Support for the Alaska Live series of live music and conversation on KUAC is made possible by a grant from Design Alaska.

Design Alaska, strengthening community through support of the arts.

Welcome to KUAC's Alaska Live.

I'm your host, Laurie Neufeld.

AKU-MATU is my guest here in the Alaska Live tape archive filming studio.

We should jump right into a song after you just reintroduce yourself, Allison Akootchook Warden, AKU-MATU.

[speaking inupiaq] Thank you all for being here.

I am Allison Akootchook Warden, and my rap performance music name is AKU-MATU, which is the abbreviation of two of my Inupiaq names, Akootchook and Matumeak.

[speaking inupiaq] OK. [aku-matu, "whale song'] [vocalizing] Oh, I'm a bowhead whale, swimming in the ocean.

You know me so well, oh oh.

Swimming out in the sea, I know you see me, and I know you want me, but no.

No, you can't have me, no no.

No, I'm not easy, oh oh.

I know you want me, but no no no, I'm not easy, oh oh.

Do you see?

I can feed a whole community, yes.

The Inupiaq way, living in the Artic like back in the day, and yes.

I remember too, and I remember what makes a good crew, and yes.

When you I do see, I see the whole line of your ancestry.

And yes, I know you see me.

And yes, I'm so round and blubbery.

And yes, I know you want me, but no no no, I'm not easy, oh oh.

See, this is how we do.

A whaling captain, his wife and the crew, and you really got to be the epitome of generosity, oh oh.

There's so much to do.

So many ways to get ready with the crew, oh oh.

Yes, do you see the wife of the whaling captain is the one for me, ho ho.

Do you understand?

She's the reason I want to land on the land, oh oh.

Because you see, she is the one who is going to handle me, yes yes.

Her energy and how she shows love to her community, oh oh, is why I choose to give, give my own life so that others may live, oh yes.

Do you understand?

The Inupiaq live off of the sea and land for thousands of years, and yes yes yes, we are still here, ho ho.

I know you see me and I know I'm so round and blubbery, oh oh.

I know you want me, but no no no, I'm not easy.

[vocalizing] Oh, I'm a bowhead whale, swimming in the ocean.

You know me so well, oh oh.

Swimming out in the sea, I know you see me, and I know you want me, but no.

No, I'm not easy, no no.

No, you can't have me, no no.

I know you want me, but no no no, I'm not easy.

[speaking inupiaq] Now you know what to do.

Got to be on a really, really good crew, and show generosity and lots of love for your community.

Then oh, maybe I will be just a little bit, a little bit easy, but no.

Not for you, got to be generous for me to decide to.

And yes, I know you see me, and yes, I'm so round and blubbery.

And yes, I know you want me, but no no no, I'm not easy.

[vocalizing] Yes.

AKU-MATU, here at the Alaska Live studios.

That was amazing.

I'm A Bowhead Whale, is that the name?

Yes, it's a song from the perspective of a bowhead whale.

Wow.

We say that the whale gives itself to the crew based on the virtue of the wife, the whaling captain's wife, and there's other things she needs to do, like clean her house and-- so it's talking about how it's the choice of the whale to give itself to the community and it's choosing who is the recipient.

So it's a relationship.

The story in that was really full and I could engage with it.

And that's amazing about your performance.

AKU-MATU is my guest here on KUAC's Alaska Live.

And AKU-MATU, how did you come up with that again?

I know that you introduced yourself as-- My background is in theater, so when I started learning rap when I was-- 30 years ago-- No way.

I started to lean on my experience with theater, with costumes and characters, to see what would the bowhead whale say if the bowhead whale could rap?

So you'll see in different songs that I take on the characters and perspectives of different animals or people in the community to affect a message.

Yeah.

And my understanding is, you came up with the name through your family names?

Yes.

Akootchook, my artist name is Allison Akootchook Warden, which is my family name from Kaktovik.

I'm a tribal member there, and I consider Kaktovik my home.

And I love it.

I was just home for the holidays so it's really great to be home.

I live here in Fairbanks.

Matumeak is one of my other Inupiaq names.

And when I first became a rapper all those many years ago, KRS-ONE, which is all caps, KRS-ONE with a dash, was who I modeled my name after.

So I was like, AKU-MATU, because he was an artist, is an artist that really cares about community, and he just was really inspiring to me.

I'm not kidding.

Does KRS-ONE know about how he's influenced a rapper?

