above:  Allison Akootchook Warden's great-grandparents.  All rights reserved.

Ode to the Polar Bear is a half-hour one-woman show that allows the polar bear to say "goodbye" to Alaska. In it, traditional stories about the relationship between the Iñupiaq people and the polar bear are explored. Ode to the Polar Bear debuted at Out North theatre in Anchorage, Alaska in 2008, and received a standing ovation at the National Performance Network annual meeting in Seattle that same year. It has toured to Greenland, Finland, London and all over the state of Alaska.