GRANT IN AID TO FUND NATIVE COLLECTION & GALLERY REVIVAL

GRANT IN AID TO FUND NATIVE COLLECTION & GALLERY REVIVAL

Thanks to a generous grant from the State Museum of Alaska Grant-in-Aid fund and additional funds from the Museum’s Phyllis Irish Memorial Fund, we are collaborating with the Valdez Native Tribe and Chugachmiut, Inc. to contract with Alaska Native knowledge keepers and elders in and around Prince William Sound who may be able to identify and provide context for Alaska Native objects in VMHA’s collection.

We are reimagining the current Native Gallery, which opened in 2007. As in 2007, the ideas and input from Alaska Natives and our Native Gallery Committee are crucial in shaping the gallery’s future. We expect these conversations to differ in 2024 as NAGPRA has been updated, spiritual policies are added to collection management policies, and Alaska Natives agency over their history is recognized. Conversations about the Native Gallery focus on rehousing a specific set of objects related to the honorary Chief of the Eyak, Chief Marie Smith Jones (1918-2008).

However, we are not going to immediately purchase traditional museum cases. These cases are designed to showcase objects rather than integrate them into historical or cultural contexts. As part of our GIA funding, we will prototype a new type of museum case, one that protects the object’s physical and spiritual needs and interprets the Alaska Native historical and cultural experience.

Valdez’s first museum was established in 1901 by prospector Joseph Bourke, who put together a small exhibit of curios, mostly of Alaska Native origin. Over a century later, most of our current Alaska Native collection is from Bourke’s era. While these objects have names and there are educated guesses related to function, my work in early 20th-century European clothing leaves me in the dark as to providing context for Ahtna bow design or Sugpiaq net.

To revive the Alaskan Native Collection and Gallery, the museum has begun identifying material culture, giving objects their actual names, functions, symbolism, and stories, and, if needed, repatriation.

While this work ramps up, we hosted Amanda Lancaster and Pam Foreman from the Alutiiq Museum (Kodiak, AK), who photographed our Alaska Native cultural objects for their Amutat database. The Alutiiq Museum’s Amutat database helps people worldwide connect to Alutiiq cultural treasures and creates a central place to view Alutiiq objects. Amanda and Pam identified a previous “unidentified” object as an Alutiiq harpoon. An object that has remained unknown since at least 1976 now has a name!

If you are interested in assisting with identifying Alaska Native objects or have questions about this project, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the museum at curator@valdezmuseum.org or 907-835-8905.