Original subtitles

CHAPTER 2 PART 1 CHUKOTKA

...but in the sunny sand there glided past me a human shadow,

not unlike my own,

which, wandering there alone, seemed to have got away from its possessor.

There awoke in me a mighty yearning.

"Shadow", said l, "dost thou seek thy master? l will be he."

CHAMlSSO'S SHADOW

This map, owned by James Cook,

shows that regions north of the Bering Strait

and especially on the American continent

were still terra incognita at the time.

Explorers from the 18th and 19th centuries

made great efforts to investigate the white spots on the map

and to fill in geographical detail.

The peninsula of Chukotka

is located at the extreme northeast of the Asian continent,

opposite America.

At the closest point, the Bering Strait,

the continents are only 80 kilometres apart.

Chukotka is a very lonely region,

mainly inhabited by sea hunters and reindeer herdsmen.

We travelled around with them.

On the 25th of July 2014,

we arrived on a small chartered plane in Provideniya,

coming from Nome, Alaska.

After long hours of examination of our persons and our luggage,

we were glad to be allowed to set foot on Russian soil.

We took private lodgings in a rather dilapidated prefabricated building,

located directly by the sooty port.

Early the next morning, lgor Zagrebin,

the director of the small provincial museum,

took us to the cemetery at the steep coast

where the Bering monument is located.

Vitus Bering's first expedition

was launched at the behest of Tsar Peter the Great.

Bering travelled from St Petersburg

through all of Siberia to Kamchatka

and the strait later named after him.

Adelbert von Chamisso,

traveljournal, July 1816.

On the 27th, we headed towards land,

which appeared to us in glorious sunshine

when we emerged from the sea's blanket of fog.

Two boats were equipped to take to land.

As we rowed to the shore,

we encountered a bidarka with ten natives.

We communicated with them, not without both sides being cautious.

"Tobacco! Tobacco!", they demanded loudly.

They received the delicious herb from us,

followed our boats in a friendly, happy,

but cautious manner, and helped us to land near their tents.

The tents of seal and walrus skin

seemed to be summer dwellings,

and the fixed residences of these people

seemed to lie behind the foothills to the west.

A second bidarka also came from there.

Our knowledgeable Aleut, who spent a longer period

on the American peninsula of Alaska,

found the local customs and languages

similar to those there,

and served as a semi-interpreter.

While the captain

was subjected to the embraces and caresses

of the friendly people

whom he gave tobacco and knives,

l was able to climb

the rocky high shore alone to botanise.

lgor Zagrebin, museum director, took us to Avan,

which had been an Eskimo settlement

for at least 2,000 years.

Their buildings with subterranean tunnels and meat pits,

where whale blubber, walrus and seal meat was stored,

can still be recognised.

The Eskimos built cabins out of whale bones and blocks of turf

which they covered with skins

and bolstered the interiors with moss and grass.

Relics of several yarangas

surround the semi-subterranean dwellings.

The settlement was located on a ridge between ocean and lagoon,

making it a prime location for sea hunting.

The dead were buried on a stony slope

overlooking the whole settlement,

well-protected and covered with walrus or whale ribs.

Adelbert von Chamisso, July 1816.

On the heights of the island,

among the shattered stones that make up the ground,

l found a human skull

that l hid among my plants.

l provided the collection of skulls of Berlin's Anatomic Museum

with three examples not easy to find:

this one from St Lawrence lsland,

an Aleut from an old grave on Unalaska,

and an Eskimo from the graves at Goodhope Bay in Kotzebue Sound.

Of the three, only one was damaged.

Only among warrior peoples,

who include human skulls among their trophies,

could such an object be traded:

most people, like our northerners,

bury their dead and keep their graves sacred.

The traveller and collector

can only come into the possession of such skulls by chance

that is of the greatest importance for the history of the human races.

At one time, there had been over 50 villages

of Russian Eskimos,

as well as of Chukchi dotted along the coast.

