a murder at the dump

I discovered a murder at the town dump. Listen below (turn it up and keep reading while it plays):



I also gleaned a story today from a publication sent to me by the Yukon government - a creation myth about the earth as it began in the town of Old Crow, the next stop north of Dawson City (by plane). I will retell it in my own words, because I believe that no story should be told exactly the same way twice, but I'll tell it true to the original. This myth is from a Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation story, recorded and published by the Yukon Department of Tourism and Culture, but in my words with a little embellishment, here now for you:

                Everyone knows that a very long time ago, the earth was covered in water. In the Time of Water, a bunch of animals lived together on a floating piece of wood. The Crow said he wished that there were some land, a little bit of land that he would magically make grow big enough for everyone to walk firmly on. All of the swimmer animals took turns diving off the wood, into the water and trying to find the bottom where there would be mud to bring back up to The Crow. It was too far down and none of them ever made it back. Well, one made it back, but by the time they pulled him out of the water, he had drowned. Crow picked out the bit of mud from his paw, put a stick in it and floated it on the surface of the water. It grew and grew, and all of the animals stepped onto the new land that was held up by the stick. The stick is still there, holding up all the land, at Old Crow. The Crow doesn't make land anymore, but instead cleans up the messes left on it. 

The ravens in Dawson make the noises of pebbles dropping down into a well of water, one at a time. Their wing beats rub the air like the legs of snow pants together in a walk. They scream as if mad witches at each other and at people, no matter who you are or if you might be a witch yourself. They ask throaty questions but they aren't interested in your answers.

The CBC Yukon interview that Evan and I did yesterday will be aired over the holidays. Chris Windeyer is a top notch human, and it was possibly the most comfortable recorded media interview I've ever done. Likewise, the session I taught at Robert Service School yesterday was a blast. The students were a bit wary at first, but quickly warmed up to mucking around with animal intestine, and made some pretty fabulous first experiments. What is typically just left in the wilderness as food for ravens (caribou gut), might now become an art-making material they can find plenty of during hunting season.

A Jeff Koons-esque balloon dog made of hog gut by one of the students.