A Journey to What Matters- 2020 Elders & Youth: Living and Loving our Cultures Workshop
2020 Elders & Youth: Living & Loving our Cultures WorkshopStory by: Helena Jacobs
My mother, four of my children, and I were all blessed with the opportunity to participate in the first ever virtual FAI Elders & Youth Conference Living & Loving our Cultures workshops this year! My daughters and I were set up on a zoom call in our dining room doing the “Painting Our Ways of Life” workshop with Sylvia Lange (Tlingit) doing acrylic painting on canvas, my mom and son were set up on a Zoom call in our living room doing the “Cedar Bracelet Making” workshop with Debbie McLavey (Haida) and RoMay Edenshaw (Haida), and my other son was set up on a Zoom call in my office doing the “COVID-19 Mask Sewing” workshop with Mellisa Johnson (Inupiaq).Sylvia asked each virtual workshop participant to choose something we wanted to paint, and then encouraged us and answered questions throughout. She shared about mixing paints, color theory, contrast, and techniques with different brushes or materials, while showing many examples of her work. It was so fun!In reflecting on this workshop, my 7 year old said there were so many cool designs that people chose that had different patterns and colors that she felt inspired seeing what they made. She said it felt good to be able to be free to paint whatever she wanted. She had fun and loved this activity so much that she wanted to go to her grandpa’s house the next week to participate in a paint night activity led by Sugpiaq artist Sara Squartsoff online. As we were preparing our painting stations, my five year old excitedly exclaimed, “this is going to be the best day of my life!” because she was so excited to do this activity with her mom and her older sister.Enaa baasee’ to The CIRI Foundation, to First Alaskans Institute, and to all our instructors and peers for this amazing opportunity!
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A Journey to What Matters and ASCA Partnership- Graduate ARTShops 2020
A Journey to What Matters and ASCA Partnership- Graduate ARTShops 2020 Parka Ruff and Trim Class
The ARTShops program is a collaboration between the Alaska State Council on the Arts, the Alaska Arts and Culture Foundation and The CIRI Foundation’s A Journey to What Matters: Increased Alaska Native Arts and Culture grant program. Established in 2016, ARTShops support emerging Alaska Native arts leaders to develop their skills in leading community-based arts programs.
Bobby teaching via Zoom
Graduate ARTShops 2020Parka Ruff and Trim Class: VirtuallyStory by: Bobby Itta, ARTShop Leader
For my Graduate ARTShop project, I taught a two-day parka ruff and trim class using Zoom. Five students participated from Anchorage, Seldovia, and Utqiagvik. On the first day, students learned how to stretch an animal hide of their choice. On day two, I went over how to draw, cut, and sew a ruff. It was a little difficult to teach on-line, as I usually teach in a classroom and can share more details in person, but overall the class was great and I had awesome students! Being able to make clothing is an important skill for people to learn, so that they can learn to keep themselves warm and pass down their skills to their children or family. I learned from my mom, who learned from my grandmother. I am happy to be able to share what I know with others.
Follow Bobby Itta's Work Here
Participant Danyel Harvey with her completed ruff
Heritage Project Grant- Production of “The Storyteller”
Project: "The Storyteller" Arts and Culture Initiative: Production and Initial Outreach
Grantee: Koahnic Broadcast CorporationStory by John Sallee (TCF Recipient)
The Storyteller is a 15-episode audio series produced by Koahnic Broadcast Corporation. The project aimed to revitalize old folktales and stories from Alaska Native people. As the lead producer, it was my job to bring these old stories back to the ears and eyes of the new generation in a modern and fresh way. The concept behind the series relies on the character, the Storyteller, who serves as the host of the series. Not only does the Storyteller hold a collection of stories from Alaska’s original peoples, but they serve as the interface of the series.
The website, nativestoryteller.org, will serve as the base for all media involved with the project. This multimedia project includes shadow animation, a podcast, and an interactive website. This project has been the biggest learning experience of my life, educationally and professionally. Working with a graphic designer, shadow animator, website designer and Alaska Native artists simultaneously has been a great learning experience.
Not only did this project involve production work, but it involved behind the scenes work such as creative direction, marketing, contract writing and corporate outreach. Listening and editing these stories has been a joy, as not only have I rediscovered these folktales but it even gives me a sense of pride in my culture. While this series was mainly to be audio, I believe these folktales needed to align with modern technology by providing various visual mediums.
