Celebrate Family Traditions
This activity was adapted from programming by Alaska Public Media. Special thanks to David Ket'acik Nicolai for sharing his family tradition as part of this activity. Stills provided by Alaska Public Media.
Molly learns about her heritage and history through family traditions. In Alaska Native culture, honoring your elders and sharing what you have are important community values. Participating in family traditions allows Alaska Native children to learn lessons from their elders that they can then share with their community.
Do you have a family tradition you’d like to share with your child? Think about ways you and your family spent time together during your childhood. What activities did you do often together? What did these activities teach you about your family? Think of a family tradition you’d like to share with your child and invite them to learn more about your family as you do the activity.
Materials
Directions
Think about a family tradition that is special to you. Is it a recipe? A craft? A dance? A song? Choose a tradition that might match up with an interest your child currently has or with one that they have yet to explore.
Invite your child to join you in learning more about the family tradition. How old is the tradition? Who taught you about it? Help your child to understand more about your family by sharing these details. For example, this Alaska Native family’s tradition is making string figures. Making string figures has been a tradition in their family since akatamanii, a long, long time ago. In this family, the father’s grandmother taught his dad, and his dad taught him. Now, three generations of the family are participating in making string figures together.
Next, show your child what the tradition is. If the tradition is a song, sing. If it’s a recipe, cook it together. Help your child participate and encourage your child to practice and engage in the tradition. When this family makes string figures, they use a 6-foot piece of string made into a loop. Next, the adults show the child how to create the figures by demonstrating as she tries the steps for herself.
Encourage your child to write down or draw about the family tradition so that they can remember how it’s done and why it’s special to your family. Take photos to remember doing the activity together with your family.
Finally, help your child share the tradition with a friend. Share ways your child can talk about the tradition with others. Encourage your child to ask their friends about their family traditions too!
Do you have a family tradition you’d like to share with your child? Think about ways you and your family spent time together during your childhood. What activities did you do often together? What did these activities teach you about your family? Think of a family tradition you’d like to share with your child and invite them to learn more about your family as you do the activity.
Explore Further
One way to engage with your family tradition is to find videos to watch with your child that show your culture engaging in the activity. For example, this video illustrates how to make the seagull string figures made by the Alaska Native family. Can’t find a video about your family tradition? Make your own to share with your family and friends.
We hope you had fun together! Snap a photo of you and your child doing the activity and share it with us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. We’d love to see how it turned out!
Want more “Molly of Denali” activities? Check out the Make Spiced Oatmeal Muffins recipe and the Create a Yup’ik Dance Fan activity to continue the fun!
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