And you've got to reach out.

I went to his concert, and I was the most probably too craziest fan in the front, singing along to all his songs.

But I didn't get a chance to meet him.

OK. We are going to reach out, and I can see it now, the double bill.

AKU-MATU, KRS-ONE, in the villages, packing houses in Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks.

Oh, that would be insane.

I'm going to make it happen.

He's such an incredible community person, and he really loves his people.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The stories you would tell from stage together.

Thank you.

Let's go to another song, and then we'll talk more about some of the things that are going on.

OK.

This is a song I wrote for my mom when she was still living.

She passed away two years ago.

And that's the main reason I moved to Fairbanks, was to help get through my grieving process.

And so not all of the information in this song is correct to her life, but she was fine with it.

Some of it is drawn from my aunties or other people.

But the stories are true, it's just not all completely her life.

AKU-MATU is here on KUAC's Alaska Live.

[aku-matu, "mom's song"] This song is about my mom and the many moms across Alaska.

In the Arctic, we went through rapid colonization.

This song is about generational trauma and how it affects us today, and what we are doing to transmute and heal it.

My mom was born in 1942 in a village called Utqiagvik.

Then at two, she was adopted away to Kaktovik where she remains to this day.

At the age of eight, my mom got tuberculosis and was sent away to Seattle, WA, with lots of other kids from the villages of AK.

She was there for four years.

So many didn't survive.

So many, many tears.

And when she came back to the vil', everything wasn't OK or chill.

Her sister punished at school for speaking her Inupiaq language.

Its true.

Then at 14, she was sent away to boarding school in S-I-T-K-A-A-K. One lifetime, so much pain.

One lifetime, memories remain.

One lifetime and now you know the story of one Inupiaq Eskimo.

One lifetime, so much shame.

One lifetime, memories remain.

One lifetime and now you see the story of me, the story of me.

At boarding school she was punished too.

She couldn't even think in her language as a rule.

After four long years, she graduated way ahead of her peers.

At 18, she went back to the village, things not what they seem.

She didn't know how to do what a woman of her age should know how to do.

She didn't know how to cut up a seal.

She didn't know how to cook a traditional meal.

She had to learn the language two by two, word by word.

You feel?

So right away, she left KAK to go to FAI to study criminal justice, hey hey.

Worked towards her degree and then she got pregnant, married and had me.

Didn't I turn out pretty?

It was 1972.

Two years with my daddy until he divorced my mommy, moved to Hawaii and rarely ever saw me.

Now I ask my mom to translate so I can understand and put back the pieces, you resonate?

Now it's up to you.

Heal your ancestors.

Do what you need to do.

We're counting on you.

This is the true story about my mom, shared by so many moms across our planet.

She went from a sod house to Facebook.

[speaking inupiaq] My mom worked in the courts, then the church as a secretary.

She felt her people's hurts.

She became a lay pastor, then got her Master's of Divinity in Dubuque, I-O-W-A, where I was a teen.

At 18, we moved back to AK where she preached in Juneau and sang gospel songs in Tlingit and in Inupiaq, slowly bringing her power back.

Then full circle back to Utqiagvik, where she associate ministered to the dying and the sick for eight years serving her community, but the rules of the Presbytery wouldn't let her be.

One lifetime, so much pain.

One lifetime, memories remain.

One lifetime and now you know the story of one Inupiaq Eskimo.

One lifetime, so much shame.

One lifetime, memories remain.

One lifetime and now you see the story of me, the story of me.

So the next time you see a drunk native on the street, I hope you think about me.

I hope you think about my mom, and I hope you think about this song.

It wasn't that long ago the New Bedford whalers, the military, the whole colonization show, they came and landed so, so fast.

It was like a [vocalizing] blast, blast.

It's not like they left, too.

They're still drawing lines today in our earth, telling us what to do.

We stand in our tribal sovereignty, still remembering the old, old, old, old stories.

We remain super Inupiaq, decolonizing our psyche, bringing the old, old traditions back.

So many sad, sad stories.

But the truth remains, my mama bore me and today I bring you her pain and her truth.

This is how we educate our youth.

[speaking inupiaq] Wow.

AKU-MATU is here.

AKU-MATU is here at the KUAC studios for Alaska Live.

And many of you will remember about a year ago, Allison Akootchook Warden, her smiling voice, sharing her Indigenous language with us on KUAC Radio.

This is much different.

It is different.

People don't usually expect me to come out with the rapping-ness.

