dell technicians has not proven successful in repairing the crashes. Keep on getting the blue screen of death and the message, "The video scheduler has experienced an unexpected fatal error". Frustrating. Gaps include missing video tutorials in the process. Some lessons learned from students include better techniques for winding up the pump drill (winding the pump handle instead of the drill chuck). E.P. shared with the students today that the ancient Unangax word for "teach" encapsulates this exact concept. The word "teach" cannot be separated from the word "learn". As we working in Studio #5 today in the Hall of Cultures, I noticed that there was a large quote on the wall facing our work area. The quote is in the ceiling area, roughly looking down into our work area. The quote encourages readers to learn how to find food off of the beach and the land for survival purposes. The quote is from Sergie Sovoroff, the Aleut elder who taught me how to make model kayaks in 1978.
Some students have completed their gunwales, drilling all 70 rib holes. They are now working on the rib holes. We brainstormed this morning on possible new names for domain sites for on line instructional courses. We also went over the informed consent form, line by line, so that the students better understand this educational research project. We went around the table, each student answering questions that I posed, reading the sentences to find the answers.
We designed the bow piece and stern piece. Our first design were too small, and did not turn out looking very accurate. We redesigned the bow piece, drawing a template that looks sharper. I encouraged the students to take photographs of their progress so far; I don't think that any photographs were taken. I will see if I can find the bow pieces and take comparative photographs.
Some of the students are of Alutiiq descent, and they are designing bow pieces appropriate to their region. I am encouraging this diversity of approach. One of the parents of the students has volunteered to assist, and I am grateful for his help. He became interested in Alutiiq bow pieces today, and quickly purchased a book from the Kodiak region ("Looking Both Ways") which portrays a bow piece collected from elder Larry Matfay following the 1964 earth quake/tsunami. He will make a bow piece for his model representing the one collected by Larry Matfay.
Another artist who has been assisting in previous classes will not be with us next week because he will be at another museum, presenting on masks. He shared with us who he learned from (Peter Lind and Andrew Gronholdt). He also shared with us a couple book titles, one displaying the pump drill and one showing archaeological work done from the Alaska Peninsula. He was particularly intrigued with three styles of weapons which where archaeologically excavated showing variations over time (a flint point; a more recent slate point; and an even more recent brass shell casing). He shared verbally how he will make masks for younger student from paper, including a bit-place for students to hold the mask in their teeth. He said he will bring in an example of his mask next weeks for the students to view.
One student in our class is experimenting with rib holes which are partially drilled through the gunwales (as opposed to through-holes). This is a potentially beneficial experiment since the full-size kayaks are not through-drilled. For expediency sake in the past years, particularly with younger students who do not have advanced wood working skills or patience, the through-drilled gunwales has been utilized. But, after viewing the 1934 Atka kayak at the Phoebe Hearst Museum in 2010, a goal has been to incorporate more techniques of the full-sized kayaks.
Facebook Posting
In our iqyax group on Facebook, Wolfgang Brinck, author of "The Aleutian Kayak: Origins, Construction, and Use of the Traditional Seagoing Baidarka" as well as an iqyax instructor in Alaska, recently posted a quote from Suzawa Ikunori, an iqyax builder from Japan. The words of Suzawa-san, in my opinion, encapsulate what traditional sea kayak construction is all about. Mr. Ikunori has given me permission to read what he wrote to the students in the model iqyax class, saying this would make him "very, very glad". Below are Suzawa Ikunori's words:
Greeting from the author
I decided to begin a project of this Baidarka reconstruction in the new moon, because I believe, that Aleut of the ancient time lived as according with waxing and waning of the moon.
Building baidarka is, I believe, work to create surviving art. And also it is work to embody a wish and a hope, while making form of other creature a hint.
The person who watched a flying bird in the sky wanted to flap and fry like them, he/she might brought about art to fry.
Aleutian people watched sea-otter and seal, whales who passed away in the sea, and they created the art to go on the sea.
I think that reconstruction of baidarka is incorporating hearts and memories of ancient Aleut. We can not arrive at really important things if we were fascinated?by only the form and the appearance of them.
While paying huge respect to wisdom and history of Aleut, let’s begin the reconstruction of baidarka.
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