Yuuyaraq - The Way of the Human Being

Below are two powerful excerpts from Yuuyaraq - The Way of the Human Being by Harold Napoleon

Found on page 12...

"They were quiet and kept things to themselves. They rarely showed their sorrow, fears, heartbreak, anger, or grief. Unable to relive in their conscious mind the horrors they had experienced, they did not talk to anyone. The survivors seem to have agreed, without discussing it, that they would not talk about it. It was too painful and the implications were too great. Discussing it would have let loose emotions they may not have been able to control. It was better not to talk about it, to act as if it had never happened, to nallunguaq. To this day nallunguaq remains a way of dealing with problems or unpleasant occurrences in Yup'ik life. Young people are advised by elders to nallunguarluku, "to pretend it didn't happen." They had a lot to pretend not to know. After all, it was not only that their loved ones had died, they also had seen their world collapsed. Everything they had lived and believed had been found wanting. They were afraid to admit that the things they had believed in might not have been true."

Found on page 27...

"Only communication, honest communication from the heart, will break this down, because inability to share one's heart and feelings is the most deadly legacy of the Great Death. It was born out of survivors' inability to face and speak about what they had seen and lived through. The memory was too painful, the reality too hard, the result too hard to hear."

Powerful piece of literature.

...