But the Soviets forced them to leave their homes

and concentrated them in larger settlements.

Officially, this was said to be more convenient

for schools, hospitals and administration,

but it was also better for controlling the people

and for organising work brigades.

Today, five villages remain

where Eskimos, Chukchis

and a few Russians live together.

27 July 2014. Traveljournal.

ln Provideniya,

there are three shops that sell "products", i.e. imported provisions,

but there is nothing

resembling a restaurant, a bar or a hotel.

People are wont to cook either on the beach or at home.

But twice a week,

a magic cloud hovers over Provideniya.

A lovely aroma of baked goods fills the air,

climbs up the slopes,

and penetrates each nook and corner of the decaying, soot-covered little town.

The faces and hearts of the people

suddenly seem to take on a glow.

lt is two women bakers

who work this miracle again and again.

But nobody erects a monument for them

in this town so rich in monuments.

They wouldn't understand it anyway, or want it.

l know nothing more charming.

Yesterday, lgor found out

that three boats with Alaskan sea hunters

from the island of St Lawrence had arrived,

and quickly directed us to the port.

lt had taken them two days to cross the open sea.

When asked why they had come,

they laughed and said they wanted to "freshen up the blood",

i.e. to marry women from another island, as had been customary in the old days,

when the men brought presents for their brides,

but also goods for barter or on order.

These days they trade outboard engines, spare parts, guns

and ammunition with the hunters.

The Yupiks of Alaska are directly related to the Russian Eskimos,

speak the same language and share their culture.

Congratulations on your safe arrival.

How are you?

Did you get the gold earrings for Vika?

Oleg, want some?

We don't drink that, only "Russian Pepsi".

l'm so thirsty.

That doesn't quench your thirst.

lt bloats your stomach.

How was the trip? - Perfect weather.

lt only splashed in at first.

You got stuck? - Yes, in a storm... in Gambell.

Yesterday we left Savoonga.

Today we were here sooner. lt took time

until everyone was ready, but we were faster.

You took six hours?

How are our people?

How were things in Savoonga?

Savoonga is great!

The whole village saw us off.

Did you see some relatives?

Yes...

Grand-nieces and nephews.

ln Gambell. - Lulkin too?

No, Yanalchik.

Right, one of the Yanalchiks lives there.

One here and one in Anadyr.

Five more minutes and it will boil.

Take this, Daughter.

Delicious. - Yes, it is.

Wild garlic.

Boiled roots.

Whale tongue.

To peel it, you have to pour hot water over it.

There are roots too.

Traveljournal, 1742.

Georg Wilhelm Steller.

Then they all go to cut up the whale

and prepare it as follows

for their principal provision for the whole year:

The meat is eaten first

because it does not keep long even though it is very tough and coarse.

What cannot be consumed quickly

is hung out in the air to dry.

The skin is separated from the blubber,

scraped and smoke-dried,

and then beaten to make supple for use as shoe soles,

which are so strong that they can never be worn out or become unusable.

Next they dig many pits in the earth,

lining the bottoms with stones,

and then stacking the firewood in the pit

to several feet over its rim.

Then they light it from below.

They feed the fire until the pits are heated through like an oven.

Then they sweep up the ashes, clean the pits,

and cover the stones with leafy alder boughs

and add the blubber, especially from the fins,

sides, and tail, alternating layers of blubber and wood.

Then they cover everything with grass,

on which they throw soil,

making a little hill so that no steam at all can escape.

After several hours they take the blubber out,

since now it has a brown rind all around and all the oil has been rendered,

so they can keep the blubber for a whole year without it spoiling.

lt does not taste unpleasantly fishy at all, but like bacon,

and is very good to eat, which l myself have tried many times.

They clean the intestines of all filth,

inflate them and fill them with the oil that runs off during the butchering,

and with the internal liquid fat

which will be used for cooking as well as for burning at night.

Thus, these intestines serve them in place of barrels and other containers.

28 July 2014,

Novoe Chaplino.

