Song of the Sea

Boats such as these were historically used by Yupik people to hunt bowhead whales. They are made with a wooden frame and covered in skins. When not in use they are stored upside down. 

The swirling currents of the Bering Sea deposit the remains of marine mammals on the beaches of the Punuk Islands as well as nearby St. Lawrence Island. 

The very earliest ivory implements were purely functional and typically undecorated. Around 200 B.C., however, people of the Old Bering Sea culture (200 B.C.- A.D. 800) began producing ornate pieces of carved ivory – like harpoon socket-pieces and counterweights, ulus (cutting tool), and snow goggles – bearing graceful curving lines and circles surrounding mounded knobs. 

Decorated tools served practical functions. If objects were embellished it was to help “please” or satisfy the spirits of game animals and other unseen forces that were believed to control local environments, because they were attracted by beautiful things. Since ancient times, ornamented objects helped guarantee human survival in a sometimes unforgiving Arctic world.

In the mid-1800s, many prehistoric ivory artifacts, which originated from ancient village sites around the Bering Strait, appeared in the hands of Alaska Native collectors. Over time, Alaska Natives exchanged these objects with American whalers, teachers, and traders for money and goods. Eventually, these individuals passed them on to museum curators who considered them as works of “art” fit for museum displays. 

Small carvings were among the first made by Yupik people for sale to sailors in the 19th and early 20th centuries.  Seafaring men desired mementos of their travels to take home, and they purchased artifacts and commissioned new objects of walrus ivory from local carvers, including parasol handles, pipes, canes, napkin rings, salt and peppershakers, and other objects. [1]

Whalebone is typically aged for years or even decades before use due to its strong odor when fresh. Both bone and baleen are often incorporated as a secondary material in carvings made of walrus ivory, although they are occasionally used alone. Ribs, discs, and whale vertebrae are commonly used in carvings of shaman figures, owls, and walrus. Baleen is often used in a polished form as an inlay material for eyes in ivory carvings; it is the primary material used in carvings of whaling boats, orcas, and loons. 

Bering Strait artists continue to carry on the ancient tradition of ivory carving. Before the advent of electric carving tools, like Dremel and Foredom units, artists worked ivory in vises with hacksaws, coping saws, and hand files ranging from course to fine. 

Today, Alaska Native ivory carvers produce incredibly diverse works, and some of the popular themes include: animals, activity scenes, transformation scenes, and ancient artifacts or human figurine replicas. 

Many contemporary Alaska Native carvers actively hunt throughout the year, and perform traditional dances and drum at community events. These activities often inspire the dynamic and lively carvings they create.

Once carved and sold, anyone may resell Alaska Native art and craftwork made of legally harvested walrus ivory. However, efforts to curb the trade of illegally harvested elephant ivory have negatively affected Alaska Native communities who rely on sales of walrus ivory carving to sustain their local economies and cultures. To learn more about Pacific walrus ivory and carving, please consult the IACB’s consumer education brochure Alaska Native Ivory.