@kiliiiyuyan

class="content__text" #ad The galactic core of the Milky Way shines brightly, viewed from near the top of Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano (before the recent eruption). The Big Island of Hawaii has both night skies that are free of light pollution and so many otherworldly landscapes to photograph! I couldn’t help myself—I went up to photograph at Mauna Loa after spending the morning with @chefmelissaking chowing on sushi behind the scenes of #TastingWild (it’s a @natgeo and @mazdausa project).

February 15, 2023

class="content__text" #ad I took my kayak for a spin on crystal waters near the top of Mount Baker in Washington State. There's nothing quite like cruising around a shoreline covered in snow, surrounded by glacial peaks and the sheer beauty of the alpine Northwest. The sweet scent of the conifers alone was worth the price of admission. It was such a beautiful day—then after kayaking, I got to eat a salt-baked trout from @chefmelissaking. Check out #TastingWild (it’s a @natgeo and @mazdausa project) on @natgeo YouTube.

February 13, 2023

class="content__text" Greenlandic hunter Qumangaapik Kvist @quma959 takes a smoke break on his qamutit, or sled on a long day of unsucessful seal hunting. Traditional subsistence hunting remains common today in the town of Qaanaaq, Greenland, although the hard work and meager financial rewards mean fewer young people like Quma are interested in continuing this way of life that has endured for millennia. Much more to come. Shot #onassignment for @natgeo. #greenland #qaanaaq #indigenous

January 16, 2023

class="content__text" Ice. We can't live without it (otherwise the coasts would be flooded). But more to the point, the glacial freshwater icebergs in North Greenland supply all of its drinking water from fall through spring. At the same time, it sheer beauty enraptures us all- even the Greenlanders themselves. Shot #onassignment for @natgeo. #iceberg #greenland

January 16, 2023

class="content__text" From the Upside-Down: Virga rainshowers over sea ice in Franklin Strait, the Canadian High Arctic. At 1am the colors are phenomenal, but most especially when photographed in the infrared spectrum. Shot onboard the @natgeoexpeditions Resolution as we make the earliest transit of the Northwest Passage to date. #arctic @lindbladexp

August 16, 2022

class="content__text" Sea ice is the basis for life in the coastal Arctic, but those who weren’t raised in the North are hard-pressed to understand how the ice is changing. One sign of drama is the lack of multiyear ice, which is thick and often taller than multistory buildings. Frost buildup can indicate rapid thawing and then freezing, increasing variability right at the freezing point. Without ice, people of the Arctic lose their roads, food, and freezers. ------------⁠ ⁠ Welcome to #EverChangingArctic, my project examining the constant flux of the great lands of the North. Like all inhabited regions of the planet, the Arctic has been transformed and managed by people for millennia. Today the rate of change is off the charts as the warming climate upends life in the North, reminding us to embrace our role as stewards once again. See the entire photoessay @emergencemagazine.

August 16, 2022

class="content__text" One of the strangest sights along the Bering Sea coast is the appearance of drunken trees. Entire forests of mature spruce lean at 45 or more to the ground, partially unrooted by the permafrost thaw of the ground they were held in. The first image is shot in infrared, a way to the see the heat of the sun reflecting from the landscape. ------------⁠ ⁠ Welcome to #EverChangingArctic, my project examining the constant flux of the great lands of the North. Like all inhabited regions of the planet, the Arctic has been transformed and managed by people for millennia. Today the rate of change is off the charts as the warming climate upends life in the North, reminding us to embrace our role as stewards once again. See the entire photoessay @emergencemagazine.

August 16, 2022

class="content__text" Musk ox, oomingmak, are iconic symbols of Alaska and the Arctic. Their steadfast endurance facing howling winds and subzero temperatures belie a little known story- Alaskan musk oxen were imported from Greenland. Wiped out by European hunters with rifles by the late 1800s, it wasn’t until 1935 they were reintroduced into the wild and 1960 until they repopulated beyond the island where they were first brought. ------------⁠ ⁠ Welcome to #EverChangingArctic, my project examining the constant flux of the great lands of the North. Like all inhabited regions of the planet, the Arctic has been transformed and managed by people for millennia. Today the rate of change is off the charts as the warming climate upends life in the North, reminding us to embrace our role as stewards once again. See the entire photoessay @emergencemagazine.