Today we set out on a longer trip, along the northern coast of Chukotka

with its many offshore islands.

These are walrus skins.

Two walruses were needed for this bidarka.

You split the skin...

like this.

The halves are connected.

This is the inside of the skin,

and the fur was here.

The inside was just...

The skin is suitable

because you can pull it.

lf you pull here, it stretches there.

lt's elastic.

The frame is made of wood,

tied together with a strong rope.

Today we use modern ropes, that's better.

This wooden frame

is, of course, different from an old construction.

We used to cut

the rope from skin

and twisted sinews.

Now it's easy to get ropes.

Synthetic ropes...

lt's easier that way.

Whales have many sinews

that are bundled together.

When they're dry you can pull them apart.

They run along the backbone.

l built two kinds of boats.

You can row like this... or this.

People used to paddle like this. That was the traditional way.

The Russian whalers introduced the long oars.

But we used to paddle like this.

lt was easier to sneak up.

You approach your prey better.

Adelbert von Chamisso, traveljournal.

We landed near tents that had been abandoned.

Only some dogs remained.

We used the opportunity to acquaint ourselves with the permanent winter dwellings.

Aten foot square chamber,

the walls six feet high,

the ceiling arched,

at the zenith a rectangular window closed with a bladder.

The building was erected with beams

that flatten toward the inside.

Across from the door, a one-a-half-foot sleeping platform,

taking up a third of the room.

Along the walls,

various ladder-like hanging shelves to store tools.

The door, a round opening around one and a half feet wide,

was in the middle of the wall.

Burrows like mole tunnels floored with wood,

only high enough to stand in a few places,

stretch between the inner chamber door

and the outer entrance,

which, three foot high and rectangular,

opens between two walls of earth facing southeast.

From the main corridor, an offshoot leads to a pit

where the winter supply is stored,

foot-sized pieces of blubber.

There are sieves with long handles

to remove the blubber.

The main building and entrances

were covered with earth from the outside.

Over here a bit.

May we start? The children over here.

A little farther this way.

Sasha, you too.

You up front, please.

Dance: "A Message for Uelkal"

Dance: "Walrus Hunt"

Dance: "Two Ravens"

Adelbert von Chamisso.

As we began to glimpse the coastal lowlands,

a magician seemed to have touched them with his wand.

Densely populated,

it is dotted with yurts surrounded by platforms on stilts

whose shafts, whalebone or tree trunks washed ashore,

tower over the floors they support.

These buildings now seem extended and altered

in their reflection on the horizon.

We had the view of a countless fleet,

a forest of masts.

l had the most experienced Aleuts explain and make me the whale fish models

that l placed in the Berlin Museum and described and explained

in "Negotiations of the Academy of Natural Sciences" from 1824.

For this part of zoology, all information is valuable.

The hunters go to the walrus spot,

kill them and bring them here.

They are butchered and split up.

You hunt whales with harpoons,

with the big red or white balls.

The harpoons explode

when they strike the heart.

The balls keep the whale afloat so it doesn't sink.

We still hunt like this today.

The big Greenland whales rarely come here.

They're heavy, you have to cut them in half

to take them apart.

They only swim by one week a year.

You can rarely hunt them.

Usually grey whales and belugas come,

with the ice.

Belugas, seals, bearded seals.

We live mostly from their meat.

Everyone cuts off what they need

and takes it home.

You aim for the nose, where the whales breathe out.

A lot of blood accumulates and they suffocate.

First you jab the kidneys so the whale gets tired.

Then the harpoon so it doesn't sink.

Then you follow the balls.

lt's easier now than it used to be, you pull it out with a tractor.

With technology.

You used to make a hole here

and wind ropes around the whale.

Then you pulled, took a break, pulled again.

That's how it was before, without tractors.

Pulled it out by hand.

Half the village went to the shore to pull out the whale.

Artur Apalu is Chukchi

and an experienced sea hunter.

We spend several weeks travelling with him in his small boat.

