JWM

Project: Material Traditions: Gut, Ivory, and Cedar
Grantee: Anchorage Museum Association
Written by: Mary Johns and Jerome Saclamana

My name is Mary Johns, I am Ahtna, Athabascan and I am of the Water Clan. This residency brought new light to my understanding of Alaska Native art. I know a lot of my own peoples’ art and the process, however not much about ivory carving and the process behind it and the amount of thought and symbolism that goes into it. This definitely made me think about expanding my knowledge about Alaska Native art, so in other words, I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop and all that it had to offer.

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Project: Wrangell’s Journey to Revive the Culture
Grantee: Alaska Native Sisterhood
Written by: Tis Peterman

ANSA was the recipient of A Journey to What Matters in 2015. Cultural classes were rarely held in Wrangell and the base of this grant was to provide more classes to our local people to increase their skill levels in skin sewing, beading, weaving and Tlingit form line drawing. ANSA partnered with Sealaska Corporation to hold a week long cedar basket weaving class. The local teacher Faye Kohrt and 18 students worked diligently to complete their projects. Thanks to this grant other classes were held as well. Gunal’cheesh!!!

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Project: Haida Regalia Making
Grantee: Hydaburg City School District
Written by: Priscilla Goulding

Our project was making Haida regalia in the Hydaburg School (Hydaburg City School District) in grades K-12 as well as the Kasaan School, (part of Southeast Island School District).  Years ago, seniors would make regalia to wear at their graduation ceremonies in Hydaburg, and at a parent meeting some expressed the desire to rekindle this activity.  This provided the spark for the grant proposal.   The project was not limited to button blankets, the signature piece of regalia for the Haida people, but included headbands, tunics and deer skin aprons for the younger children.

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Project: Material Traditions: Gut, Ivory and Cedar
Grantee: Anchorage Museum Association
Organized by the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center at the Anchorage Museum and held at the Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center in Bethel
Written by: Hillary Vild, participant

No, I am not performing surgeries at the hospital and stitching up guts. I am embracing this wonderful place I am living and experiencing some of their traditional crafts.

The Yup’ik museum holds some classes to teach crafts and continue traditions.  This weekend, they held a gut skin sewing class.  Usually it is with seal gut, but due to the federal Marine Mammal Act, only Alaska Natives can handle seal gut intestines.  For us non-natives, we used hog intestines.

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