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Alaska Native Cultural Heritage and Artistic Sovereignty in Museums
Museums throughout the world hold important collections of Alaska Native material culture. How can museums add Indigenous stories, perspectives and voices in exhibition and collection spaces? How can community members better access the material belongings that museums hold?
The Alaska Native Cultural Heritage and Artistic Sovereignty in Museums project seeks to develop opportunities for Indigenous creative intervention in museums while supporting material culture documentation through a curatorial fellowship program.
Are you interested in a learning how to be involved in this work?
Please contact The CIRI Foundation to find out how you can partner on this new initiative.
Images courtesy of the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center,
photographed by Wayde Carroll.
This survey was conducted in the fall of 2021 to gather feedback about how Alaska Native peoples use and think about cultural representation within museum spaces. This information was gathered as part of the Alaska Native Museum Sovereignty initiative. TCF appreciates everyone who took the time to complete this survey.
Funded Projects
Museum Training Programs for Native Americans/Alaska Natives
The CIRI Foundation has gathered a list of museum training programs for Native Americans/Alaska Natives interested in professional development opportunities in this field. We hope to continue growing this list of programs. If you know of other related programs for Indigenous learners, please let us know.
- Canadian Museum of History’s RBC Indigenous Internship Program
- Institute for American Indian Studies Internship Opportunities (Remote and Traditional)
- Minnesota Historical Society’s Native American Undergraduate Museum Fellowship
- Peabody Essex Museum’s Native American Fellowship Program
- School for Advanced Research’s Ann Ray Internship for Museum Studies
- Smithsonian Institute’s Museum Training Program
- Smithsonian Institute’s Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology
- University of California Berkeley’s Native American Museum Studies Institute: Professional Development Training for Tribal Museum Professionals
- University of Denver’s Ethical Stewardship of Native American Collections Postgraduate Curatorial Training Program
Indigenous Curatorial Fellowship
The CIRI Foundation is pleased to announce a partnership with the Anchorage Museum to support a Museum Sovereignty fellowship program in 2023. During this project, fellows will be invited to work with the curatorial and collections department. Fellows will gain hands on experience in museum work, while contributing new ways to add Indigenous perspectives to the museum field. The program will also seek to strengthen relationships between the Museum and Indigenous communities through sharing and collaboration.
Access to Alaska Native Collections
The CIRI Foundation is pleased to announce a partnership with Museums Alaska to support the Access to Alaska Native Collections project. This program responds to the needs of the Alaska Native artist community for access to Alaska Native collections in museums by supporting research visits to museum collections storage in Alaska.
Please contact Museums Alaska to find out more information about this project.
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Protocols for Working with Alaska Native Communities: A Guide for Museums
The protocols that guide how material culture is cared for within Alaska Native communities varies but are often based on principles of respect for Indigenous cultural knowledge and ways of being. The CIRI Foundation is working with an advisory circle made up Alaska Native scholars and community members to develop a guide to share best practices for museums to follow to respect Alaska Native cultural practices.
Does your community have protocols in place that museums should follow when caring for material culture? How can we encourage museums to be more accessible and welcoming to Indigenous people? What should museums be aware of when engaging in community outreach in Alaska? If you have ideas to share, please reach out to The CIRI Foundation and learn how you can be involved at tcf@thecirifoundation.org.
Museum Sovereignty Advisory Circle:
- Sven Haakanson Jr., Ph.D. (Sugpiaq), Professor of Anthropology and Curator of North American Anthropology, University of Washington
- Aaron Leggett (Dena’ina), President, Native Village of Eklutna, Senior Curator, Alaska History & Indigenous cultures, Anchorage Museum
- Tanya Lukin-Linklater (Alutiiq), Artist and Doctoral Candidate at Queens University
- Judith Dax̱ootsú Ramos (Tlingit, Kwaashk’í kwáan clan from Yakutat), Assistant Professor, University of Alaska Fairbanks
- Melissa Shaginoff (Ahtna & Paiute), Independent Artist & Curator
- Haliehana Alaĝum Ayagaa Stepetin (Unangax̂), Ph.D. Candidate in Native American Studies, UC Davis
- Erin Gingrich (Koyukon Athabascan and Iñupiaq), Artist
- Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Koyukon Athabascan and Iñupiaq), Artist
- Nadia Sethi (Alutiiq), PhD, Art Historian and Journey to What Matters Program Director, The CIRI Foundation
A Journey to What Matters Program Director Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi shares what the Alaska Native Museum Sovereignty initiative means in this article for the Arctic Arts Summit.