News from the Division
St. Lawrence Island Yupik artist Elaine Kingeekuk awarded grant to visit State Museum
Museums Alaska recently announced seven recipients of a new Access to Alaska Native Collections (AANC) program offered in parnership with the CIRI Foundation.
St. Lawrence Island Yupik artist Elaine Kingeekuk has been awarded a grant to visit the Alaska State Museum for three days of collaboration with conservator Ellen Carrlee on gut conservation and care. Elaine will also spend time in collections storage. Elaine has been sewing dolls, baskets, clothing, boots, toys, and other small items since her childhood in Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island. She learned sewing and its cultural values from her mother (Ruthelle) and grandmother. Elaine has been working with scholars and museums for nearly 20 years. In addition to visiting the collections, Elaine is considering hosting a public program at the museum, and getting the word out about a teaching studio she would like to open in Savoonga. Elaine will also take time in Juneau to connect with old friends and the land through berry picking and other cultural activities.
Each month the Alaska State Library highlights federal publications recently added to their catalog. April’s highlights include reports on payday loans, military identity theft, your own customized nautical charts, tips for rebuilding after wildfire and more. See the blog post for details.
Are you looking for ways to help students prepare for finals or summer school? Do you know that your library has access to Live Homework Help with Tutor.com? This is comprehensive training on using & sharing your Live Homework Help online tutoring service. Learn how patrons can access the program, the different features available, and the recent additions and expansions.
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The Alaska State Museum’s FY24 Grant-in-Aid (GIA) program is accepting applications through June 1. Mini-Grants of up to $2000 are available for small museums with annual operating budgets less than $100K. Museums of any size may apply for a Regular Grant of up to $12,000 to fund a project. Museums may apply for just one grant.
Grant-in-Aid funds projects that will be completed by June 30, 2024.
Visit the Grant-in-Aid page to find grant guidelines and applications. Please contact Mary Irvine, Curator of Statewide Services, with any questions. She can be reached at mary.irvine@alaska.gov or 907-465-4811.
News from L.A.M.S in Alaska
Golga Oscar of Kasigluk and Tununak and Nicolette Corbett originally of Bethel are two of seven artists that have been named grantees for the Museums Alaska [...] Access to Alaska Native Collections (AANC) grant with $21,000 awarded to Alaska Native artists and museums across Alaska.
This year, Museums Alaska has begun managing a new grant program for The CIRI Foundation that provides travel funding to Alaska Native artists so they can visit Alaska Native collections in museums.
April 18, 2023. Delta Discovery.
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Sealaska Heritage Institute has begun raising poles for its Kootéeyaa Deiyí, or Totem Pole Trail.
When it’s finished, 30 poles will line Juneau’s waterfront. On Saturday, the first 12 poles will be dedicated by representatives of the clans and tribes depicted on them.
One of those poles, carved by Gyibaawm Laxha David Robert Boxley, represents the Tsimshian people. He watched on SHI’s Facebook stream as it was raised Sunday at Overstreet Park.
Yvonne Krumrey, April 17, 2023. KTOO.
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An advisory board endorsed librarians’ placement of a book on relationships and sexuality within the Ketchikan Public Library’s teen section on Wednesday.
The book, titled “Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human” by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan, faced a challenge from resident Tanya Hedlind. The library’s director, Pat Tully, said it was the first time a book had been challenged in at least a decade.
Eric Stone, April 13, 2023. KBRD.org.
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Following a nationwide trend toward banning books of a perceived offensive nature, books were removed from Mat-Su Valley schools last week. Those demanding book removals cite pornographic contents as the reasoning. The Mat-Su Library Committee drafted the secret list of books to be removed.
It is unclear how the initial list was developed and by what standards the books were evaluated for inclusion. The list includes The Bluest Eye, Forever, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Kite Runner, The Lovely Bones, Slaughterhouse Five, Water for Elephants and Wicked. Also included are books like Last Night at the Telegraph Club and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, with queer and homosexual characters...
It is unclear if more books will be added to the list over time and by what standards they will be evaluated. Any parent, librarian, or community member can apply to be on the book review committee. At this time, there are no indications of how member selections will be made or how many members will be on the final committee.
Jenny Willoughby, April 20, 2023. KTNA.org.
Museums Alaska and the Rasmuson Foundation are awarding grants to eight museums and cultural organizations across Alaska, including two in Kodiak.
Nearly $160,000 will be given out in total for a variety of collections through the Collections Management Fund. This includes almost $20,000 to the Alutiiq Museum as well as more than $14,000 to the Kodiak History Museum.
Caleb Oswell, April 19, 2023. Kodiak Daily Mirror.
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Other Announcements
Sam Schimmel, 23, is an Indigenous youth advocate who is Siberian Yupik and Kenaitze Indian.
Schimmel was the inaugural recipient Friday of the Autumn Apok Ridley Award, given by the Alaska Native Heritage Center (ANHC), in recognition of his love for Indigenous culture and ways of life, and the work he has done in sharing Native values.
He spent his childhood listening and learning from Elders. His undergraduate college years at Stanford University focused on Earth Systems and Public Policy. He is currently a law student at Georgetown University and plans to work for the Alaska Native Justice Center later this year.
Greg Knight, April 20, 2023. Alaska Public Media.
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So I think some of the things that could be next steps for us are, what’s the “now” and what’s the “later” conversation? For example, the “now” conversation would be, what if we developed a certificate program for students in high school who took an indigenous language and became a speaker of it? [What if] we tried to sort of make that a prestigious thing and not something that gets “othered” because it’s an indigenous thing? Then the next step from there would be to say, “What if actually to graduate high school, you had to take one year of an Alaska Native language, regardless of where you live?” and it becomes a mandatory thing. So we're looking at initiatives like that. So the short term is an incentive-based thing and the long term is a requirement. [Similarly], every teacher in Alaska has to recertify, and part of their recertification for their teacher licensure is to take courses that are in continuing education. There's a list of courses that count towards continuing education, and we want Alaska Native languages to be on that list.
Pranay Varada, April 10, 2023. Harvard International Review.
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There are many ways to prepare herring eggs in Sitka. Freshly spawned eggs on hemlock branches, dipped in hooligan (eulachon) or seal oil, is a classic method, as is lightly sauteed in a pan with sesame or olive oil and eaten straight up, or stirred into a green salad.
Another method is to blanch them in boiling water – and that’s done best when the tiny herring eggs thickly coat a blade of macrocystis kelp. And to really connect with Sitka’s subsistence tradition, you’ve got to boil the eggs in a bentwood box.
Sitka second graders recently watched the district’s cultural liaison Charlie Skultka heat up volcanic rocks in a fire, and then use them to boil water in the traditional way.
Kari Sagel, April 14, 2023. KCAW.org.
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