Ethnographic film collections in the North contain an essential, indelible message for the future - that cultural knowledge is perishable and impermanent. Throughout the world, as bearers of traditional culture pass away, much of their knowledge is lost. Film and audio collections can play a critical role in preserving living knowledge, allowing us to observe, experience, and study singular, irreproducible moments of a culture’s past.
Leonard Kamerling is Curator of Film at the University of Alaska Museum of the North, and Professor of English at University of Alaska Fairbanks.