Yup’ik Teaching Moment:

Kangiliriyaraq (Gong-eely-GHEE-yah-UK) “to provide with a new start”

Presented by Calista Education & Culture, Inc.

Storyknife, September/October 2022 edition

Calista Education & Culture, Inc. (CECI) highlights Yuuyaraq, the traditional/cultural way of being in our Region. This Yup’ik Teaching Moment is provided from an interview conducted by Mark John, CECI Cultural Advisor with Albertina Cingyukan Dull of Nightmute and the late John Phillip, Sr. of Kongiganak.

A newborn child was seen as not yet fully formed in Yup’ik personhood. One step to further stabilize a newborn into personhood would be with the gift of an ateq, a “name” or “name-soul.” When a person wanted to give a child a name, they did a naming ritual called kangiliriyaraq (Gong-eely-GHEE-yah-UK), which literally means “to provide with a new start.”

“When a child was given a name of a relative who recently passed, it was said that the one whose name the child was receiving—their namesake—had come,” said Albertina Dull in an interview translated from Yup’ik.

Although their namesake has died, people say part of their namesake is carried on in them. People are amazed when they hear them speak like the one who died.

The late John Phillip, Sr. said in an interview translated from Yup’ik, “My younger brother Evon who passed away loved telling

stories. I named two of my great-grandchildren after him. One of them reminds me of Evon.”
“Although he’s little, he says humorous things like Evon once did,” Phillip said. “The way he reminds me of Evon, they refer to that as the deceased being inside of them.”

Kangiliriyaraq (Gong-eely-GHEE-yah-UK) in Yup’ik means “to provide with a new start” as it relates to Yup’ik naming practices.

The mission of Calista Education & Culture, Inc. (CECI) is to celebrate and promote Yuuyaraq, the traditional/cultural way of being in the Calista Region which inspires and encourages our people to achieve their dreams through education.

The CECI scholarship program awards scholarships two times each year. The application deadline for the Spring 2023 Term scholarship is due December 1, and the Fall Term scholarship application is due June 30 each year. Apply today!