Celebrating Nunalleq Museum’s 5th Anniversary!

Nunalleq Museum is turning 5 years old this year! To mark the day we planned a ‘show and tell’ at the museum, followed by a potluck and performance by the Nunalleq dancers.

We spent the morning setting up for the ‘show and tell’ in the afternoon. Rick picked a range of artifacts to show from the 2023 excavation at Nunalleq. Wood masks, dolls, and other artifacts – many still in the process of conservation – were set up on one table, while antler and ivory harpoon pieces, stone labrets, and more lined another. Elders and community members were invited to look at and handle artifacts from Nunalleq, opening conversations about how they were made and what they were used for. Monica Shah, Janet Northey, and Stephanie Black (conservators from Anchorage Museum) offered insights into the conservation process – where water within the wood is replaced with polyethylene glycol (PEG) to ensure the artifacts do not fall apart. In the collection room, Rick talked with visitors about the artifacts excavated this summer and compared them to artifacts found in previous years. Community members offered their own thoughts and knowledge on what many of the artifacts were used for.

We also set up a science station, complete with magnifying lamps and a microscope. Kids who visited the museum were invited to make their own slides and look through the microscope at the cellular structure of wood from Nunalleq. Small sampling sticks topped with bits of sandpaper were gently rubbed against Nunalleq artifacts to mimic sampling for ZooMS – a method for determining what animal the artifacts were made from using mass spectrometry. Quinhagak has many young scientists in the making!

The day continued with a rich potluck: check out the menu in the video below!

Quyana to Alexis Jones, Lynn Church and other cooks and helpers who made it happen!

The Nunalleq Dancers played to a full house showing off their new fancy dance regalia: the kuspuks and dance fans that were made this summer during the classes with Catherine Beebe from Quinhagak and Drew Michael, a mask maker from Anchorage. The drums were made last year in a workshop with Baista (see previous posts on the blog). They performed four songs, including their famous Nunalleq song and ‘Quyana’, an invitational dance they learned from Chuna McIntyre 5 years ago. Lots of people joined in and danced with them. We had a blast!

PS: This pair of dance fans made from wood and trimmed with the neck fur of a Nunivak reindeer was made by Yup’ik artists Drew Michael and Jen Angaiak Wood. Drew and Jen have kindly donated them to the Nunalleq Museum for display and use by the Nunalleq Dancers.

Text and photos: Lindsey and Anna