<p>Join Moderator Heather Igloliorte and speakers Christine Tootoo and Allison Akootchook Warden for a conversation about the question “How do we establish our identities as Inuit artists today in a time of cultural vitalization and healing?" Heather Campbell from the Inuit Art Foundation introduces the event.<br></p> <p>The video series "Conversations" brings you into discussions with Indigenous peoples, providing information and insights on important subjects and issues, along with ideas and examples that can help prepare you for making choices about how to act with regard to Indigenous peoples and their heritage.</p> <p>Our Inuit advisors for the project are:</p> <ul><li>Kacey Purruq Qunmiġu Hopson, Indigenous Knowledge Advocate, First Alaskans Institute</li><li>Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Artist</li><li>Taqralik Partridge, Director, Nordic Lab at SAW</li><li>Krista Ulujuk Zawadski, PhD Candidate, Carleton University</li></ul> <p>This event was made possible through generous support of the Inuit Art Foundation, supporters of the Arctic Studies Center in Alaska and the Recovering Voices Program at the National Museum of Natural History. (#arcticstudies)</p> <p>Contributor: <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/78098">Dawn Biddison</a></p> <p>Source: <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/search?f%5B%5D%5Btypes%5D=resource&st=Smithsonian%20Arctic%20Studies%20Center%20Alaska">Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska</a></p>

<p>Join Moderator Alice Qannik Glenn and speakers Jenny Irene Miller and Ossie Michelin for a conversation on the subject of Queer Inuit Art, providing perspectives from Inuit artists working in a variety of media. Alyson Hardwick from the Inuit Art Foundation introduces the event. <br></p> <p>The video series "Conversations" brings you into discussions with Indigenous peoples, providing information and insights on important subjects and issues, along with ideas and examples that can help prepare you for making choices about how to act with regard to Indigenous peoples and their heritage.</p> <p>Our Inuit advisors for the project are:</p> <ul><li>Kacey Purruq Qunmiġu Hopson, Indigenous Knowledge Advocate, First Alaskans Institute</li><li>Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Artist</li><li>Taqralik Partridge, Director, Nordic Lab at SAW</li><li>Krista Ulujuk Zawadski, PhD Candidate, Carleton University</li></ul> <p>This event was made possible through generous support of the Inuit Art Foundation and supporters of the Arctic Studies Center in Alaska. (#arcticstudies)</p> <p>Contributor: <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/78098">Dawn Biddison</a></p> <p>Source: <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/search?f%5B%5D%5Btypes%5D=resource&st=Smithsonian%20Arctic%20Studies%20Center%20Alaska">Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska</a></p>

<p>Join featured speaker Melissa Shaginoff (Ahtna Athabascan and Paiute) to learn about a public action called land acknowledgement, which helps you recognize the Indigenous peoples whose traditional lands we stand upon. Speaking the words of a land acknowledgement creates a space of honoring, respecting and making visible the generations of Indigenous peoples that came before you. It is an expression of respect appropriate for gatherings at schools, organizations, institutions, businesses, conferences and communities, both where you live and where you travel to.<br></p> <p>The video series "Conversations" brings you into discussions with Indigenous peoples, providing information and insights on important subjects and issues, along with ideas and examples that can help prepare you for making choices about how to act with regard to Indigenous peoples and their heritage. (#arcticstudies)<br></p> <p>Contributor: <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/78098">Dawn Biddison</a></p> <p>Source: <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/search?f%5B%5D%5Btypes%5D=resource&st=Smithsonian%20Arctic%20Studies%20Center%20Alaska">Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska</a></p>