Yeah, because this is my personality, but then I'm a performer and an artist, so.

It gave me chills.

In my toolbox.

Yes.

Thank you.

That gave me chills to know you from KUAC, a midday announcer, and your smiling voice and sharing Inupiaq with us.

And now doing the same, but not the same.

So powerful.

And it's great to have you back at KUAC.

Thank you.

I miss the KUAC family.

I'm going to travel to Germany soon, and so it made sense for me to fly away, but I still think of you guys.

You're not moving to Germany?

Oh, no, no, no.

Just a performance.

OK, great.

Wow, you're going to Europe.

And a panel and workshop, things like that.

Wonderful.

Is it something to do with climate and Indigenous people, or?

We haven;t had our first call yet, but I know the dates, so.

Great.

Yeah, I'm excited.

Amazing.

Congratulations.

And another exciting thing in your world is a Rasmuson grant.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

It was a fellowship.

I think my third fellowship.

Wow.

This one was for music.

OK.

So you sent in-- I sent an application, actually, when I was here at KUAC, around the same time it was due.

And I didn't know if I was going to get the-- you never know.

It depends on the panel.

It's a really fair process that they-- The Rasmuson and people don't even know it until the panelists decide.

And I received it in, I think, October.

I don't remember when we were there.

Last fall.

Yes, this last fall.

So it's unrestricted $18,000.

They just upped it to $25,000.

Wow.

And the applications are open.

Inflation has worked on that too.

Yes.

So that's exciting.

Oh yeah, applications are open.

And they say even if you have applied in the past and not gotten one, keep applying.

Yes.

If you got one recently, like me, I wouldn't be able to apply again for three years, which is great.

So it was a really wonderful surprise to receive the-- I've gotten a fellowship in new genre and in performance art from the Rasmuson, both fellowships.

And this time it's for music.

For music, yes.

Great.

Performance art is something that, we don't always know how to describe it.

And it is hard to describe what you have going on here for our Alaska Live filming, because we've got a live audience here, but we're going out over the radio right now, live.

And so can you describe what you've got going on with your unique beats?

And you've got some costuming coming up, and-- Yes, the beats you've heard so far are made by an artist in Seattle named WD40.

WD40.

And then I'm working with a artist in Greenland named [inaudible].

So back in 1991, I went to Kaktovik.

And I don't remember, I must have been 18 years old.

And I had a Digital Audio Recorder, a DAT.

That was the highest technology at that time.

And so I took my little portable DAT and I had a really good microphone, and I recorded the Kaktovik traditional dancers.

And hip hop, you sample things.

So now the beat makers, and I myself am becoming a beat maker.

So I went to school for audio engineering, but now I'm like, I need to make my own beats.

So I have the equipment now.

We take the little snippets of those recordings from 1991 and then incorporate it into the hip hop beat.

You're still using those original recordings from Kaktovik, from the drum group, there in 1991 that you recorded on your state of the art DAT recorder?

Yes.

And you're still using those to this day.

Yes.

Some samples are from Columbia University.

Found some recordings from Utqiagvik that were done in the 1940s by Laura Bolton.

And they just were hiding in the basement of Columbia University in New York.

And so they repatriated the music and the sounds back to the community.

And one of the traditional dance groups relearned all of those dances that were recorded by her and made new motions, or they figured it out.

And they were hoping someone like me, a hip hop artist, would do something more very modern with it.

And so we've been also sampling those beats for the hip hop sounds.

So there's two sources.

This is what hip hop and rap artists do.

They use beats that are commissioned, I take it, or they do them themselves, and then use that as a track to rap to.

And all of these stories and lyrics are yours.

Yes.

Yes.

The story, some lyrics, and I'll learn the beats.

I mean, I have the equipment.

It's a little bit harder on-- This Rasmuson grant's going to really help you with that.

Exactly.

That's great.

At least I have the tools now, so that's exciting.

That's right.

That's right.

AKU-MATU, it is such a pleasure to have you here.

Are you ready to share another rap, hip hop-- Yes, so this one, if-- you heard from a bowhead whale.

We did.

So now we'll hear from a polar bear.

From a polar bear?

AKU-MATU is here at the KUAC Alaska Live studios.

[AKU MATU, "WHERE DID ALL THE ICE GO?"]

[vocalizing] [speaking inupiaq] I'm a polar bear in the Arctic sea.

Let me tell you how tough.