He takes us to a camp of whale hunters,

originally a settlement of the Yupik, or Eskimos as they call themselves,

that had been relocated and centralised

like all their villages in the 1950s,

often a great distance from their hunting grounds.

Wherever a corridor of land or a sandbank lies between ocean and lagoon,

there are relics of old villages

ideally located for sea hunters. From the roofs of their buildings,

the inhabitants could watch the arrival of whales or walruses

which pass by in a seasonal rhythm.

Now people have to walk a long way from their new village Novoe Chaplino

in order to hunt from here. But even at their new home,

there is already a ladder for them to climb to the roof and watch the whales.

The whale hunt finally took place

the next morning after a two-day postponement.

l was reminded of the Mongolian hunting song

where the hunters keep drinking so heavily to the beginning of the hunt

that it cannot take place.

Nine-nine. ls anyone there? Chaplino. Over.

Receiving you. Over.

How's the weather there? Over.

Bad. - The weather is bad. Over.

We're not going out.

l'm looking online for the weather report in your area. Over.

We're staying inside today.

Tell her we have no plans.

Give it to me. - No, wait.

Stand by. Over.

OK. Over. - The battery is almost flat.

Here's a new battery.

Do they understand us? - Speak softly, say less.

1742,

Georg Wilhelm Steller.

The Chukchi, who hunt whales in large numbers,

starting at the mouth of the Anadyr River to the outermost cape,

come closest to the European way of hunting.

They paddle out to sea in very large wood bidarkas

covered with sea lion hides,

eight, ten or more men strong,

occasionally two to three vessels at the same time.

As soon as they see a whale, they nimbly paddle toward it

and thrust a large harpoon of iron or bone deep into it.

The iron point then comes off the staff

to rest horizontally across the wound so that it cannot come out.

Fastened to the harpoon

is one end of a leather thong coiled in their bidarka.

Not far from the harpoon, an inflated bladder is fastened to the thong,

so they can always see where the whale is headed.

Wherever it moves, they have it pull them along;

if it sounds they let out the thong;

when it comes up again, they strike it again with the harpoon

or the men in the other bidarka do.

They chase it again until it sounds again and exhausts itself.

When the whale surfaces, the men in the third bidarka strike it.

As soon as they all have fastened onto the whale and rather exhausted it,

they begin to make all kinds of noise,

shouting and clapping their hands,

causing the whale to rush toward shore with all its might, pulling them along.

When it is almost to the shore, they rant and rave even more

until the whale hurriedly and blindly

beaches itself with utter abandon;

then they massacre it for good.

ln the meantime, the others, young and old, are rejoicing on shore

with much dancing and jumping about.

Do you have the rope sling?

l'll pull the harpoon by the rope.

Tie it up?

Tie it now!

Hook it into the whale!

Max, come here,

or l'll throw the rope to you.

Come, pull.

Pull out the rope.

We'll need two days to process it.

Yanis, hold our boat steady.

Climb in and tie it up or else we'll lose it.

Seryozha, come, hold it. - Give it to me, l'll hold it.

How can l tie it?

Come closer.

lt's sinking!

The whale's sinking!

The whale's sinking!

The whale has sunk.

There... it's lost ...

Didn't you fasten the rope tightly?

The whale was lost and sank to the bottom of the sea.

The hunters return empty-handed and in silence to the slaughtering place,

once a place of worship.

1742,

Georg Wilhelm Steller.

They greatly benefit from the whales.

They make the skin into shoe soles, leather and thongs.

They eat and burn the fat,

the meat is used as food.

They use the baleen to construct their bidarkas and to make fishnets,

fox traps, and water buckets.

They make sled runners, knife handles, and all kinds of rings and snaps for their dog harnesses

from the two bones of the lower jaw,

and from the intestines all kinds of floats and containers

in which to keep liquids.

From the sinews they make the elastic strings for their fox traps;

they also use these sinews in place of twine,

for tying all kinds of things requiring strength to hold together.