<p>Red cedar bark twined basketry is a distinctive Tsimshian art form. With the passing on of elder master artists and the demands of contemporary lifestyles, it became at risk. A handful of weavers today are working to master and revitalize twined cedarbark basketry, reconnecting with a proud heritage. In 2016, the Arctic Studies Center collaborated with The Haayk Foundation of Metlakatla to document the materials and techniques of cedarbark basketry. The project included a harvesting and processing workshop and a weaving workshop in Metlakatla, and a residency at the Arctic Studies Center in Anchorage where artists studied baskets from museum and private collections, practiced and refined weaving techniques, and taught museum visitors and school children about basketry.</p> <p>Teaching was led by Haida master weaver Delores Churchill, who learned from master Tsimshian weaver Flora Mather, with assistance from her daughter Holly Churchill, an accomplished weaver. In addition to Metlakatla students, three advanced Tsimshian weavers participated in the project, sharing techniques learned in their families and communities and learning new ones: Kandi McGilton (co-founder of The Haayk Foundation), Karla Booth (granddaughter of Tsimshian master weaver Violet Booth) and Annette Topham (niece of master Tsimshian weaver Lillian Buchert). Metlakatla elder Sarah Booth, a fluent speaker of Sm’algyax (Ts’msyen), assisted Kandi McGilton in documenting indigenous basketry terminology for use in language classes.</p> <p>The bilingual guide below was written and compiled by Kandi McGilton, in collaboration with Sarah Booth and with assistance from David R. Boxley and Theresa Lowther. The guide pairs with a bilingual guide included here. The videos provide an introduction to the artists and to Tsimshian twined cedarbark baskets, and they provide instruction on how to harvest and process materials and on how to weave a basket from start to finish. A twined cedarbark basket from the Smithsonian collections is also included below.</p> <p>This project was made possible through the generous support of The CIRI Foundation, First National Bank of Alaska, Anchorage Museum, Alaska State Council on the Arts & National Endowment for the Arts, Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, Sealaska Heritage Institute, and the generous supporters of the Arctic Studies Center in Alaska.<br></p> <p>NOTE: The knowledge that Alaska Natives (Indigenous peoples of Alaska) have shared on this site is their cultural heritage, and they have cultural property rights for this knowledge. Please utilize what you learn from Alaska Natives with respect to their rights, which includes not using what you learn for personal gain such as selling artwork derived from this knowledge. To learn more about how to appreciate Alaska Native cultures respectfully, please go to the collection <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/Ha7AjCcnSBrgNbJt#r/44789">https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/Ha7AjCcnSBrgNbJt#r/44789</a><br>on this site where you will find a video and additional resources to learn more.</p> <p>Contributor: <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/78098">Dawn Biddison</a></p> <p><strong>Tags: </strong>Alaska, Native art, museum, education, Indigenous, Tsimshian, cedar, bark, Metlakatla, weaving, basket, David Boxley, Kandi McGilton, Delores Churchill, Karla Booth, Annette Topham, Holly Churchill, Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska (#arcticstudies)</p>

<p>The art of sewing sea mammal intestine – also called gut – is an ancient and practical one used to create water-repellant clothing and bags, as well as ceremonial garments. During a week-long residency organized by the Arctic Studies Center at the Anchorage Museum in 2014, Alaska Native artists Mary Tunuchuk (Yup’ik), Elaine Kingeekuk (St. Lawrence Island Yupik) and Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Iñupiaq-Athabascan) studied historic gutskin objects and demonstrated how to process and sew gut to students, museum conservators and visitors. A two-day community workshop in Bethel followed, taught by Mary Tunuchuk and hosted by the Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center with assistance from Director Eva Malvich.</p> <p>The video set presented here introduces the artists, examine historic objects made with gut from the Smithsonian collections, and offers detailed explanations and demonstrations. Learn how to process and sew sea mammal intestine (and hog gut as an alternative material for non-Alaska Natives); prepare grass and tapered thread for sewing; and complete a gut basket or gut window project. Links to a selection of Iñupiaq, St. Lawrence Island Yupik and Yup’ik objects from the Smithsonian collections made from gut are included below.</p> <p>This project was made possible through the generous support of The CIRI Foundation, Surdna Foundation, Anchorage Museum, Alaska State Council on the Arts & National Endowment for the Arts, and the generous supporters of the Arctic Studies Center in Alaska.<br></p> <p>NOTE: The knowledge that Alaska Natives (Indigenous peoples of Alaska) have shared on this site is their cultural heritage, and they have cultural property rights for this knowledge. Please utilize what you learn from Alaska Natives with respect to their rights, which includes not using what you learn for personal gain such as selling artwork derived from this knowledge. To learn more about how to appreciate Alaska Native cultures respectfully, please go to the collection <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/Ha7AjCcnSBrgNbJt#r/44789">https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/Ha7AjCcnSBrgNbJt#r/44789</a><br>on this site where you will find a video and additional resources to learn more.</p> <p>Contributor: <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/78098">Dawn Biddison</a></p> <p><strong>Tags: </strong>Alaska, Native art, museum, education, Indigenous, sew, gut, intestine, sea mammal, walrus, seal, St. Lawrence Island Yupik, Inupiaq, Iñupiaq, Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska (#arcticstudies)</p>

