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Brian Adams

"I used to watch my uncles play and wanted to start playing," says Jonas Macknenzie, who is Inupiaq from Kaktovik, Alaska. "My cousins were listening to all kinds of rock and roll and I would watch music videos and see Slash playing. My favourite right now is ACDC. I am really into ‘50s rock and roll, and old country like Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. I want to try and go to Florida for music, there is a school there called Full Sail. I want to go check it out."

“I do a lot of trapping, sheep hunting, caribou hunting, and got into beaver trapping last year," says Ben Hopson III, who is Inupiaq and lives in Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska. "I am part of a Trapper Man Forum online that's worldwide. About six months ago, a guy from the forum contacted me. He said they were coming up here in the late spring and needed a local guide to check out the proposed ice road to connect the Anaktuvuk village to the Dalton Highway. It was a pretty cool trip. I brought back a caribou and three wolves. We were just going down the trail and they stopped and were looking at the GPS and I said, ‘Be quiet a second! Just listen!’ and we heard the faint howling of wolves."

“I wanted to get a traditional tattoo; my great-grandmother had some. I started talking to other artists and eventually contacted a tattoo anthropologist. As I learned more about traditional Inuit tattooing, I learned that it was for women, by women mostly," says Holly Nordlum, who is Inupiaq and lives in Anchorage, Alaska. She was connected to an Inuit woman from Greenland who did hand tattooing. "We started Facebook chatting, like every night for six months. Then the Polar Lab from the Anchorage Museum brought her here last year, and we got to meet! When we met, it was like I had known her my whole life. We are now working on a project together through the Polar Lab to revitalise traditional Inuit tattooing techniques.”

Clothes hang to dry in Quinhagak, Alaska.

“I have been dancing since I was 5. I am part of the Ayaprun Elitnaurvik Dance Group," says Charlee Korthuis, who is Yup’ik and lives in Bethel, Alaska. "My favourite part about being in the group is the fun of it, learning new dances every week. My mom made my head dress and my traditional belt. My uncle made my dance fans.”

"I went to design school outside of LA, Art Center College of Design. I studied Graphic Design and got hired by Nike. On vacation, I would travel back to Alaska, and they called me the 'Nike Lady' because I brought product back home," says Carol Richards, who is Inupiaq and lives in Anchorage, Alaska. "In school, I had a really great mentor. He liked me because he said I had a unique vision. I think it was because of my upbringing and heritage. He told me to never forget that. So even when I worked on projects for Nike, which has a completely global presence, there was something that was inherently from here that I brought to it.”

Seagulls in Utqiagvik, Alaska, enjoy what's left of a bowhead whale.

"Bernice and I run a bed and breakfast here now," says Eugene K. Monroe Sr., who is Inupiaq and live in Noatak, Alaska. "My wife, she is good with strangers. If someone is down by the river, they know what to do, they bring their canoes up here and we serve them coffee or give them a sandwich. After months up river, they smell pretty good, pretty sour. But, she takes them in.”

"My rap name is AKU-MATU," says Allison Akootchook Warden, who is Inupiaq and lives in Anchorage, Alaska. She was named one of the 50 environmental activists to watch for by 'Grist' magazine in 2016. "I rap as a polar bear, caribou, a whale, an ancestor from the future. I have a song about generational trauma called, ‘My Mom’s Song.’ We have 22 songs. It's a lot, but for the most part its environmentally focused."

A child plays on a gravel berm on the coast near Shaktoolik, Alaska.