The 2026 Cama’i Dance Festival was about preserving traditions and reawakening them, on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and beyond.
During this year’s festival, recently formed dance groups from the Norton Sound communities of Stebbins and St. Michael performed for the second time ever outside of their communities.
Group co-organizer Suzzuk Huntington summed up the feeling.
"Such a blessing to be here. I think we all feel more excited being at Cama’i than we would getting to Disneyland. So it’s just such a heartwarming place, and it’s just filling our spirits," Huntington said.
Young dancers from the far Western Aleutians community of Atka working to revitalize Unangax̂ dance tradition, Atx̂am Taliĝisniikangis, also performed. Group leader Crystal Dushkin said dancing is being rebuilt after a 50-year hiatus.
"We formed our dance group in the 1990s because our dancing had fallen asleep after World War Two," Dushkin said.
From far away on the edge of Bristol Bay, dancers from Togiak returned to Cama’i for the first time since 2002. Group leader Margie Frost was born and raised in Bethel, but has been working to revitalize dance in Togiak since moving there in the late 90s.
"It's an honor to be back home, and it's more of an honor to present to you our kids from Togiak," Frost said.
Frost was once a pupil of the recipient of this year’s Living Treasure award, Arevgaq Theresa John of Toksook Bay. John spent decades teaching at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where her research highlighted the central role of dance in Yup’ik culture. Her father, the late tribal leader Paul John, was a lifelong advocate for traditional ways of living.
John says she is carrying on that legacy. And she says her work preserving Yup’ik teachings ultimately comes down to promoting unity.
"There is a saying in Yugtun worldview, Yup’ik philosophy that [aa-tlaa-mek yo-gg-tai-took] There's no other humanity in this globe, just you and I and everybody, and we all have common needs," John said.
New faces and old friends
This year’s Cama’i brought some brand new faces to the stage, like singer-songwriter Martin Paul of Kipnuk and Kalskag.
The 22-year old, who has amassed a huge following on social media, was trailed by packs of young people in search of selfies at this year’s festival. In performances that wove together traditional songs, Yup’ik humor, and deeply personal stories, Paul said better things are ahead if you just keep on going.
On the final night, Paul brought his grandmother, Minnie Paul, up on stage to sing a song she taught him as a young boy growing up in Kipnuk. They dedicated the song to the community devastated by last October’s storm.
New York City-based percussionist C.J. Joseph and his snare drum acrobatics were also new to the Cama’i stage. Festival organizer Linda Curda said she invited Joseph to Bethel after catching his subway performance in New York City’s Grand Central Station.
Joseph said he’s one of just a handful of musicians keeping rhythm and dance traditions from his native country of Panama alive on the streets. Kids mesmerized by Joseph’s beats clamoured for a chance to sign his drum after he finished.
"If I can leave one last message here in Alaska, it's to manifest your dreams and to do what you love wholeheartedly. Don't care who's watching, and do it when nobody's looking," Joseph said.
Throughout the three-day festival, audience members became performers. The Cama’i stage held strong as it filled with cauyaq frame drums for the ever-popular Heart of the Drums ceremony. And it held as children rushed the stage to show off their dance moves for adoring parents.
The longevity of the Cama’i Dance Festival was on full display this year with the return of Inuit-soul group Pamyua for their 30th anniversary since debuting at the festival in 1996.
"Half of us are grandpa and grandmas Now, the other half are right behind. So quyana for having us, we're glad to be back home," Pamyua member Stephen Blanchett said.
Stephen and his younger brother Phillip Blanchett took the stage for that first performance as a duo. The group would go on to include Ossie Kairaiuak of Chefornak and Karina Moeller of Greenland.
This year, it was like old times as the four joined other former members to sing the hit “Reindeer Herding Song” from their first album.
