Today, our first real, awake day in Anchorage, we all got up very early and went out to breakfast at the Snow City Cafe. After that, we headed over to the Alaska Native Heritage Center to learn about the traditional and contemporary ways of Alaska Native cultures.
Website: alaskanative.net. Check it out! We learned about the Athbascan, Yup'ik and Cup'ik, Inupiaq (the culture most present in Barrow), Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian and more. I chatted for a long time with an artist named Doug who engraves clan crests. (see below) He explained to me that one is born into the clan of their mother's heritage (matrilineal) and a clan is a large extended family which connects communities. Doug is Tsimshain and Haida and is of the Killer Whale Clan. You can see a print of his Killer Whale Clan 2-D Totem below. Or check out his website for more info on his art at www.douglasyates.org
Here is a picture of a group of 15-23 year olds performing a native dance:
That's it for now, but stay tuned in and write us your comments, questions, feedback, etc! That means you, div 1 students- hopefully you will be learning these dances and art next year! Now I am off to bike on the coastal trail until 10 pm, when the sun will be getting lower in the sky.
~Amanda : )
I really like the 2-dimensional totem! How about an A/E on that next year?!
ReplyDelete--Huge Fan, Gretchen