FILM PREMIERE! Link in bio. "Cumikluten (Pay Attention)" is a 35-minute documentary film by Ryan Peterson profiling the work of the @nsfgov POLARIS Project. From 2020–2025, POLARIS, a convergent team of researchers and local Indigenous collaborators in the Western Alaska villages of Chevak and Dillingham, sought to identify ways in which community resilience can be learned from and bolstered in the face of environmental change and variability. As we saw last month with the storms that devastated parts of the region, the challenges are monumental. But so too are the ancestral knowledge and community spirit of the region, and the willingness of people to help where they can. "Cumikluten (Pay Attention)" features community members whose deep expertise in subsistence harvesting and land management give us an intimate and beautiful look into their homeland. Featuring Cody Larson, Desi Bond, Casey Ferguson, Ula Ulroan, @chevaker_007 Earl Atchak, James Ayuluk, Dagen Nelson, Reggie Tuluk, Richard Tuluk, and others.
Wrangell mountains hunker week 5ish. Neighborhood surveillance:
Ermine
Lynx
Wolverine
Wolf
Snowshoe hare
Moose, gang of, eating first spring grass on their knees
Dall sheep house window spotting scope
Trumpeter swan (sound on!) first migrant to arrive, as usual
Happy 🌎 Day
EIGHTH WONDER (link in bio) is a short film I made with @yeti a couple years ago following the adventures of Her Majesty Erica Madison @madsalmonak , The Duke @joshrandich , and their glamorous gang of salmon fishermen in Bristol Bay, AK. Seems like a good time to share it. Hope you enjoy. Stay sharp. (Camera and tech credits to friendos @sturgegram@travisrummel@evanphillipsak ) #puckfebble #nopebblemine
Quarantined in Wrangell - St. Elias National Park. Experiments in camera trapping every mammal species within ski distance of cabin. Getting close has not been the primary challenge so far.
More riverscapes and scenes from the remote Taku watershed on the edge of winter. Originating in BC and entering the ocean in AK at Juneau, the Taku, along with Stikine and Unuk, is one of three massive “transboundary” rivers of the region supporting huge fishing and tourism industries and curently a locus of intense mining exploration. A group in SE Alaska called @salmonbeyondborders , along with partners on the Canadian/First Nations side is making sure everyone knows exactly what is at stake here. Working with them I made a short film on the issue back in 2014. Research of the Taku at that time, along with rumors of presence of ghostly steelhead inspired this trip. Link in bio.
Watching ourselves watch ourselves watching ourselves slip into climate catastrophe like another day at the beach. “Sun & Sea [Marina],” an opera by Lithuanian artists, won top prize at the Venice Bienalle. Incredible. Embarrassing.
(Link in bio.) Window snap yesterday enroute to Pribilof Islands, over a small part of the Bristol Bay fleet at low tide rest near Egegik, AK - the calm before a storm of the largest sockeye salmon run in the world. (Check the tenders off shore and the swarm of drift boats like mosquitos in the near shore intercept zone.) Thinking of all pals down there catching fish and making $. Only 4 more days to get your comments into Army Corps of Engineers on their assesment of Pebble Mine’s application to dig and pollute the shit out of this ecological and economic crown jewel. #nopebblemine.
![Watching ourselves watch ourselves watching ourselves slip into climate catastrophe like another day at the beach. “Sun & Sea [Marina],” an opera by Lithuanian artists, won top prize at the Venice Bienalle. Incredible. Embarrassing.](https://sp1.picnob.com/p/pt_3740532719226537564471_0_8e6a18d5f399948af5150a2f0d223a45.jpg?o=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&h=77e03640815e903186b9e587866785f4)
