My name is Barbara Ilatkaq Joan Apangalook. I was born in the fall of 1965 on the coast of northwest Alaska. I am a Siberian Yupik Eskimo and Tlingit Indian. I was raised in Gambell, Alaska on St. Lawrence Island. The island is located in the Bering Sea by Northwest Alaska, 37 miles from the Chukotski Peninsula of Siberia, where the same Siberian Yupik language is Spoken. Although it has been several years since i moved from Gambell, my roots are still very much a part of me. I have always appreciated our rich subsistence and cultural lifestyle, if not more so now. I attribute my interest and love of Native crafts to my mother an father, grandmother and the close-knit community of Gambell, where to exist is to observe and learn. Today, the Siberian Yupik people are acknowledged for their distinguished artistic talent, for which I am proud and grateful to be part of.
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