Production Art by Steven Hammack
Premier animated story by Patricia Wade, “An Athabascan Story of Denali”
Journey to What Matters- Sivuqaq Parka-Making Workshops
Sivuqaq Parka-Making Workshops
Grantee: Bering Strait School District, Story by Brianna (Blatchford) Wheeler
Bering Strait School District was able to partner with The CIRI Foundation last fall to provide materials and resources for Qaguus Kunuka to pass on traditional knowledge about parka-making for her older students. Students and community members were excited to see skin sewing, patterns, and other technical skills that might not otherwise have been widely spread being passed to a whole new generation. This group of students worked hard and worked together, learning to use traditional materials and learning to make high-quality, beautiful, functional parkas, start to finish. When COVID hit Alaska and schools closed suddenly, many of these projects appeared to be stranded with no way to finish. However, the students were determined to work hard, learning however they could, in order to complete their work. Parents went to Qaguus with phones to film a new step their students could complete at home. The students asked questions, worked hard, and figured out how, even in a world of distance learning, to connect with their mentor and learn what they needed. On graduation day, the village held a parade for graduates and the students from Qaguus’s class proudly rode through town in sealskin-covered graduation caps and brand new parkas. The whole community celebrated their accomplishments.
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Education Project Grant- Early Language & Literacy for Alaska Native Children
Early Language & Literacy for Alaska Native ChildrenGrantee: Best Beginnings, Story by Amie Collins
Kindergarten readiness starts with reading. Research shows that children who have access to book and are read to from birth will have greater academic success. Best Beginnings is partnering with numerous organizations to improve the likelihood of success in kindergarten for Alaska Native children living in Anchorage.With funding support from The CIRI Foundation, Best Beginnings was able to work with Alaska Native Medical Center, the Nutaqsiivik Nurse-Family Partnership, Cook Inlet Native Head Start and Clare Swan Early Head Start to enroll children in the Anchorage Imagination Library. The Anchorage Imagination Library is a program of Best Beginnings that delivers high quality, age-appropriate books to a child in their home each month from birth to age 5.In addition to providing books in the home to over 1,000 Alaska Native children, Imagination Library families are invited together for enrichment activities that bring the books to life with fun, educational play and social emotional learning. In February we explored literacy and science with the title Shh! Bear’s Sleeping in partnership with the Campbell Creek Science Center. Families learned about hibernation, Alaska animals they might find in the wild of southcentral, and got to pick up even more books at our book swap. Children put their gross and fine motor skills to use doing arts, crafts, and activities.During our group storytimes, you can see the joy on each child’s face as they watch our storyteller read their favorite book wide-eyed with awe. And parents always take a minute to express their gratitude for the extra take-home activities and opportunity to gather. One family told us, “These events are our favorite ones in town. I wish they happened weekly!”When COVID-19 put a pause to our in-person programming we were challenged to take these experiences online in a way that families could easily do them at home. Our first virtual camp for families, Little Learners, was so popular that we hosted two more, serving over 75 families in a short period of time.
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A Journey to What Matters- Anchorage Museum Virtual Artist Residencies
Anchorage Museum Virtual Artist ResidenciesStory by: Francesca Du Brock
An example of the work by Robin Lovelace.
Through the generous support of The CIRI Foundation, the Anchorage Museum was able to provide Virtual Artist Residencies to four Indigenous artists during the summer and fall of 2020. Facing the expanding crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, this project gave Museum curatorial staff the invaluable opportunity to work closely, one-on-one with artists and support their working process, rather than focusing on traditional exhibition models that emphasize product over process. We worked with the following artists, click through their names to read their features on the Anchorage Museum blog.
Ethan Lauesen (Tlingit)
Robin Lovelace (Tlingit)
Jenny Irene Miller (Iñupiaq)
Kunaq Tahbone (Iñupiaq)
Each residency started in the same fashion, with an interview conducted by the Anchorage Museum Chief Curator, which was developed into a profile published on the Museum blog. These profiles provide audiences with an introduction to the artist, their background, and key motivating factors and themes in their artwork. Artists provided images and feedback on the text. Then, depending on the level of comfort with digital media, artists shared different aspects of their process a minimum of three times throughout the month – through photos and written narration, videos published on the Anchorage Museum Instagram and Facebook pages, as well as live-streamed studio demos hosted on the Anchorage Museum Facebook live page. Artists worked across a variety of media, including printmaking, carving, photography, textile, and sculpture. Examples of process sharing included etching a copper plate; casting a stainless-steel mask; cyanotype printing on fabric, and hand-crimping kammak soles.Audience engagement with this content was tremendous. Posts featuring artist work racked up hundreds of likes and many comments on social media. Livestreams were well-attended. Artists cited positive experiences in these residencies including: professional development through working with Museum staff; financial support for materials during the pandemic; exposure to new audiences; opportunities to organize personal archives; practice talking about their work; and opportunities to learn more about the Museum collection.
