The second day of the 2026 Cama’i Dance Festival offered up 12 jam-packed hours of performances and events.
In the late afternoon of March 28, the Bethel Regional High School hallways filled with the aromas of the ever-popular Native Foods Dinner as Elders filed into the cafeteria for first dibs. Volunteers fed nearly 500 people this year from a smorgasbord that included musk ox, moose, fry bread, duck, and plenty of salmon.
After the feasting was done, the entire gymnasium shook with the synchronized beating of traditional frame drums for the Heart of the Drums ceremony. Later, it filled with cheers when Bethel’s Hayden Naneng was crowned Miss Cama’i 2026.
The Bethel Filipino Community Dancers, composed largely of local school teachers, took the Cama’i crowd on another tour of their country’s rich music and dance heritage, from pre-colonial times into the modern era.
After being weathered in on March 27, dancers from Stebbins made it to Bethel on March 28 to perform with their Norton Sound neighbors St. Michael. The two have been working together to revive yuraq tradition in their communities. Their Cama’i performance was their second ever away from home.
Pamyua brought up more family and friends to perform some of their most popular songs and dances. Marie Meade, mother to Pamyua members Phillip and Stephen Blanchett, led with “The Warrior Song.” It’s a song she said was written by the late Elders Nick and Elena Charles in the Bethel of the 1960s when dance tradition was first being revived locally.
Later in the evening, people scrambled to catch t-shirts thrown into the crowd by rising sensation Martin Paul of Kipnuk and Kalskag after the 22-year-old drummed and strummed his way through tunes both light-hearted and heartfelt. Paul finished his set by telling young people who might be struggling that better things are ahead in his original song “Keep on Going.”
Young people also flocked to the stage to witness the snare drum acrobatics of New York City-based percussionist C.J. Joseph for a third time.
Outside the high school, as the clock neared midnight, both Paul and Joseph were swarmed by newly minted fans in search of selfies.
Cama’i is scheduled to wrap up at 9 p.m. on Sunday, March 29 with a final performance from Pamyua.