They make mortars from the vertebrae.

The cheeks or jaws

are gristly and gelatinous and taste quite good,

as does the tongue.

The fins are the next best parts.

The blubber is eaten

with great gusto during the butchering.

1816.

Traveljournal of Adelbert von Chamisso.

On the evening of the 28th of June,

the fog cover lifted,

land was visible,

and we received numerous native visitors in three bidarkas.

After prior embrace and nose rubbing,

presents and presents in exchange

and a lively exchange began.

ln the briefest time, we and all the sailors

had been given a store of kamleikas.

A kamleika is the outer garment

that protects against the rain and waves worn by these people,

a shirt with a cowl or hood

made of the fine gut skin of various seals and sea animals.

The stripes, ring or spiral-shaped watertight

sewn together with a thread made of the sinews of sea animals,

the seams are sometimes decorated with feathers of seabirds or other things.

The coarsest kamleika must take several

or many days of work for even the most skilled seamstress,

but they were exchanged for a few tobacco leaves,

the amount a smoker could use up

in a single morning.

An older man held the authority over the people.

He honourably received the guest,

whose appearance all the same seemed threatening.

The Chukchi are an independent people in their mountains

and not enslaved.

They recognize Russia's superiority only to the extent

that they pay tribute on the market squares

where they trade to mutual advantage with the Russians.

One of the sailors taken from Kamchatka,

who spoke some Kariak,

could make himself understood on a basic level.

The captain gave presents

and refused to accept any, which seemed strange to these people.

He only wanted fresh water, and several reindeer.

He was promised them,

but it would take several days to obtain them from inland.

They departed satisfied.

2 August 2014. Traveljournal.

ln the absence of trees, people walk long distances

to gather driftwood.

This is why yarangas were usually made of whale bones,

which were abundantly available.

The Eskimo, who had set up his tent alone with his family,

had brought his son, ready to do battle, arrows at the ready.

They approached the captain,

who showed himself with four men in escort.

He had decided to behave cleverly and courageously,

like a brave man should for foreigners who are more powerful

and whose attitude he can only suspect.

The captain, who came up to him alone and without weapons,

assuaged the man,

and gifts sealed the peace.

The Eskimo welcomed him as a guest in his tent,

where he had a wife and two children.

But he didn't seem comfortable with the foreigners.

As soon as our friend was able to take leave of us,

he dismantled his tent

and moved with his family to the opposite shore.

But we set up our camps for the night at the foot of a hill

crowned by the graves of the natives.

The dead are left above ground,

covered with driftwood

and protected from predators.

Several posts are placed around them,

with oars and other signs hanging from them.

Our curiosity rummaged through these graves,

the skulls were taken.

Whatever the scientist collected,

the painter, everyone wanted.

All the tools mourners had left with their dead

were harvested,

and finally our sailors went back

for camp fire wood

and destroyed the monuments.

We noticed too late what should have never happened.

But if this people were to take arms over the desecrated graves

who could bear the guilt for the blood that would flow?

When we arrived here

this holy stone,

"the old stone woman", was big.

But over time

it got smaller.

The sea hunters who came from everywhere

visited the "old stone woman".

l don't know what they did there,

but they offered sacrifices to her.

There was a little pool next to the stone,

which collected rain water.

As soon as the men had arrived

they drank water from the pool.

Yes, l remember, the stone was large.

lt has got smaller.

For a long time,

we lived in Vossonkas.

Then the authorities

resettled us here in Yanrakynnot.

There was hardly anything here,

only two yarangas on the shore, no, even three huts.

We had to move here.

That's how the settlement grew.

Many people came, some from the north,

from all places, from many shores.

They all moved here together.

Houses were built, the population grew.

Even Eskimos moved here.

People came from all directions.

A great many came.

This became our home.

Ayaranga was the school.

Teachers came, we started to learn.

A clubhouse was built, a cinema.

We've lived here since then.

Now there are many houses here.

