Indie Alaska

I am a part of a group called Pamyua.

We call it Inuit soul because we are inspired by Inuit culture but really what we want to do is soul music.

It's like music that means something, music that moves you from the soul "Pamyua" is an Inuit word and specifically a Yup'ik word and it means "Encore!

Do it again!"

Pamyua is like a mixture of tribal and soul music from around the world In Yup'ik tradition we have a drum and we have a voice We want to take that tradition and play with it.

Just the intent of like taking a drum song and adding the harmonies to give it a new beat and a new energy to it.

Then where we've gone with that just all over the place and we've done all different styles Yup'ik dance songs are about our life and our experience and it could be about anything A lot of them are about hunting, a lot of them are about dancing and about how much happiness it brings like animal sounds and different ways that we express relationships to animals like seal calls seal call Most people are really taken by the dancing Oh yeah come up and dance.

You can dance if you wanna. You can leave your friends behind.

Come on dance for the animals.

If they don't dance, they aren't no friends of mine..no There's a void that exists in media between the actual real-life expression of real culture and people Karina and I, we sang and contributed on the theme song for Molly of Denali on PBS Plane or sled or snowshoe she is ready to explore from Kaktovik down to Juneau always wanting to learn more As Americans we are a product of our mass media and so it was really important for us to contribute to that and that's why we wanted to produce our music and to get our stuff in the industry because it's a powerful form of expression The members of Pamyua.

Aassanaaq And my brother, Qacungatarli His English name is Stephen Blanchett and then Karina We are a reflection of our identity and so it's really important our...of What is our identity?

What's our background?

And Steve and I our parents, the big inspiration for what we do because they were our connection to our larger family and our community.

My mom's way was by being connected to our community.

Our Yup'ik family and we have a really broad web of relations back home Where we still carry on these ancestral traditions like our naming that you know my name goes back you know countless years and my Yupik name my family name is Kilirnguq and I'm named after my mother's uncle so my grandmother's brother who passed away the year that I was born Our father he has his own background and so he guided us and directed us in his way and that was wonderful it was knowing that we're black.

You know he grew up making sure that Steve and I knew that we're black men in America and then he would bring us to church and be this black church with this community of African-American families in Anchorage and we got to experience essentially another village.

With those influence as our identity reflecting our parents When we started Pamyua it was really clear, We're Black We're Yup'ik This is what we do All of us we you know, Ossie, Steve, myself we love Alaska.

These are Yup'ik songs they have meaning and we're gonna share them.

As an Alaska Native in a cultural mess.

When our culture is supposed to be interwoven and we are at a time where we're hurting we need creativity and spiritual empowerment now more than ever.

We're a testament that there's still room for change in the culture, the awareness of people.

I think about being in Alaska is like we have an opportunity to create a positive impact for ourselves and for generations like 10 000 years from now