Printmaking with Ethan Lauesen
Cyanotype Test Print Time Lapse with Jenny Irene Miller
Live Kammak Making Demonstration with Kunaq Tahbone
A Journey To What Matters and ASCA Partnership- ARTShops 2020 Tlingit Jewelry Making: Virtually
A Journey To What Matters and ASCA Partnership- ARTShops 2020 Tlingit Jewelry Making: Virtually
The ARTShops program is a collaboration between the Alaska State Council on the Arts, the Alaska Arts and Culture Foundation and The CIRI Foundation’s A Journey to What Matters: Increased Alaska Native Arts and Culture grant program. Established in 2016, ARTShops support emerging Alaska Native arts leaders to develop their skills in leading community-based arts programs.
ARTShops 2020Tlingit Jewelry Making: VirtuallyStory by: Mary Goddard
If 2020 taught us anything, it was to use the tools that we have to continue on, to adapt and overcome. My first initial thoughts for teaching jewelry virtually was to avoid it, wait until COVID-19 passes, then get back to hands-on teaching. However, if I did that I would have missed the opportunity to teach jewelry making to two ready individuals. Sometimes, timing is everything.I want to start off by thanking The CIRI Foundation, the Alaska Native Heritage Center, and the Alaska State Council on the Arts for creating this opportunity for me to teach. This ARTShop has really become a jumping-off point for both of the students to receive guidance and valuable tools and materials (to keep) to begin their craft.
The LessonsWith the jewelry making starter kits and lessons that I put together for Josh and Jason, they were able to learn how to create copper and spruce root earrings, copper and abalone earrings, hammered pendants, and a keychain with leather and trade beads. Each of these projects had to be made from hand, start to finish by the students. They both had dentalium, extra spruce root, copper, and trade beads to experiment with. For both the students, this was their first time working with traditional materials. The chance to have hands-on experience with these traditional materials really gave them an opportunity to connect with Indigenous knowledge and begin to learn what makes the traditional materials so special and meaningful in our Tlingit culture. This was an opportunity for me to share stories about how spruce root is traditionally prepared, what dentalium was valued for, and reminding them to get to know and understand their materials and supplies when creating with them.
“I loved the class, it was very easy going and fun, but at the same time I learned a lot. I think it was a perfect kick start to spark a flame to bigger and better things to come.”JoshARTShop Participant
VirtualThe virtual part of the learning was not as challenging as I originally thought it would be. Due to schedule differences, I chose to offer 5 lessons with a total of 13 short videos, with corresponding lesson plans, and with follow-up weekly zoom meetings. The videos were made available and both Jason and Josh online, at their convenience. In order to finish the lesson, they each had to text or email a picture of their finished lesson project.
“First, wanted to say thank you for this amazing opportunity! This class has provided a lot of opportunities and has been a definite stepping stone toward an awesome hobby and eventually a career. I’ve really enjoyed using Indigenous materials; such as copper, spruce root, abalone, etc. Gotta start somewhere and this has been the perfect opportunity to learn the basics of working with metal and its effects. The course has provided everything we need to create finished, wearable jewelry. Which is pretty neat! Mary has been a great teacher and has been there if I ever have questions. I look forward to learning as much as possible in metal art. If there is an opportunity to learn more in an advanced course, I would be super interested. Again thanks a lot for the course and doing all the legwork.”JasonARTShop Participant
Social MediaTo share with others about the ARTShop project, I created 8 posts and 6 stories that I shared on both my Instagram and my Facebook page over the span of a week and a half. It was a lot of fun, as the jewelry that I created for each lesson was given away in contests.The response from my followers about classes was super positive, with at least ten others wanting to take classes virtually and learn this style of jewelry. It was really encouraging and I was really pleased with the feedback.ARTShop was really successful. Both students received a foundation in working with essentials tools and traditional materials to create jewelry from start to finish. I am confident that through the lessons and the tools that I provided through ARTShop 2020 both Jason and Josh can take their newly learned skills and have their own culturally-based business, or at the very least, hobby.
Facebook
Follow Mary Goddard on Facebook for more of her work.
Heritage Project Grant – Interviewing Indigenous Artists in Their Natural Element
Interviewing Indigenous Artists in Their Natural Element By Andi Murphy, Indigefi Podcast Producer
I was one of the podcast producers for “Native Artist,” a project of Koahnic Broadcast Corporation’s Indigefi. I was responsible for producing the episodes featuring Christopher Auchter (Filmmaker and animator, Haida) Jeremy Dutcher (composer and musician, Tobique First Nation).I really enjoyed getting to meet these Indigenous artists in their natural element. The produced episodes are just a portion of the conversations I had with them about their origins, passion, conflicts and techniques. What they had to say was inspirational and I hope the audience gets that, too.I also really enjoyed the editing process because I was able to gather various types of audio beforehand. Once I got a handle of the format, I was able to add some color to the piece and be creative in the editing process; which is something I don’t always have time for as a producer.