It's been for me.

Everything is changing oh so fast.

Now I wonder how long us polar bears will last.

Oh, where did all the ice go?

Where did it go?

Oh, where did all the ice go?

I don't know.

My name is Homer.

I'm a polar bear.

And they used to be ice everywhere.

Now it has gone away.

I worry about my cubs every day.

What will happen to me and my polar bear community?

We need the ice to survive.

Seals bask on it and keep us alive.

It's time for the humans of the Earth to wake up, rise up and give birth to a brighter day of living in the Arctic in a sustainable way.

It's time to arise, heal their disease and the lies.

Yes, even you.

You can rise up and even you too.

Oh, your part, where did all the ice go?

Catch up, you guys.

Where did it go?

Oh, where did all the ice go?

I don't know.

[speaking inupiaq] It's so wrong.

Our weather is changing.

[speaking inupiaq] Our land, our nation is changing.

[speaking inupiaq] There's no more ice.

[speaking inupiaq] I wonder what we can do.

Are you worried about me?

I'm worried about you.

When will you stop and see all the ice is melting around me?

The Earth is calling out your name to please be brave.

Yes, the animals are counting on you, and we're asking to do what we cannot do.

We've warmed up enough already.

It's time for the people to rise steady.

You are now an honorary polar bear, and I hope you really, really, really care about the healing of the Earth and to the movement that which we give birth.

Yes, the polar bears say, we are waiting for you, OK?

Oh, where did all the ice go?

Good job, you guys.

Come on.

Do your part.

Oh, where did all the ice go?

I don't know.

Where did it go?

There used to be lots.

Where did it go?

Now it's all melting away.

Where did it go?

It's up to you, and you, and you.

Where did it go?

You're the planet today, OK?

Oh, where did all the ice go?

Good job, you guys.

Where did it go?

Oh, where did all the-- Good job, you guys.

I don't know, one more time.

Oh, where did all the ice go?

Where did it go?

Oh, where did all the ice go?

I don't know.

Where did it go?

Where did it go?

Where did it go?

Thank you.

These are kind of old songs.

AKU-MATU, you transformed into a polar bear in front of our eyes and made us your backup singers.

That's just amazing.

Thank you.

Magical trick, you did there.

Thank you.

I'm working on new songs for my Rasmuson, so these are-- I've been touring and had a set for many, many years.

So I'm excited about new material.

Well, we'll have you back when you've got that too.

Thank you.

Yes.

This is amazing.

I'm so pulled in and engaged with the animals you inhabit.

They inhabit you.

How did you learn that?

Did that come from a young age, or did your parents or grandparents teach you that?

My biological grandmother, Rhoda [inaudible],, she was a performer.

She had a talent for making people laugh.

And there's a time in our festivals, sometimes we use costumes.

And so she had a knack for that.

And when I was a little girl, she adopted my mom to her sister, Mildred [?

rexford, ?]

who raised my mom.

But I always knew that she-- and I always knew where we came from, and they're sisters.

So I remember being a little kid and my grandmother Mildred saying, she reminds me of you.

She's a performer like you.

She makes everyone laugh.

And maybe she'll be like you.

And so I attribute watching her and also other people in the Inupiaq communities.

There's a lot of big personalities and funny people.

It's fun to make others laugh.

And then I was in the theater.

I was in a commercial here at UAF when I was eight years old.

And then I started in the theater I think when I was 16, and then I moved into performance art.

Here in Fairbanks?

What are some of the performances that people from the Wayback Machine might remember from the '90s.

I only went to high school here for a little tiny bit.

So I was in Juneau for my high school years.

Or one year of high school and other places.

So I was in Utqiagvik for one year for high school.

So that was my first debut, I think, on the stage was up there.

But there's a theater company made of Native people called [inaudible] Northern [inaudible] or something.

And they went to my high school when I was 17, and they did a performance.

And I was like, you can do that as a living?

So Jane Lind was part of that, and she really inspired me, and I just kept going at it.

For radio listeners out there and those of you streaming on KUAC.org, AKU-MATU was swimming.

And I was convinced she's the polar bear out there swimming to feed her cubs.

I was absolutely convinced that that was you.

You were the polar bear.

Thank you.

And you spoke in that song of, where did all the ice go?

And you as a polar bear don't know, and we as the humans and scientists, well, we know, but what are we doing?

And I know that part of your performance is to make people realize that the polar bears are wondering where the ice is going.

