Making Our Ancestors' Ways Known:
Making a Mask

Kay Hendrickson drills holes in the ellanguaq of his seal mask before adding appendages during the 1982 Bethel maskmaking workshop. JHB

"I observed the old ones carefully when they made masks. First they cut the wood with a kepun (adze), then used the mellgar (a man's knife with a bent blade) to hollow out the back for fitting it on a face. Next they carved the front, shaped the nose, and made holes for the nostrils and eyes.

The roots of the tree, called talliruat [imitation arms], are used for making masks. They never used just any kind of wood for masks."

They used the mimernar [stump] and the root section of trees that had drifted onto the shores of Nunivak Island. People around the Kuskokwim area call that piece qamiqunaq. Since Nunivak Island lacked pigment, carvers went to Nelson Island to get red ocher and white pigment. They carefully mixed them with water and used it as paint. If you wanted black, you would fill an indentation in a stone with water, mix it with coal, and add hair-seal blood. It works just like charcoal. After the paint dried, you would rub it very hard until it set. Even when the piece was used in water, the paint would not dissolve."

— Kay Hendrickson, Nunivak Island, January 1994

Larry Float, Sr., carving a mask using a mellgar (curved knife), the Yup'ik carver's single most important tool. JHB

"It is difficult to believe that just these two tools--the crooked knife and the adze--were used to make such different things, very big things, as well as small ones."

— Nick Charles, Sr., Bethel

John McIntyre of Bethel using an adze to shape wood. JHB

Looking at the things his ancestors made, Jimmy Paukan of St. Mary's commented, "You can tell these were worked on with patience in the old days, chopping a little at a time."