<p>Walrus ivory is a precious sculptural material that for millennia has been carved into a nearly endless variety of forms essential to Arctic life, from harpoon heads to needle cases, handles, ornaments, buckles and many more. Naturalistic and stylized figures of animals and humans were made as charms, amulets and ancestral representations. Carvers today bring this conceptual heritage to new types of work.</p> <p>During a week-long residency organized by the Arctic Studies Center at the Anchorage Museum in 2015, Alaska Native carvers Jerome Saclamana (Iñupiaq), Clifford Apatiki (St. Lawrence Island Yupik) and Levi Tetpon (Iñupiaq) studied historic walrus ivory pieces from the Smithsonian’s Living Our Cultures exhibition -- some are included in this collection -- and demonstrated how to process, design and shape walrus ivory into artwork. Art students, museum conservators, school groups, local artists and museum visitors participated throughout the week. Also, a two-day community workshop in Nome was taught by Jerome Saclamana and hosted by the Nome-Beltz High School. The video set presented here introduces the artists and document the materials, tools and techniques they use to make walrus-ivory artwork. </p> <p>This project was made possible through the generous support of The CIRI Foundation, Surdna Foundation, Anchorage Museum, Alaska State Council on the Arts & National Endowment for the Arts, and the generous supporters of the Arctic Studies Center in Alaska.</p> <p>NOTE: The knowledge that Alaska Natives (Indigenous peoples of Alaska) have shared on this site is their cultural heritage, and they have cultural property rights for this knowledge. Please utilize what you learn from Alaska Natives with respect to their rights, which includes not using what you learn for personal gain such as selling artwork derived from this knowledge. To learn more about how to appreciate Alaska Native cultures respectfully, please go to the collection <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/Ha7AjCcnSBrgNbJt#r/44789">https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/Ha7AjCcnSBrgNbJt#r/44789</a><br>on this site where you will find a video and additional resources to learn more.</p> <p>Contributor: <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/78098">Dawn Biddison</a> </p> <p><strong>Tags: </strong>Iñupiaq, Inupiaq, Eskimo, ivory, walrus, carving, carver, carve, Native art, museum, education, St. Lawrence Island Yupik, Yupik, Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska (#arcticstudies)</p>

<p>The Alaska Office of the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center hosted a seminar with the Dena’ina Language Institute in 2010 at the Anchorage Museum. Elders Helen Dick and Gladys Evanoff shared their knowledge about Dena'ina heritage objects in the Smithsonian collections, using the objects as tools to teach the Dena'ina Athabascan language. They worked with language learners Karen Evanoff, Aaron Leggett and Michelle Ravenmoon and with linguists James Kari and D. Roy Mitchell to script and record new language learning videos, including the three videos presented here. Links to the museum objects discussed are included below. </p> <p>NOTE: The knowledge that Alaska Natives (Indigenous peoples of Alaska) have shared on this site is their cultural heritage, and they have cultural property rights for this knowledge. Please utilize what you learn from Alaska Natives with respect to their rights, which includes not using what you learn for personal gain such as selling artwork derived from this knowledge. To learn more about how to appreciate Alaska Native cultures respectfully, please go to the collection <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/Ha7AjCcnSBrgNbJt#r/44789">https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/Ha7AjCcnSBrgNbJt#r/44789</a><br>on this site where you will find a video and additional resources to learn more.</p> <p>Contributor: <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/78098">Dawn Biddison</a></p> <p><strong>Tags: </strong>Dena'ina, Athabascan, Indigenous, language, Alaska Native, dog pack, fire bag, snowshoes, Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska (#arcticstudies)<br></p>