Yeah, I mean, every year is different.

The weather used to be able to be counted on to be the same pretty much every year.

So there's been changes.

I mean, I know there might be some people in Kaktovik listening right now, on the air, and they're like, we have all the ice right here.

What are you talking about?

There's ice everywhere.

So there's a lot.

There's a spectrum of opinions on what's going on, especially in the Arctic.

But I did go out on the ice-- I mean, in a boat with my uncle one time.

We were going caribou hunting, and he said, there used to be huge, huge glaciers.

Do you see that one?

There used to be lots of them.

So that was the inspiration for the song was that hunting trip with my uncle for caribou, and we had to go by boat because of the restrictions on our land.

And he was talking about how it used to look out there on the ocean.

And I know that scientists are using the science that's coming from people that are living out there and their ancestors have lived out there.

And so the stories tell of glaciers being numerous, too, I'm sure, that are passed down, and now those glaciers are gone or retreating, or as the polar bear is saying, you know that they know.

And are you going to Germany to share the story of the polar bear and the caribou?

I don't know.

We haven't had our first call yet.

I know that we're doing some cool panels and they might be listening too in Germany.

So I'm not sure.

I'm excited to go there.

I used to travel to Europe quite a bit to perform at festivals.

That was my main thing, was Europe and performing.

As AKU-MATU?

Yes.

Yes.

But then everything got shut down, so it's been a few years since I've been out there.

It is so good to have live performance back here at KUAC and live performance happening all over the world again.

I can't tell you how good this feels.

Thank you.

What was your first performance back after things opened up a bit?

Were you doing some performances online?

I was performing outside at the gazebo with the Fairbanks Arts Council, the summer of 2020, I think.

And then I've been-- I was performing.

I had a series at the Marlin.

Oh, great.

Music is, I see it as a separate part of my artistic life.

But performance art, I just performed at the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art and it was pure performance art with one of my beat maker friends, [inaudible] from Germany.

I mean, from Greenland.

Greenland.

And we did not do hip hop or rap.

We did performance art, and it was all in Inupiaq.

Is that called installation art, also?

Installation is something I do, but this was just a performance.

It's mostly, I feel like it's done in museums.

I've done a piece around meth where I pretend that I'm a person on meth for half of the performance, and another half is, I'm only speaking the language.

And I do that on basically an ice cube, but in a museum in a gallery setting.

So it's conceptual.

Intense.

A lot of research is involved.

And so that's one of the mediums that I work in, is performance art, music.

Installation is visual art, and I did an installation at the Anchorage museum where I lived in the museum in a Inupiaq ceremonial house that exists between the hyperfuture and the superancient.

The Inuit Futurism, I was going to ask you about that.

Oh, that's different.

Yeah.

The Inuit Futurism Center is a new installation at the Anchorage museum that I'm working on now.

Did you just say that you lived at the museum?

Can we go back to that for just a second?

How long did you-- OK.

I didn't sleep there, but I stayed almost every hour that the museum was open.

I was there.

For how many weeks did you do this?

Two months.

Two months.

Every day?

Yeah.

So I had gotten a Rasmuson for that.

And I also got a USA Artist Fellowship, which is a national fellowship to support that work.

Did you learn about yourself?

Art came after that work.

Did you learn about yourself and others, being there for two months?

Yeah, it was good.

It was good to host.

We started a traditional dance group, the Kisagvigmiut Traditional Dancers.

My cousin was 16 at the time, and he knew all the dances and the songs.

And I was the one with the resources and the energy to, like, let's have traditional bench dances in our traditional ceremonial house that has a bench, and we could do the bench dances.

And let's have a dance group.

And so I was very thankful to work with him.

And he's still continuing on the music in the traditional, and I myself create traditional songs and dances up here in Fairbanks.

For myself, really, right now, but I hope to share it with my community at some point.

You are so versatile.

Here at KUAC's Alaska Live, you are doing your rap music and art with the beats, and you're just talking about you doing performance art and installation art and-- Poetry.

I do poetry too.

Oh, that's right.

Poetry.

I get ideas.

I see them as tools in the tool belt, and I think of something, and which one should I pull out to address this?

Does some of your poetry make it into your rap lyrics?

I see it as separate.

But yeah, they're totally different.

It's like putting a different hat on and a different headspace, so it's hard for me to transition, even in thought, because it's such a different headspace for either one.

Allison, just talking to you, I feel like my mind is expanding, just hearing about the expanse of your mind.

