KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
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Andy Teuber went missing March 2 of 2021. The 52 year-old CEO of KANA was piloting a helicopter to Kodiak from Anchorage, and is believed by the National Transportation Safety Board to have crashed due to inclement weather in the ocean waters north of Afognak Island. The NTSB declared Teuber dead, following a days-long search by the Coast Guard.
Friends, family and colleagues gathered on a small hill on Near Island to remember him on Saturday in a traditional Sugpiaq mask-burning ceremony. Attendees have the oppurtunity to speak with the mask, which is made by an artist and represents the deceased. They share final messages that they may not have had the opportunity to say.
According to Loren Anderson, who presided over the ceremony, the ritual serves to mark an end to the period of mourning.
“It weighs on people that, you know, maybe they got in an argument in the morning and never got to say I love you one last time, or goodbye. But the mask ceremony, what it does is it allows you to have that last moment,” Anderson said.
According to Anderson, when the mask is burned, it carries what it saw and heard back to that person. The mask burning is not meant to replace a funeral, and typically is held months after one’s passing, up to years later.
Teuber’s mask was painted red, white and black with a semicircle of feathers around its perimeter, and a pearlescent moon with stars was carved into its backboard.
As part of the ceremony, the Imamsuat Sugpiaq Dancers –a group of dancers who preserve traditional Sugpiaq song and dance — gathered around a fire. One dancer donned the mask, as Anderson chanted a prayer for Teuber.
After a few minutes, the dance ended. And the mask was handed to Teuber’s daughters. They lay their father’s mask into the flames.
Attendees stood watching it burn for several minutes, while the unrelenting sun hung above. The mask slowly was consumed by the flames. Once it was no longer distinct from the other logs, there were few quiet hugs. And slowly – silently – the attendees made their way down the hill.
Some native communities that practice mask burning prohibit the photographing of their ceremonial masks. According to Anderson, this is not the case for the Sugpiaq people; with his permission, KMXT has published photos of the mask with this story.
