Friday Focus: Celebrating Indigenous excellence

Oct. 13, 2023

— By Jessica Black, associate vice chancellor for rural, community and Native education

This past Monday, Oct. 9, we celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day. A host of events occurred here on Troth Yeddha’ campus as well as across our rural campuses. On Troth Yeddha’ campus there was a frybread taco fundraiser put on by the Festival of Native Arts club and events in the Wood Center to include the Iñu-Yupiaq Dance group, fish skin sewing, and Native games demonstrations. UAF leadership were present and offered welcoming remarks including Chancellor Daniel White, Provost Anupma Prakash, and Vice Chancellor for Rural, Community and Native Education Charlene Stern. 

At the Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel there were several events hosted throughout the day including hands-on akutaq making, beading, and mask making and a Native foods potluck. At the Northwest Campus in Nome and at the Bristol Bay Campus in Dillingham, Native films were showcased. 

The energy and excitement of celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day were tangible, as folks participated in the various events across campuses and were dressed in their regalia and Native “bling.” Commemorating this day allows us Indigenous peoples to celebrate and share with others who we are, including our rich histories and the contemporary lives we live. We are still here! As Indigenous peoples, living and loving our cultures, reawakening and speaking our languages, and sharing our many gifts in the spaces we occupy is a beautiful thing to experience and witness and I am here for it. 

As associate vice chancellor of rural, community and Native education, I get to work on and applaud Indigenous excellence each and every day. From the Alaska Native Success Initiative, a dedicated and strategic focus on Alaska Native student success, to the fundraising and building out of the Indigenous Studies Center on Troth Yeddha’ campus, it has been a busy and rewarding time to be part of a collective movement working toward equity and inclusion of Alaska Native peoples in higher education. It is not lost on me that on Troth Yeddha’ campus we are on Lower Tanana Dene lands and this site specifically has historically and still today been a place for the Alaska Native peoples to gather and share knowledge with each other. How remarkable is it that we are carrying on this legacy of knowledge sharing and learning through the many events, classes, and research we conduct here at UAF? 

We have also made a concerted effort here on Troth Yeddha’ campus to work alongside Alaska Native communities to engage in teaching and research in a more respectful and equitable way. I am proud to work at UAF. In closing, I invite each of you to become part of this collective movement toward integration of different ways of learning and knowing. Step outside your comfort zones and be curious. You will only benefit from these experiences and meet cool people along the way. Isn’t that what college is all about?

Friday Focus is a column written by a different member of UAF's leadership team every week. On occasion, a guest writer is invited to contribute a column.