Thank you.

So the next song, Maya Salganek is in the audience, and she heads the UAF film program.

And this song was part of a film that they produced here at UAF called Feels Good.

And the director of that film, I was in his previous film, called Sikumi, right?

Yeah.

Or no, On the Ice.

It was used to be Sikumi.

It's called On the Ice, so I was an actress in that film.

And so he did a short film through the UAF program called Feels Good.

And it was filmed all around Fairbanks.

And I played a rapper in the film.

And he wanted a song about being a diva.

And I was like, I don't want to be a diva.

That's my anti-thing.

That's the worst thing.

He's like, remember, you're acting, so you're a character.

And she's not totally the same of you, right?

And I was like, yeah, that's true.

Because she had a little shady side.

And anyway, you got to see the film.

He's like, just make the song about being a diva for at least the first verse.

That's all we're going to film.

And then the last three verses, or however long you want it to be, could be about whatever you want.

We're not even going to hear it.

So I was like, OK.

So we filmed this at the Marlin, and this was the song.

But if you see the film, you only see the first verse.

Right.

AKU-MATU is here-- Oh, and-- Yes.

So this is audience participation, so at one point, I'm going to say, now say it with me.

And then you're going to go [vocalizes].. And then you're going to go [vocalizes].. And then you're going to do that twice.

I don't know if you guys want to practice your [vocalizes].. [audience vocalizing] OK. [aku-matu, "urban diva"] I was raised in the city, born in the vil'.

Everything I do is super chill because I'm a D-I-V-A, making moves in the golden heart of AK.

Hey, what do you know about keeping it real in 40 below?

Zero tolerance is what I got if you're out of control and blowing up my spot.

My family, a bunch of urban Natives dressed fresh like me.

See, we know how to be connected to the land.

Yeah, living in the city, what don't you understand?

Connected to the land, yeah, living in the city, what don't you understand?

[inupiaq] connected to the land of our ancestors' dream.

[inupiaq] Let me show you what I mean.

Let's look at today, the everyday motions of a DIVA.

Woke up at 8A.

Picked up my cousin who flew in from KAK.

He brought fresh [inupiaq] duck and with my [?

ulu ?]

we shared.

And even though I'm not living there, I still care.

So you see people recognize me as part of the community and they give me props because that's a proper diva.

I've given all I got.

And you know in the two worlds I don't walk, I run the show.

Oh, much love and respect to all the Native people being as real as it gets.

Connected to the land, yeah, living in the city, what don't you understand?

Connected to the land, yeah, living in the city, what don't you understand?

[inupiaq],, connected to the land of our ancestors' dreams.

[inupiaq], now say it with me.

[vocalizing] Let me take it to another different place, shining the light on a different kind of face.

Urban Natives we be, making waves.

I'm known all around the state, you see?

Now let's take a look at a man I'll call Tom Tookalook.

He is the CEO of a Native-owned business that grows and grows.

See, see, Urban Native, Rural Native, all one community.

Connected we are.

No one who won't be bright shining stars.

Diva is just a term found in our universe, that what you heard.

So who do I be?

One of many forging new communities.

Connected to the land, yeah, living in the city, what don't you understand?

Connected to the land, yeah, living in the city, what don't you understand?

[inupiaq] Connected to the land of our ancestors' dreams.

[inupiaq], now say it with me.

[vocalizing] Now we go anew.

Moving in the city like we're on a whaling crew.

Everybody, everybody.

Oh, together we grow.

Speaking our languages we now know.

[speaking inupiaq] So you see how here Urban Natives real Natives we be.

Oh, connected like stars.

Knowing who we be, we go so far.

Yes, you know.

As we go forward we grow and grow.

Yes, even you.

Even you, you, and even me too.

Connected to the land, yeah, living in the city, what don't you understand?

Connected to the land, yeah, living in the city, what don't you understand?

[inupiaq],, connected to the land of our ancestors' dreams.

[inupiaq], now say it with me.

[vocalizing] AKU-MATU, having that audience participation is so fun.

You all sounded great out there.

I have to say, she's a very good director.

And I think I could hear Maya out there too.

And so that was from a film that was filmed right here in Alaska through UAF?

Yes.

Wow.

And you went to UAF here-- In the 90s, yes.

'95, '96.

Yeah.

When we were all in college.

I think we're about the same age.

Yeah, I think so.

