NEW BEDFORD, MA—The high school traditional dance group of Barrow, Alaska—the northernmost community of the United States located 300 miles above the Arctic Circle—will travel to New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park this month and present a traditional Iñupiat dance performance for the public at 7 p.m., Wednesday, June 18, at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, located at 18 Johnny Cake Hill. Admission is free.

The group, dressed in traditional regalia, will perform dances and songs that tell the stories of Iñupiat legends and lifestyles—particularly related to the whaling traditions of the Iñupiat people. The Iñupiat are the Native people of Barrow and Alaska’s North Slope Region. Barrow is the largest of the communities on the North Slope with a population of about 4,000—about 60% of whom are Iñupiat. The 12-member group, under the direction of Josie Kaleak, will be traveling with a delegation from the North Slope Borough and Iñupiat Heritage Center.

Co-sponsored by the New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and the New Bedford Oceanarium project, the performance is being funded through the Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations (ECHO) Act. Established by Congress as part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, ECHO is an educational and cultural enrichment initiative serving hundreds of thousands of children and adult learners in Alaska, Hawaii and Massachusetts. Working with local partners, such as the National Park Service, schools and community-based organizations, ECHO programs foster greater appreciation of local and national history and assist communities in maximizing the social benefits of new technology.

The ECHO partners include the New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford Oceanarium project and Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts; the Bishop Museum in Hawaii; and the Alaska Native Heritage Center and Inupiat Heritage Center in Alaska.

A related event in New Bedford in July will be an exhibition titled “Eskimo Dolls” at the Rotch-Jones-Duff House and Garden Museum at 396 County Street. New Bedford will be the first stop in the lower 48 for the traveling exhibition sponsored by the Alaska Native Arts Foundation, which is located in Anchorage. 40 dolls in 14 cases will represent the artistry and traditions of the Iñupiat and Yup’ik cultural regions in Alaska. These superb dolls were made for collectors as art objects. The exhibition throughout the month of July will be the only opportunity to see this superb example of artistry before the exhibition moves on to Nantucket, Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, and Washington, DC.

The Rotch-Jones-Duff House and Garden Museum, New England’s premiere whaling mansion, is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and on Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Admission to the house museum and exhibition is $4 for adults, $3 students and seniors, $2 for children 12 and under. The house museum is an independently operated non-profit site included in New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park.

New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park was established in 1996 to help preserve and interpret America’s 19th century whaling history. The park, which encompasses a 13-block National Historic Landmark District, is the only National Park Service area addressing the history of the whaling industry and its influence on the economic, social and environmental history of the United States.

The law creating the park also established an affiliation between the park and the Inupiat Heritage Center in Barrow to commemorate over 2,000 New Bedford whaling voyages to Alaska’s North Slope and Arctic regions of Alaska.

For more information on the dance performance, contact the New Bedford Whaling Museum directly at (508) 997-0046 x 140. For information on the Eskimo Dolls exhibition, contact the Rotch-Jones-Duff House and Garden Museum at (508) 997-1401.

For more information on New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, call (508) 996-4095, or visit the park’s website with links to all of its partners at www.nps.gov/nebe.

Pictured above: Tony Kaleak, Barrow dancer. Photo by John K. Robson

Prepared June 10, 2003

-NPS-

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