Keep Talking (Niugaa Yugaa) by Karen Lynn Weinberg (review)

keep talking (niugaa yugaa) is an award-winning documentary film that celebrates the sustained efforts of a vibrant, multigenerational Alaska Native community committed to the revitalization of their Alutiiq language and culture. Over a five-year period, director/producer Karen Lynn Weinberg closely collaborated with the community in Kodiak, Alaska, to document their story. After two centuries of repressive colonial rule by both the Russian and U.S. governments, only forty speakers of the Alutiiq language remain. The film captures the community’s sense of urgency regarding the pressing need to create a new generation of language and cultural stewards. Keep Talking gently weaves community member’s life stories into a rich ethnographic tapestry that captures their experiences of cultural trauma, shame, loss, humor, pride, and healing.

Central to the film’s narrative is the coming-of- age story of Sadie, who is thirteen at the start of the film. A shy and sensitive middle-schooler who longs to connect with her language and culture, Sadie steadily grows more confident and immersed in her community as she is nurtured by community Elders and mentored by her dedicated language teachers, Candace and Marya. Sadie symbolizes the powerful impact of the program on the community’s well- being as she exudes an almost euphoric beauty, grace, and pride in her Alutiiq identity.

Two Alutiiq origin stories are featured in animated segments of the film. Through this filmic shift, two meaningful cultural themes are effectively highlighted. In the first animated sequence, Nick, an Elder actively involved in the revitalization efforts, recounts a compelling story about his childhood encounter with the being known as Bigfoot (Aula’aq). Aula’aq is an ominous figure whose name translates to One Who Ran Away. In an interview featured in The Spool, Weinberg talks about historical trauma being the “nemesis of the film” and how she uses Bigfoot as a metaphor. Bigfoot comes to represent the angst and plight of those who stray from (or are denied) their culture. Such issues are intimately relevant to Alutiiq community members who are resisting that alienation by (re)connecting with their heritage culture and identity through practices of well- being.

The second animation is a creation story in which a helpless and naked human baby appears on the beach. The animals decide that they need to care for it and offer their flesh to eat and their skins to clothe it. This animated segment follows a scene from the language and culture camp in which a young boy is learning to skin an otter. The juxtaposition of the creation story with the subsistence activity highlights the holistic cultural lifeways of the ancestors and the strong connections of land, sea, and community in the Alutiiq tradition. In the film, Dr. Alisha Drabek, an Alutiiq ethnographer and language advocate who has been central in the Alutiiq language revitalization efforts, explains, “In some ways what we’re doing is about identity and healing . . . about living in a holistic way connected to our ancestors.” These themes, identified by Drabek, are powerfully emphasized through the animated scenes.

“We long for how it used to be,” says an Elder in one scene. Her words convey the community’s yearning. For centuries, Alutiiq masks, dances, and language were forbidden. Through collective revitalization efforts, much of the beauty of those lost times is being awakened in the activities of the youth as they once again carve masks, dance and sing like their ancestors, and “keep talking” their Alutiiq language. The film concludes with an uplifting scene showcasing the community’s great hopes for the future when a newly funded Alutiiq language immersion preschool is launched as the culmination of the community’s language work.

Keep Talking is a provocative and valuable addition to the dialogue of language revitalization and cultural ecology. Importantly, this film speaks to the lived struggles of oppression and assimilation and the social consequences of these adversities. The film highlights the voices of those who actively engage in reversing language shift and are...