The Sea is my Garden

My husband asked me to join him on a trip to Barrow which he has to travel to frequently for business.  He has told me so much about Barrow that when we arrived I felt as if I had been there before this trip.  My hope was to see a polar bear in the wild.  Instead what I had the opportunity to experience was a culture that was strong and resourceful.



There was nothing but white to be seen for miles and the division between land and sea was unrecognizable to me, but not to the local population.  As I would look out across the Chukchi Sea  trying to see polar bear I wondered how a people could live in such a seeming inhospitable land.  I read a quote at the museum that stated the "the sea is my garden".  That really struck me and as luck would have it the ice had shifted about a mile off shore and the polar bear had migrated out to that area.  The whaling parties went out as well.  We had the opportunity to attend a whaling party send off in which it was declared as we arrived "white people are welcome too".   As I sat and talked with a few of the elders about their past whaling experiences I was struck by how hard they had worked to subsist off the sea.  It really is their garden.  



At the museum a man started a conversation with me and lead me to workroom where local artists were producing items to sell made from walrus tusk, baleen, polar bear teeth, and other supplies.  As I moved from table to table the artists would show me their work, tell me their stories, and explain what they were doing.  One artist gave me the opportunity to purchase a small jewelry box out of walrus tusk, baleen, and whale tooth.   They were so complimentary of each other.  If you said this is beautiful they would refer you to someone else who they thought did even better work. 




  I could not tell where the sea ended and land began.  The sun seemed to circle the sky at the top of the world while I watched for polar bear that  never came into town. I fell in love with a place that I may never see again but more importantly got to know a little about a people who made this land their home and are resourceful enough to see the sea as their garden.