<p>By Eliza Jones (Koyukon Athabascan), 2009 <br></p> <p><strong>Sea, Land, Rivers</strong></p> <p>When I was growing up in the 1940s and ’50s, our family moved in every season – to spring camp for ducks and muskrats, to fish camp in summer, and to hunting and fur-trapping sites during fall and winter. That kind of traveling life was once universal in Athabascan country, from the Arctic Circle to Cook Inlet in Alaska and across the western interior of Canada. It’s a vast territory, hundreds of thousands of square miles covered by boreal spruce and birch forest. The rivers that cross it were highways for dog sledding in winter and canoe voyages in summer. Today the rivers, along with air and snow machine travel, still link our scattered communities, but roads reach only a few.</p> <p>Athabascan peoples are an ancient family that spread out across the land and gradually grew apart. Koyukon, Gwich’in, Han, Holikachuk, Deg Hit’an, Upper Kuskokwim, Tanana, Tanacross, Upper Tanana, Dena’ina, and Ahtna communities occupy different areas of interior and southern coastal Alaska. Their languages share the same complex grammar yet have developed different vocabularies. The people have varying subsistence practices, customs, ceremonies, and clan structures. The Eyak, who live on the southern Alaskan coast around the mouth of the Copper River, are more distant relatives.</p> <p>In Athabascan belief, everything around us has life. The land and trees have spirits, and we treat them with respect. If we need to cut a tamarack, which has the best wood for making fish traps, it is Koyukon courtesy to explain our need to the tree and to leave an offering of a bead or ribbon behind. Animals and fish are given the same kind of care. Before bringing a mink carcass into our cabin, my mother or stepfather would rub its nose with grease so that its spirit would not be offended by the human scent inside. If they trapped a fox, they put a bone in its mouth, because the animal was seeking food when it met its death.</p> <p><strong>Community and Family</strong></p> <p>Western cultural influence came to Athabascan country in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when Russian fur traders set up forts in southern Alaska and the Hudson’s Bay Company built a post at Fort Yukon. Later in the century, the U.S. government and the Alaska Commercial Company took over from the Russians. The gold rushes of the 1880s and 1890s brought a flood of miners, settlers, and traders into the region. Our communities became less nomadic, more tied to trapping and a cash economy, and increasingly dependent on clothing, guns, food, and tools from the company stores. Through the efforts of missionaries most Athabascans adopted Christianity by the early 1900s. The twentieth century brought new technologies, mass media and Western schools where the teaching was in English only. </p> <p>One of the biggest changes in my lifetime has been in the way that our children learn. I grew up in an oral tradition in which all our teachers were family and kin. Story telling time, as we called it, began in October after freeze-up. We would be home in our small cabin, chores finished for the day, our mother sewing by the light of an oil lamp. My stepfather would tell a <em>kk’edon ts’ednee</em>, a story in our language about ancient times when animals were human beings. It would include a lot of repetition to make it easier to learn and remember and a lesson about living in harmony with nature and people. Before he continued the next night, we had to repeat the story back to him, line by line. At other times we listened while adults talked and reminisced but were not allowed to interrupt. If we had a question we asked our grandmother or someone else about it later.</p> <p>I was taught to read and write in English by my mother, Josie Peter Olin, who was educated as a child at the Allakaket Episcopal mission school. I was fourteen when the first one-room government school was built in our village, and I attended it for three years to finish the work of all twelve grades. I moved to Koyukuk to marry Benedict Jones, and there we raised our children. I worked as a volunteer health aide, and he was village Chief. In 1970 we moved to Fairbanks, where I worked at the Alaska Native Language Center editing a Koyukon Athabascan dictionary compiled by Jules Jetté, a Jesuit priest who came to the region in 1898 and learned to speak our language fluently. That dictionary turned into my life’s work. It contains detailed information about Koyukon culture as well as language, including knowledge that no longer exists in our communities. After we retired and came back to Koyukuk, I taught Koyukon in the school, hoping that a new generation would know and continue our culture despite the huge changes and challenges that affect their young lives.</p> <p><strong>Ceremony and Celebration</strong> </p> <p>Our midwinter celebrations take place between Christmas and New Year’s. There are church gatherings, children’s programs, snowshoe races, dogsled races and dances. On New Year’s Day we finish with a celebratory potlatch. People save and prepare special foods and make new clothing and beaded moccasins to wear for the dances. Spring Carnival takes place in early April at the end of beaver trapping season. We do a lot of traveling to other villages to share in their celebrations. It’s a wonderful and exciting time, with high-stakes dogsled races, snowshoe competitions, ice-picking contests, Athabascan fiddling and dancing every night.</p> <p>Today, Athabascan communities hold potlatches on various occasions. Some are informal festivities to celebrate holidays, and others are formal and spiritual occasions to recognize turning points in the lives of community members. Potlatches can mark a first successful hunt, a homecoming, recovery from an illness or settlement of a grievance.</p> <p>The most important and universal events are memorial potlatches held a year or more after a death to honor the memory of the deceased and to repay those who assisted the family during their time of grief. These are the helpers who built the casket, dug the grave, provided food for the vigil or sewed traditional clothing to dress the body. To prepare for a memorial potlatch, the hosts make, buy and gather large quantities of gifts and food. Often several families join together to share the financial burden. Hosts are not trying to show off their wealth. It is our way of thanking those who generously gave service. The protocols, songs, and dances for memorial potlatches vary among the different Athabascan peoples, yet the fundamental idea of the whole community marking the passage of a human soul to the world beyond is the same for all.</p> <p>In Koyukuk, a memorial potlatch takes place over a three-day period. Residents and guests from other villages arrive with food for a gathering in the community hall. Friends and relatives sing songs they have composed for the deceased to commemorate his or her unique accomplishments, personality and service to others, and with the songs there is dancing. It is an emotional and difficult time for the family. To lift their spirits everyone joins afterward in singing old familiar songs and dancing to fiddle music or rock and roll. On the last day all of the guests sit down for a feast of special foods, including dishes that the deceased person most enjoyed. After the meal the hosts distribute gifts to everyone in attendance, with the finest presents reserved for the funeral helpers and composers of memorial songs.</p> <p>Note: This is shortened version of a longer essay from the Smithsonian book <em>Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage: The First Peoples of Alaska</em>.</p> <hr> <p>Tags: Athabascan, Alaska Native, Indigenous, Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska (#arcticstudies)</p> <p></p>

