October 2006
 Rachel
Naninaaq Edwardson (Inupiat) directs documentaries
for the North Slope Borough School District (NBSD), including
the series History of the Iñupiat. Edwardson is
the videographer and editor of Amiginikun: On Sewing Boat Skins,
which won the Best Traditional Culture Film at the 2005 Native
Voice Film Festival. She has taught video production in Inupiat
villages through the NBSD program Youth Speak. Edwardson served
as a volunteer for Arctic Women in Crisis. She received a BA from
Colorado College, in Colorado Springs, and lives in Barrow, Alaska.
"We, the Inupiat, were always storytellers. In modern times,
television, video games, magazines, and movies have supplanted
our storytellers. I am honored to create films that draw our ancient
tradition of storytelling into a modern format. I do not intend
for the films I create to replace the storytelling tradition,
but rather to add to its rich history. I hope to honor the stories
that come to me. I hope to humbly chronicle the experiences of
our ancestors through the stories that I tell. I hope to create
a space for our voice amongst the mass media that now exists in
our communities. I also hope to share some of the valuable knowledge
and stories that for centuries have provided a source of wisdom
to the people I come from, the Inupiat."
Screened by NMAI
Image credit:
Rachel Naninaaq Edwardson - photograph by Ray Kious
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