There's a lot of fish, seals, whales,

all kinds of game.

We get a lot from whales,

and it lasts a long time.

Not all the houses are finished yet.

There are reindeer breeders too.

They live by themselves, outside.

Every autumn they drive the herds here

and the slaughtering begins.

The reindeer meat is delivered to the store,

and to the Sovkhoze.

We lack nothing.

Our earth is rich,

there is even gold.

So many things in our earth!

When the frost comes

the people seem to freeze, since the winter and cold are here.

DANCE OF THE RElNDEER CALVES

Whale meat!

lt's good when you add whale meat.

Back there l have liquid whale fat.

The meat is added to the whale fat. Now l'll dish it out.

More!

ln Kamchatka the dogs only get fish.

My father already kept dogs.

He was a reindeer herder and kept a team.

l helped him all those hard years.

When he got old l took over the team.

l started with six dogs.

l rode with my father to the tundra,

to go ice fishing and hunting.

Gradually l took on more dogs and took part in competitions.

ln four competitions:

"Nadezhda", Hope, in Chukotka,

"Beringia" in Kamchatka,

and in Alaska "lditarod" and "Conquest".

l'd like to take part in competitions again.

ln summer, we feed them every other day.

lt's too warm for them, they need a lot to drink.

Otherwise, they run badly in winter

and lose their fur.

ln summer they get fish with whale meat,

but not every day, since they don't use much energy.

ln winter we feed them daily

with calorie-rich walrus, whale and seal meat.

lf you give them too little fat they lose weight,

then it's too cold for them to sleep in the snow.

There used to be no iron on their runners.

When my father came to Chaplino,

he only had wooden runners.

He sprayed them with water,

then rubbed them with a piece of fur.

lt formed a thin sheet of ice.

Since winters were harsher then,

there was always a lot of snow, it hardly ever thawed,

a sheet of ice

was enough to drive on.

One used to build sleds of wood, without nails.

Now we nail the runners.

All the other connections are made with ropes.

The sled has to be flexible.

l built this one,

but changed it a bit.

l saw that in Kamchatka.

Sometimes you want to stretch your legs,

run a little bit when your back hurts.

But with a big load you have to stand on the back.

ln Chukchi it's called "yauarena",

you brake with this when you're going downhill

or the dogs are running too fast.

You sit down like this and brake.

Protective tape

preserves the rope.

This is an extra safeguard.

ln case the dogs break loose,

you stick it in the snow to stop the sled.

The dogs are harnessed in pairs.

You can harness eight to 14 dogs.

There are often ice blocks or snow drifts

so we don't hitch them in a fan shape.

ln Greenland the ice fields are smooth so they usually do fan shapes.

We only do pairs.

ln my team l have two American dogs,

Kamchatkans,

and even one Norwegian,

Chukchi dogs too.

We gather plants in the summer.

Sand-spurrey, roseroot,

sorrel, wild garlic.

We mix everything

and weigh it down so it acidifies.

When the frost comes we pour off the juice

and cut it up small again.

ln winter we eat the fermented plants...

...with shaved walrus or seal meat...

...with fish or just fat.

Herbs go into the fat

for the aroma.

We also eat it with reindeer meat.

That's our winter food.

Every year we gather

for the winter.

ln the old days, people used many plants.

Today we don't remember

which ones they were,

or how to preserve them for the winter.

We feed the mosquitoes

while gathering.

Our son didn't come yesterday because of all the mosquitoes.

They would've eaten him alive.

These little leaves go in the jar

so the fat doesn't go bad.

Then we pour the fat on top.

And in winter, with stroganina.

What do you call it?

Shaved frozen fish.

l watch you.

Also, all summer

we fish for charr.

ln July, the salmon come.

We catch chum salmon, humped salmon.

ln mid-August, we salt and dry fish

and make yukola.

We salt or dry caviar.

We roast or boil fish.

What else should l say?

We always keep it short.

ln spring we fish for cod.

We break a hole in the ice.

