36. Fresh Start w/Throw Party.

The school year started off again with a community feast, with more people packing into the gym this year than I saw last. We now have the largest enrolment Tuntutuliak has ever seen- over 130 kids, K-12. About half of the teachers who taught here last year are back again this year and we also have a few more teachers this year than we had last, so there’s a good amount of fresh energy.
Two of our teachers got married over the summer and celebrated with a special take on a traditional Yupik event. They held a ‘throw party’ to which everyone in the village (male and female) was invited. Below is a picture of a traditional throw party I happened upon last fall.A throw party is traditionally celebrated only by the woman and children of the village. It is held when a girl makes her first kill- that is, when she captures an animal for the first time. She climbs to the roof of her house or a nearby building and throws gifts (candy, toys, sundries) to the crowd of woman and children below.