<p>The Chickaloonies project provides engaging and creative educational resources to help empower Indigenous youth in Alaska and beyond. Our work focuses on the comic art form as a creative way to learn about, express and perpetuate Indigenous heritage and Indigenous ways of learning: honoring Elders and knowledge-keepers and seeking to learn from them; experiencing the impact of storytelling and traditional values; learning multi-faceted information from heritage pieces in museum collections; and creating contemporary arts inspired by historic arts. Resources include an edited webinar video about the artists and project, an instructional comic art workbook and video introduction, a classroom poster, and photos with information – including knowledge shared by Elders – about  Athabascan heritage in the Smithsonian collections. <br></p> <p><strong>Project team: Artist </strong>Dimi Macheras (Ahtna Athabascan), 80% Studios; artist Casey Silver (non-Native), 80% Studios; cultural heritage collaborator Melissa Shaginoff (Ahtna Athabascan, Paiute); and project manager Dawn Biddison (non-Native), Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center, Alaska office</p> <p>To contact the project manager, please send an email to Dawn at biddisond@si.edu. Contact 80% Studios at 80percentstudios@gmail.com and visit their website at <a href="https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/KesTCVOyNlT42N0iGt4bL">www.eightypercentstudios.com</a>. </p> <p>This project was made possible through generous support by The CIRI Foundation's Education Heritage Grant program, the Recovering Voices program of Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History, the Alaska State Council on the Arts, and supporters of the Arctic Studies Center in Alaska. (#arcticstudies)</p> <p>NOTE: The knowledge that Alaska Natives (Indigenous peoples of Alaska) have shared on this site is their cultural heritage, and they have cultural property rights for this knowledge. Please utilize what you learn from Alaska Natives with respect to their rights, which includes not using what you learn for personal gain such as selling artwork derived from this knowledge. To learn more about how to appreciate Alaska Native cultures respectfully, please go to the collection <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/Ha7AjCcnSBrgNbJt#r/44789">https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/Ha7AjCcnSBrgNbJt#r/44789</a><br>on this site where you will find a video and additional resources to learn more.</p> <p>Contributor: <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/78098">Dawn Biddison</a></p>