August 16, 2022

class="content__text" Groundbreaking Indigenous model Quannah Rose Chasinghorse-Potts, in front of Monument Valley, near her childhood home on the Navajo Nation. Set aside in 1958, it is a Navajo Nation tribal park, considered sacred by Diné and managed by the nation. Self-management of lands sacred to Indigenous peoples is one major aspect of the Native American #landback movement.⁠ ⁠ 2. Members of the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council of 10 federally-recognized tribes pose in front of redwood trees on reclaimed Sinkyone land. The 164 acre parcel, known as Four Corners, was acquired by Save the Redwoods League and donated to the land's original inhabitants in 2012. More recently, another parcel of old-growth redwoods, known as Fish Run, was also donated to the Council in 2022. Partnerships between environmental NGOs and Indigenous groups have become increasingly important as stakeholders recognize the power inherent in land ownership by sovereign powers like Indigenous Nations in the US and Canada.⁠ ⁠ 3. Portrait of the three people pivotal in the reclamation of nearly 10,000 acres for the Colville Tribe in 2021. In 2021, the Colville Tribe was gifted back 9,234 acres of land in Eastern Washington State. Conservation NW fundraised $4.5 million and donated the land from the Figlenski family to the Colville Tribe to be stewarded for future generations.⁠ ⁠ ------------⁠ ⁠ Welcome to #NativeSovereignty, my @NatGeo story on the myriad ways in which Indigenous North Americans are taking back their lands, foods, sports– while bringing back bison, creating healthcare, and reducing wildfires. It's the July cover story for @natgeo, link in bio.

July 16, 2022

class="content__text" The Kayenta PV solar plant, a renewable energy installation on the Navajo Nation. The project is two installations, completed in 2017, generating 55 Megawatts, enough to power 36,000 Navajo homes. It is entirely owned by the Navajo Nation. As renewable energy initiatives stall at the federal level in the United States, tribal nations have taken it upon themselves to tackle building this important infrastructure quickly.⁠ ⁠ 2. The Tla-o-qui-aht-owned run-of-river hydroelectric pipeline at Clear Creek, near Tofino, Canada. The plant is an innovative system that draws water from above salmon habitat and does not require damming, thus preserving the first nation's priority of care for salmon.⁠ ⁠ 3. Interior of a geothermal power generation station at Ty Histanis, a Tla-o-qui-aht community near Tofino, Canada. Tribal member Desmond Tom performs routine maintenance on this generating station, which produces all the power needed by the 170 home community, part of the greater plan to have energy independence from Canada.⁠ ⁠ ------------⁠ ⁠ Welcome to #NativeSovereignty, my @NatGeo story on the myriad ways in which Indigenous North Americans are taking back their lands, foods, sports– while bringing back bison, creating healthcare, and reducing wildfires. It's the July cover story for @natgeo, link in bio.

July 16, 2022

class="content__text" Tim Masso dressed in a COVID-19 dance mask and button blanket made by him and his brother Hjalmer Wenstob. The COVID-19 mask and dance were created for Tla-o-qui-aht to be able to chronicle this historic pandemic in storytelling form.⁠ ⁠ 2. Tla-o-qui-aht artist Hjalmer Wenstob in his shop behind a longhouse facade, in the community of Ty Histanis.⁠ ⁠ 3. Designs on a totem pole carved to commemorate the recent spate of deaths of Tla-o-qui-aht from the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada's residential schools, past diseases, at the Tofino Botanical Gardens.⁠ ⁠ 4. Tim Masso in his language mask, holding the counterpart mask, near Tofino, Canada. The two masks are used in a Nuu-chah-nulth language dance to promote language learning, beginning with the mouth-less mask and culminating in the open-mouthed mask. Tim carved the masks, created the dance and wrote the song in the Nuu-chah-nulth language with his brother Hjalmer Wenstob. ⁠ ⁠ ------------⁠ ⁠ Welcome to #NativeSovereignty, my @NatGeo story on the myriad ways in which Indigenous North Americans are taking back their lands, foods, sports– while bringing back bison, creating healthcare, and reducing wildfires. It's the July cover story for @natgeo, link in bio.

July 16, 2022

class="content__text" Tla-o-qui-aht Director of Lands and Resources Saya Masso in front of the Longhouse Cedar along the Meares Island tribal park Big Tree Trail, near Tofino, Canada. Saya is wearing a traditional Nuu-Chah-Nulth cedar bark hat as well his official Guardians uniform, a sign of an organized sovereign government enforcing its own laws and priorities. The Tribal Park Guardians are one of many Indigenous Guardians programs around Canada, and represent a huge boom in the past decades of sovereign stewardship of traditional lands that Indigenous peoples care for.⁠ ⁠ 2. Portrait of the Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks Guardians in front of the Longhouse Cedar along the Meares Island tribal park Big Tree Trail, near Tofino, Canada. The Longhouse Cedar is a special tree that has been culturally modified- it has had a plank of wood removed from it to build a longhouse, without killing the tree, by the ancestors of the Tla-o-qui-aht, hundreds of years ago.⁠ ⁠ 3. Joe Louie, Tribal Parks Guardian⁠ 4. Riley Caputo, Tribal Parks Guardian⁠ 5. Terry Dorward, Tribal Parks Guardian⁠ ⁠ ------------⁠ ⁠ Welcome to #NativeSovereignty, my @NatGeo story on the myriad ways in which Indigenous North Americans are taking back their lands, foods, sports– while bringing back bison, creating healthcare, and reducing wildfires. It's the July cover story for @natgeo, link in bio.

July 16, 2022