So the director said you have to sing as a diva, and so for the radio audience out there, you had the biggest set of pearls.

You donned the biggest set of pearls for that.

And you have a sparkly outfit on.

It's just glorious, and definitely sparkling under the lights here at the KUAC Alaska Live archive filming studio.

And just sparkling and shining out there in radioland too.

I know they sang along too.

Could you hear them out in radioland?

Oh, yes, I did.

I hope you were singing.

Yes.

I know they were.

I know they were singing out in their cabins.

I know there are people at stoplights looking over and seeing others singing along.

And yeah, it's one of those moments in Fairbanks and in Alaska and interior Alaska where you look over in a car, and you're like, oh, yeah, we're both listening the same thing.

Yeah.

And it's so amazing.

A little bit ago, you talked about that performance art that you had, and about meth.

And your art is about healing and about hurt, and about how to move in life.

On my artist's statement, I do talk about healing, and I'm very committed to healing myself.

And it just never stops, the healing of the self.

It's a continuous process.

I've been very committed to it since I was very young.

And I keep unfolding and unfolding and unfolding, and there's still things that I find I need to work on, and it's a blessing.

You're sharing that with others.

So the hope is to-- with my mom's song, that's such a familiar story throughout Alaska and the world, of this rapid transition, because she did live in a sod house and now she was on Facebook.

And just the change that she saw in her lifetime from just one generation was just so dramatic.

And so that's a story that can resonate throughout the world.

There's a lot of rapid change that happened in many different communities.

So hearing it and experiencing it with all my intensity can help release it because for me, you have to go through it to let it go, for many things.

Have you found that people are receiving healing and strength and ability to move in life through your art?

I hope so.

I just put them out there and I just try not to think about it too hard because you've got to be humble, and it's just the work that, you just think, this is the work that I'm doing, and then if it resonates, it does.

And if it doesn't-- I do appreciate when people come up to me and they're like, oh my goodness, and have their story or they're crying.

And I'm like, thank you.

OK, I'll keep that one.

Or thank you, I'm glad that resonates with you, and thank you for that feedback.

But other than that, it's working in a vacuum for the most part until you get in front of an audience.

Yeah.

And with this Rasmuson grant, you will be writing again, a bit in a vacuum, and do you need to travel or do you need to spend time in your own space to get the inspiration for the new pieces?

I need an audience.

So I need regular access to an audience.

So you don't really know what it's doing until it's in front of people, at least for the music, and for the theater.

For poetry, it's a totally-- you could stay in your vacuum and just stay there forever.

But it is fun to read the poetry out loud and get some feedback.

But for rap, I need-- that was the hardest part about everything shutting down, is that it's hard to create performance pieces without an audience.

Yeah.

Did you have a bit of that online audience?

I did some poetry online, but I didn't want to-- Agreed.

Do online performance.

I was just, it's not the same.

You need the actual energy of the people.

They create it just as much as you do.

Their energy feeds you and informs you and like, OK, that's what needs to change too, because of their reaction and their aliveness.

Yeah.

And I think that's your theatrical background too, speaking there, because it's what the theater is all about.

It's that the audience is part of the performance.

Yes.

And I've done social practice installation where the medium are the people.

And so that's one of my favorite mediums of art is in installation.

And the people are the medium.

So we do different activities together, and they are the performance and they become the thing.

And the goal of that is for them to be empowered to do what they feel like doing, and I'm just in the background at that point.

And so facilitating a group to create something that you didn't expect that would come from them.

Have you been surprised by generations of people?

Because I bet a younger generation is much more less inhibited to do some of that interacting with you.

I hang out with a lot of elders, and they're pretty wild and uninhibited.

My mom had the most Earth-shattering genius ideas, and they were way, way out there.

And I was like, yes, thank you, Mom, for that wonderful idea.

I will use that.

And so all the elders I meet, they'll say pretty much what they want to do, and they'll get up and try anything.

And so sometimes the younger people are more shy because they've only been alive for so long, so it's intimidating to get on a stage.

But if you're in your 80s, then you're like, what are we doing?

I'm ready.

Let's go.

Swim like a polar bear.

I'll do it.

Let's do it.

Let's go.

Speaking of let's go-- I have a lot of opinions about this.

Speaking of let's go, let's have another AKU-MATU.

Is that the finale?

Yeah.

All right.

Let's do that one.

So since I have a minute to explain-- Oh wow, look at this.

I was performing on a rooftop in Stockholm.

