Always Getting Ready / Upterrlainarluta: Yup'ik Eskimo Subsistence in Southwest Alaska

One of the best books and pictures I have yet to read about the life and culture of the Yup'IK people! I am fortunate to live in Bethel and found the book to be a wonderful "snapshot" of a year in the life of substistance living and survival! They are a strong and amazing group of people!

A beautiful and stunning documentation of the Yup'ik people and their subsistence practices. Awesome photographic work!

Having lived many years among the Yupik in Southwestern Alaska, James Barker does an exceptional job of accurately portraying the cyclical nature of life in rural Alaska. The changing of the seasons and how they affect the gathering and subsistence activities of the Yupik comes across clearly in the photographs. This book is important in the documentation of a way of life that is rapidly being subversed by the global economy which involves oil, stocks, and money.

James Barker tells a story in pictures and words so richly that either of those media may have sufficed. The photos are powerful -- I was awestruct by the originals when I had the chance to see them in an Alaskan art museum --and they tell a story of an ancient culture in transition. The words are mostly the old stories and traditions that are still being passed down to the next generation.