Bringing Some Culture Into My World Of Crazy Fun

I'm having so much fun incorporating Yup'ik into my crafts. Here are two shirts I did using my Silhouette and fabric paint.

When I was little and living in the village, "Aipaqluk," was a saying used frequently by most kids. The literal translation is "let's be partners/friends," but it was commonly used to say, "let's hang out." One might hear, around kids exposed to more English, "Let's Aipaq." I wanted my shirt to be all in Yup'ik so I chose the saying I remembered using as a child.

For this shirt, I wanted something that represented my culture, and dance is a huge part of it. I haven't designed a female fan (caribou with woven sea grass handles) yet so I used a male dance fan for my design. Yupiaq means real person in Yup'ik. 

Until the next time. . . .

Yugtun

I haven't learned many of the crafting skills of my culture, but I thought I'd incorporate Yup'ik, my language, in my own way, into my crafts.

I've been into making signs lately and I thought it would be perfect to make some in Yup'ik. This one translates into, "you can."  I've seen many inspiring quotes/sayings/affirmations lately and have heard many in Yup'ik as well, but when I mentioned my project to some family and friends, one of them said to me, "piyugngauten," as to encourage my efforts, and I knew right there and then that I would be using this for one of my signs. **Edit: unfortunately I got ahead of myself due to my excitement and misspelled piyugngauten on the sign, so I'll be redoing this sign with proper spelling.**

I shamefully admit that I haven't taught my children to speak Yup'ik, but there are several words and sayings they do know. One of them is, kenkamken, or I love you. I took this cheap frame that used to be gold, spray painted it white, and cut out my saying. I used the negative of my cutout as I wanted it to be patterned. Because I couldn't find the color I was looking for for my background, I took some spray paint and sprayed a light layer to get the color I wanted. This will sit in my daughter's room and although she doesn't know my native language, she'll always know what this says.


Until the next time. . . .