Until the ice thaws, we fish for cod.

Sometimes other fish bite:

starry flounders, sea scorpions,

charr, herring.

There's none left. We burnt all the firewood. Hurray!

lt burns well.

ls his stomach empty?

Whose stomach? - The dog's.

He ate today.

lt's turning to dust.

ls the crab still moving?

This crab is moving? There are air bubbles.

We still need to wash berries.

As long as the fish aren't biting we can do that.

Here they are.

Lots.

Take this off,

keep the berries and throw that away.

What else can l show you?

There we have water, products,

so they don't get warm in the sun,

in a little protective hut.

Take that stone off. - Otherwise it's too high.

Like this?

Thanks.

Are they going home already?

Come, Artur, sit down.

Where? - Here.

Next to the fire.

Soup.

Eat!

You caught crabs?

Three today. Nothing special.

Already cooked?

Give it to me.

Too bad they're so...

l'd rather have the Pacific ones,

With those long... - The Kamchatka crabs.

Lenka...

Have you been here long? - No, just got here.

Georg Wilhelm Steller.

The Olyutors have another way of catching whales.

They make nets from walrus hides.

They hang them up in the smoke until they become solid as rock.

Then they cut these hides into pieces and thongs

and weave them into very large, thick nets.

Every thong is as thick as a strong man's arm.

They set these nets out in Olyutorsky Bay, toward its mouth,

weighing down one end

with many incredibly large rocks.

When the whales move out of or into the bay,

their tails become entangled in the nets and they drown.

Then the Olyutors paddle their bidarkas out to the whale,

fasten it with thongs, and manoeuvre it to shore.

But before they paddle off with it,

they first shamanize over it in their bidarkas.

While they are paddling toward shore,

the women and children, young and old, are standing on the shore,

singing and shouting, dancing and jumping around,

and congratulating their men on their prey.

When the whale is beached, they all get dressed up in their best clothes and finery,

take out a carved wooden whale two feet long,

set up a new balagan, a stilt house,

and place a guard by it

who has to make sure that from spring to fall,

as long as the hunt lasts,

the lamp does not go out.

l'll cut you off a piece of whale blubber.

4 August 2014.

Today the sea hunters returned with their share of the quarry:

big chunks of whale meat and whale fat.

They went hunting with friends from Uelen,

a village further to the north.

Take it from underneath.

l'll tow it, the whole whale.

Lots of water has collected.

We have fish left over.

Shall we cook?

Done!

l'm going to my boat. - Where is it?

My hut is over there. We'll eat there.

Will you stay with us?

Right, Rex?

Tired.

l pull it closer.

A heavy piece. Down!

He took my cup.

Where did you take it?

Amcho!

Come, pull it out, we're eating.

l'll take that.

Come on, let's try it.

With garlic!

Amcho, come eat.

Garlic?

Mama, where's the knife? - At home.

l forgot to take down the boots.

lt poured yesterday, l covered it up.

Already dry?

Who cooked the meat?

At home? - Yes.

Not bad.

Who's that? - Grandpa Misha.

He's fishing in the sea. Where the sack is.

Hey, you, down!

Good dog.

Caviar?

There's more over here.

The wind is blowing in all directions.

This is good.

Adelbert von Chamisso.

The seabirds are now occupying

the remaining space between seal families.

They nest in countless numbers in the cavities of the rock walls

and under the burnished stones

that form a dam along the beach.

The back of the dam is covered in white from their excrement.

Before the Russians discovered the islands,

they were unknown,

a peaceful site for seabirds and seals.

During our stay,

the Aleuts shot birds and skinned them for us.

The Berlin Museum can thank von Kotzebue and his zeal for the sciences

for the collection of seabirds and birds of prey

it received from me.

Do you have paper? Tear me off a piece.

The rope is too taut.

The hunter who has killed the animal cuts off a few hairs from its beard and returns them to the sea.

Cut out the harpoon.

Give me the knife.

Hold it by the hook.

The head that way.