<p>The Alaska Office of the Smithsonian’s Arctic Studies Center hosted an Iñupiaq language and culture seminar in January 2011, bringing together eight fluent speakers: Sylvester Ayek, Bernadette Alvanna-Stimpfle, Alvira Downey, Herbert Foster Sr., Willie Goodwin Jr., Jana Harcharek, Faye Ongtowasruk and Rachel Riley. They met for four days to discuss Iñupiaq cultural belongings (usually called objects by museums) in the Smithsonian exhibition Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage: The First Peoples of Alaska at the Anchorage Museum. </p> <p>During the seminar, the Iñupiaq language was documented, including three different dialects, and language and culture teaching materials were written for use in schools and homes throughout Alaska and beyond. Six objects from the Smithsonian collections – with detailed entries below – are featured in the guide and lessons presented here. These resources pair with <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/iupiaq-language-and-culture-videos/6DMoTfdLBJBWmfDT" target="_blank">six video lessons</a> that offer teachers, students, parents and lifelong learners access to Iñupiaq language and lifeways. <strong><br></strong></p> <p>Contributor: <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/78098">Dawn Biddison</a></p> <hr> <p><strong>Tags: </strong>Alaska, Native art, museum, education, language, Indigenous, Iñupiaq, Inupiaq, Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska, distance learning, culturally responsive, culturally-responsive (#arcticstudies)<br></p>

<p>Potlatches are Athabascan ceremonies marking significant events in life. They are a time when cultural values are practiced, including honor, respect, gratitude, responsibility, gifting and reciprocity. This lab provides materials for students to learn about Potlatches, and generally about the Athabascan peoples of Alaska. Photographs with in-depth captions provide information about Athabascans in the past and today. Short essays and museum items featuring Elders’ discussions allow students to learn directly from community members. Questions and writing projects in the education unit help students understand and apply what they have read, and find shared cultural values in their own lives. To learn about moosehide tanning and sewing from Athabascan experts, visit this Learning Lab entry: <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/5cU6LBY0YnYrcsso">https://learninglab.si.edu/q/l...</a><br></p> <p>Contributor: <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/78098">Dawn Biddison</a></p> <hr> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> Alaska, Alaska Native, Indigenous, Athabascan, Dene, Potlatch, ceremony, ceremonies, tradition, gifting, museum object, artifact, heirloom, Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska, distance learning, culturally responsive, culturally-responsive (#arcticstudies)</p>

<p>In 2022-2023, Ahtna community members Kiana Carlson, Agnes Denny, Jessica Denny, Dimi Macheras and Melissa Shaginoff collaborated on collections research and documentation with Ahtna cultural belongings currently living in Smithsonian collections. They were assisted by staff from the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), led by Head of Conservation Kelly McHugh, and Dawn Biddison from the Alaska office of the Arctic Studies Center (ASC-AK), part of the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). To begin, they researched collections online to find Ahtna cultural belongings currently located nationally and internationally. Next, they worked in-person with collections at NMAI and NMNH in Suitland, MD, and at the Anchorage Museum. </p> <p>Throughout the project, the Ahtna group documented resources for their communities, made recommendations to museum staff regarding cultural awareness and protocols, and built relationships with each other, which in turn established relationships with museum staff. Across time together, the group developed community outcomes that included making and gifting a calendar, which they based on museum resources, conversations with Ahtna community members, and reflections on Ahtna cultural belongings. They co-created a website on Smithsonian’s Learning Lab (see QR code and URL below) to share project resources and retained a project archive to keep in their communities for future Ahtna-led work.</p> <p>The spirit of this project is about finding ways to bring personal experiences with museum collections into community, reuniting cultural belongings with their descendants. We believe that our cultural belongings have teachings for us, and creating access for our communities is the purpose of this project and should be the purpose of all museum collections. Regaining relationships with cultural belongings happens through both personal and physical connections: this requires visits from and ultimately returning them to their communities.</p> <p>As a descendant of Ahtna peoples, you have the right to access your cultural belongings at museums, and we encourage you to be a part of this homecoming. Search collections online. Visit museums with Ahtna cultural belongings. Connect with community members. Reach out to us for help. The doors are open.</p> <p><em>This project was made possible through the generous support of the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, the National Museum of the American Indian and the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center. </em></p>