After Susan Patkotak finished dancing, she raised her hands in the blue stage lights of the Dena'ina Center as hundreds of people gave her a standing ovation. Later, she said she created the dance to reclaim a tradition, and the response brought her to tears.
"I created my song as a way to heal, not just for myself, but everyone who watches and listens, and anyone who can relate to it," she said.
Patkotak, 21, is a member of the Barrow Dancers. She said her family did not allow her to participate in Inupiaq dancing when she was a child, for religious reasons. But as she grew up, she realized how much joy it brings.
"It might be my song, but it's our story as Indigenous people, because our right to our tradition of dancing had been taken away," she said.
Patkotak first performed her song last year at Kivgiq, the biennial festival in Utqiagvik also known as Messenger Feast. This year, she presented it at AFN during the first night of Quyana Alaska.
The audience – this time, from all over the state – asked for an encore.
Patkotak's Barrow Dancers, from Utqiagvik, were one of 14 dance groups performing over the two Quyana nights during the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Anchorage. Others are from the Aleutians, Southeast Alaska, the Yukon-Kuskokwim area, Kodiak Island and other communities on the North Slope and across the state.
The event has been around for over four decades. AFN organizers say the event was first introduced to thank Alaskans across the state for supporting subsistence — the word quyana means "thank you" in Yup'ik. Since then, the celebration of cultural revival has been a staple that kicks off the first night of the annual convention.
Michael Morry, a dancer with the group from Anaktuvuk Pass on the North Slope, said they wanted to spotlight the youth in their community during Quyana.
"We include them because they are our future," he said. "We're trying to teach them, and they are the ones who are going to carry this tradition on when the rest of us are gone someday."
Morry said that many of the group's songs, like one featuring a wolf call, talk about subsistence, animals and the Nunamuit way of life.
"It is called Sumikatam Yamagoqua, and what that basically says, 'Where are the wolves howling from?'" he said. "And this evening, the wolves howled here at Quyana Night."
Theresa John had a seat in the front row, but she spent most of the night dancing in front of the stage in her light pink kuspuk, mirroring the dancers' movements.
John is a former Indigenous studies professor and dance instructor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She said she has gotten to know the dance groups from across Alaska and to learn their moves
"The meaning of the songs is our form of prayer." John said. "I was getting chills and chills every time different groups danced beautifully.
But it wasn't just dancing that thrilled the audience.
Close to the end of the night, the Barrow Dancers invited an audience member, Curtis Cleveland, on stage for a surprise performance.
"I thought they were calling him up to dance, and I was like, he doesn't know any dances!" Mary Patkotak said laughing.
Instead, he proposed to her.
Patkotak said she and Cleveland have been dating for about a year, and he moved to Utqiagvik to be with her. He said he wanted to surprise her during the event she loves.
The crowd cheered and whooped, and the newly engaged couple broke into an improvised dance.