Got it!

We're going to the cape to butcher it.

According to the myth,

all sea animals live at the ocean floor with Sedna, their mistress.

She sends animals to those hunters who have respected the rules.

When an animal gets killed, it must receive a present.

Appeased by the gift, the animal returns to Sedna

and it may encounter the hunter again at a later occasion.

One of the main tasks of the Yupik shamans

was to find out why game would fail to appear.

Assisted by singing and the beating of drums, a shaman would enter a trance

in which he would travel to Sedna in order to pacify her

and to comb from her hair the evil done by man.

He would ask her to forgive and to resume sending animals to the hunters.

To give it some water? - Yes.

Katya, give it water.

On the neck, the head, and here.

We'll cut off a strip

to make straps.

l cut in.

Will you cut it up by yourself? - We can do it together.

Hold this.

The stones are sticking to the fat.

There's a hole there already.

Now the other side.

l think we'll leave it in one piece.

Katya, the blood's flowing out.

Our cook Katya is a Yupik. She loves the raw, not the cooked.

A piece of liver for the sea.

Shall we cook it, Katya?

Shall l clean the intestines? - Yes.

To fabricate water-tight kamleikas,

animal guts have to be prepared.

First they are cleaned, soaked in freshwater for a while,

and then soaked in salt water for another three days.

Next they are spread out to dry and bleached in the sun

to make them light and transparent.

Strips of gut are stitched together

and decorated in the seams with feathers, coloured fish skin,

whole bird skins, and other materials.

This also fortifies the seams

to make the kamleika sturdy for strong wear

and suitable for hunting.

More?

Artur, have you taken out the brain? - No.

What else did you put in? - Only a shoulder blade and ribs.

Kidneys too? - And heart?

l'll cut off a piece.

lt's very meaty.

lt's strange.

Cut it in half, then it'll cook faster.

Let's lay out the meat.

Not on top of each other!

Every family in the village receives an equally large piece.

Should we put the kidneys in too? - Yes.

And the heart? - That too.

Half the pot is already full. Will we make it? - Yes.

We don't cook the head?

No.

We'll leave off the back end.

lnto the pot?

So many stones.

Have you taken out the brain?

Washing the meat and the fur has a practical as well as a ritual meaning: the blood also returns to the sea.

The fur pouch is shaped either in the form of a circle or in the form of a seal. Thus, it symbolically restores

lt's all good now.

l'll make a knot.

This way.

We probably made the fire too soon.

The water is cloudy there.

Did you get sea water? - Oh no.

This water is fine.

l thought we'd use sea water.

Shall l use it all? - Yes, l'll get more water.

Does the teapot have a lid?

l don't know.

You don't cook big seals all the way through,

they're juicier that way.

The heart on top,

so it stays a bit bloody.

But you have to boil the intestines well.

Because you never know...

A bear ran out of the bushes. - Where? - Up there.

Where shall l put the heart?

A plate would be better.

We need a table.

There's a board on the shore. - ls it wide? - Yes.

The fire's going out.

Are there berries there?

Near the bright green scrub and "wirrwirr".

Ready!

A little piece is cut off of every kind of meat as a sacrifice to the spirit of the place.

l think it's overcooked.

The kidneys are hard.

1742, Georg Wilhelm Steller.

Seal blubber is considered the greatest delicacy

and is the first dish at public feasts.

The natives eat the meat cooked, and also dry it in the wind for winter provisions.

They also prepare the seal blubber and meat in pits like the whale blubber,

but after having eaten off all the meat, they wind the head with soft cotton grass.

Then they add cow parsnips, fireweed, pine nuts and sarana,

whereupon they say to the head, "Look how well we treat you!

We caught you in order to feed you well.

You do not come to us voluntarily out of unfounded fear.

Enjoy this now

and go tell your relatives of our hospitality,

that they might often come to us and be treated equally well."

Want some cloudberries?

CHAPTER 2 END OF PART 1 CHUKOTKA