AFN Elders to Bless Expanded museum

Submitted by Kerynn Fisher
Phone: 907-474-6950
10/18/05

The University of Alaska Museum of the North will hold a special reception to honor Alaska Native Elders on Tuesday, October 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. During the reception, six Alaska Native elders will offer a blessing of the newly-expanded museum. The reception is part of the First Alaskans Elder and Youth Conference in Fairbanks, which precedes the annual Alaska Federation of Natives Convention in Fairbanks.

"The University of Alaska Museum of the North is grateful to Alaska’s Native elders for the knowledge they have shared with us, and to Alaska’s Native communities for our ongoing partnerships," said Museum Director Aldona Jonaitis. "With the Alaska Federation of Natives annual convention being held in Fairbanks this year, this was the perfect opportunity for us to honor them."

Scheduled speakers include Athabascan Elder Hannah Solomon, UAF Chancellor Steve Jones, Alaska Federation of Natives President Julie Kitka, Jonaitis and First Alaskans Institute President & CEO Byron Mallott, who will introduce six elders from across Alaska for the blessing. Reverend David Salmon of Chalkyitsik and Fairbanks, Dr. Walter Soboloff of Juneau, Isabella Brady of Sitka, Jacab Ahwinona of Nome, Dana Kipanuk of Bethel and Iver Malutin of Kodiak will offer blessings of the expanded museum first in their native language and then in English.

The reception will also include performances by the Pavva Inupiaq Dancers and Nulato Singers. It is co-sponsored by the Fairbanks Convention & Visitors Bureau, First Alaskans Institute, Golden Heart Greeters, and Holland America Tours/Gray Line of Alaska and Princess Tours, who will provide bus transportation for elders from the Carlson Center to the museum for the reception, and then to the AFN convention hotels. Due to space limitations, the reception is open only to AFN elders and invited guests.

The museum celebrated the opening of its new wing on September 10, 2005. Its archaeology and ethnology collection hold artifacts representing 11,000 years of cultural traditions in the north, and its biological collections benefit from partnerships with the Alaska Native Harbor Seal Commission and specimen donations from subsistence hunters. The museum’s new art gallery, which is scheduled to open in spring 2006 and will present Native and non-Native art side-by-side as works of equal value, has been praised as "a model for 21st century art and anthropological museums."

The last time the Alaska Federation of Natives convention was held in Fairbanks, in 1988, the museum held a traditional totem pole raising, with elders and delegates from around the state celebrating the installation of the "Everyone’s Grandfather" totem pole, which stands near the museum’s west entrance.

Contact: Terry Dickey, Education Coordinator, University of Alaska Museum of the North, at 907.474.6950.

Note to editors: High-resolution photographs will be available after the event. For images, please contact Kerynn Fisher, Communications Coordinator, University of Alaska Museum of the North, at 907.474.6941, 907.378.2559 or email k.fisher@uaf.edu.