Well, I was performing in Stockholm, Sweden, for a performance art conference, way down at the bottom outside of the museum.

And they're like, we're going to move you to the rooftop.

You're awesome.

And so I came up with-- I was like, I need to up my thing.

And so I made-- I need to get it together.

I'm going to be on a rooftop.

So I made a new song and a new costume for that performance, and it's just continued.

So part of this costume is a bright orange blazer and some headgear.

Oh wow.

This would fall in the genre of Inuit Futurism, which is a center that's installation that is going to be at the Anchorage museum for the next year or more.

[AKU MATU, "ANCESTOR FROM THE FUTURE"] Oh.

Where am I?

Is this the future?

Oh.

Oh, it's so bright and hot and weird in the future.

Oh, it's sticky.

Oh.

[speaking inupiaq], I remember.

Oh, I made it.

I recognize you.

[speaking inupiaq] I'm an ancestor from the future.

Ancestor, ancestor from the future.

I'm an ancestor from the future.

Ancestor, ancestor from the future.

I'm an ancestor and I got to say, I love you in a long time ago kind of way.

[speaking inupiaq] Oh, you know, I come from the land of the long, long ago remind you to wake up and do what you got to do.

You see, everybody at one time was a little bitty baby.

Even you.

Remember?

[inupiaq] Let's go back in time, each and every one of you listening to this rhyme.

Remember when you landed on the planet as a precious baby, you had a journey to complete, a dream in your heart, so strong it did beat.

Yes, you came with the light burning bright inside you aflame.

Do you remember now your aim, your calling, your inner heart's vow?

Yes, even you, and even you, and you, and especially you too.

It's time.

It's time to wake up and remember why, why you arrived on the Earth, not just to survive but to give birth to your dreams.

You are worth everything.

Your dreams are coming true for you and you and you and you and you and you and you.

[speaking inupiaq] [vocalizing] [speaking inupiaq] I'm an ancestor from the future.

Ancestor, ancestor from the future.

I'm an ancestor from the future.

Ancestor, ancestor from the future.

I'm an ancestor and I got to say, I love you in a long time ago way.

[speaking inupiaq] Oh, you are doing it.

You are remembering.

It is now safe for you to be who you really are, and from now on, everything gets easier and easier and life flows through you, and you go on your very own love-berry journey, OK?

Oh, you guys are so precious.

OK, you know what?

Let's get rid of some negativity, OK?

All of us.

OK, I'm going to pick that light and we're going to-- I'm going to count down and you're going to get your negativity ready.

OK, I'm getting mine ready.

OK. You guys have got to get it ready and we're going to let it go in the light.

OK, ready?

3, 2, 1.

Now I'm an ancestor from the future.

Ancestor, ancestor from the future.

I'm an ancestor from the future.

Ancestor, ancestor from the future.

I'm an ancestor and I got to say, I love you in a long time ago kind of way.

[speaking inupiaq] [vocalizing] I'm an ancestor from the future.

Ancestor, ancestor from the future.

I'm an ancestor from the future.

Ancestor, ancestor from the future.

I'm an ancestor and I got to say, I love you in a long time ago kind of way.

[speaking inupiaq] Oh, you guys are so precious.

Oh, too precious.

Oh, you remember?

OK.

Remember who you are.

OK?

Now.

Thank you.

The future looks bright through AKU-MATU's eyes, and now my eyes.

I'm glad.

Wow.

Can you teach us how to say thank you in Inupiaq?

[inupiaq] is thank you.

[inupiaq] is thank you very much.

It has a dual meaning.

So it could be thank you, and also good riddance.

So there's a nice way to put it.

So it depends on your tone.

So if I say [inupiaq] then that's a, mmm.

Thank you.

But for the most part, [inupiaq] is thank you, or [inupiaq] And what I used to say is [inupiaq] which is thank you to all of you.

So it depends on the ending.

Thank you and [inupiaq].

Thank you so much, AKU-MATU.

So good to see you.

So good to see you too.

Thank you for your-- I miss you guys.

You'll have to come back to Alaska Live.

And thank you for sharing your stories and your art and your talents.

It has been amazing.

You can find links to more episodes of Alaska Live TV and download audio podcasts of the Alaska Live radio show online at KUAC.org.

Support for the Alaska Live series of live music and conversation on KUAC is made possible by a grant from Design Alaska.

Design Alaska, strengthening community through support of the arts.