Listen to Native Artist Podcast by INDIGEFI
The Native Artist podcast takes a deep dive into the stories of Indigenous artists, spanning a wide range of artistic disciplines. From directors and writers to carvers and fashion designers, artists share their unique stories and perspectives on navigating these fields while reclaiming Native identity. Listen and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
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A Journey to What Matters- Weaving a Yup’ik Issran
Project: Weaving a Yup’ik IssranGrantee: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center AlaskaStory by: Dawn Biddison
Photo: Grace Anaver teaches Tenaya Bell how to twine the bottom of an issran (grass carrying-bag), checking their work against a photo on Tenaya’s cell phone of the pattern Grace drew. Photo by Jacki Cleveland, courtesy of the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska.
In 2019, the Alaska office of the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center partnered with Qanirtuuq Inc. and Quinhagak Heritage Inc. to research and document in their village the Yup’ik tradition of weaving an issran, a grass carrying-bag made with an open-weave twining technique that is rare today. Local artist Grace Anaver joined the team as lead artist, under the guidance of her older sister Pauline Beebe and assisted by her younger sister Sarah Brown. Locally harvested taperrnaq (coarse seashore grass) was gathered and processed for drying and curing in July, and grass from the previous fall was dyed.In August, Grace taught Yup’ik grass weavers and learners how to twine an issran in the Nunalleq Culture & Archaeology Center, where they studied ancestral twined weavings from the 700-year old Nunalleq archaeological site. The workshop participants were Tenaya Bell, Jacki Cleveland, Grace Mark, Anna Roberts, Dora Strunk, Larissa Strunk, Lonnie Strunk and Meta Williams. The collaborative work resulted in a set of eleven videos – Material Traditions: Weaving a Yup’ik Issran (Grass Carrying-Bag) – that includes detailed information, instructions and demonstrations from start to finish. You can find the videos online on the “Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska” site on the Learning Lab platform at https://learninglab.si.edu/org/sasc-ak in the Community Videos section.
“Everybody has an art in them. It’s good for the soul. It’s good for the mind. Grass bags are wonderful. It is time-consuming, but then it’s a fun and enjoyable art in itself. And it’s rewarding.”Grace Anaver (Yup’ik)Project Lead Artist“They shared how the bag was made from our ancestors, and I’m glad that I learned it because it doesn’t have to die out.”Tenaya Bell (Yup’ik)Workshop Student
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A Journey to What Matters- Sugpiaq Shield & War Club Class
Eight students, ranging in age from 16 to 74, made a traditional Sugpiaq-styled folding shield and war club throughout this two-week long class at the beginning of August.
Project: Sugpiaq Shield & War Club ClassGrantee: Ilanka Cultural Center, Native Village of EyakStory and photos: Teal Hansen
With assistance from The CIRI Foundation’s (TCF) “A Journey to What Matters” grant program, Ilanka Cultural Center (ICC) offered a Sugpiaq (Alutiiq) Shield and War Club class taught by master carver, Andrew Abyo of Anchorage. Through the honor of this grant, ICC was able to provide an opportunity that allowed the community a chance to revive an art skill inherent in our ancestry and expand their knowledge on the reality of life for Native people in the Chugach Region.
“It is important to teach the community about Native arts and cultural values so that we can maintain respect for Native people and their traditions.”
- Native Village of Eyak (NVE) Tribal Member and CIRI Shareholder, Nick Tiedeman
In traditional Sugpiaq society, warfare was used to garnish wealth, avenge injustices, raise influence, and acquire valuable goods, which included women and slaves. The Sugpiat would war with their own neighboring communities, with Unangax (Aleut’s) to the southwest, Tlingit to the southeast, and with the Dena’ina to the west-northwest. Among other weapons and armor, Sugpiat warriors would carry these wooden clubs and large shields into battle. Sugpiaq stories and legends often lead to conflict and illustrate lessons that were deemed important for future generations.Throughout our history, majority of this area’s cultural artifacts have been stolen and/or taken to foreign museums or private collections around the world. Because of this, NVE tribal members have never had access to a Sugpiaq-styled shield or war club through Ilanka’s cultural programs or museum. ICC was created in 2004 during a time where many of our tribal members were just beginning to create artwork that illustrated our history with contemporary tools and mediums. As an establishment that represents the indigenous people of the region, we must continue to look at how our culture fits into the contemporary world, where we wish to stand in the future, and do so without losing sight of our past.By explored traditional concepts taught by Abyo, the class was able to recreate a tool that was necessary for protection, cultural preservation, and took an active role on shaping our history. It is for this opportunity that we sincerely thank The CIRI Foundation for their role in making this class a reality and appreciate their commitment to maintain cultural priorities.