Natal'ia Yaganova talks about the support from women during the seal hunt

“When you already see the seals and the men have already gone out, the women also go to the shore. And there they help. When a seal is hunted, the women dance in the way the seal was hunted. They dance like the seals. They sing similar to during the Ololo festival, each sings in her own way, and they call the seals. You always sing a little song when you go hunting. When we went to the sea this year, we also sang songs, and Valentin Naianov hunted a bearded seal. These are the movements of bearded seals when they swim. You dance with your whole body like a seal. When it is about to dive, it usually holds its head like this.”

Recorded by Erich Kasten. Lesnaya, 2001.