Off Season Fieldwork

Back in April Anna and Alice spent a week in Quinhagak, catching up with friends and colleagues (and of course getting some work done!). Anna ran a dance fan making workshop led by Elder Annie Don, while Alice began work on plans for a new tablet guide for the Nunalleq Museum together with Sean and Lynn.

Dance fan workshop (Anna)

The idea of holding a dance fan making class in Quinhagak had been brewing for several years. Dance fans or tegumiak are an important part of Yup’ik dance regalia. By extending dancers’ hand movements, dance fans help tell stories and illustrate the dance lyrics. Decorated with furs and feathers, several styles of Yup’ik dance fans exist. It was, therefore, decided to have two dance fan making classes: one teaching how to carve dance fans out of wood and another one on how to make them with coiled grass. Last summer, Alaska Native mask maker, Drew Michael led a class on wooden dance fans (check out the video!).

This time, Quinhagak-born Elder Annie Don taught how to weave grass dance fans. The grass that participants used during the class was collected on a local beach by the late Grace Anaver. The class was held in memory of Grace, who knew and shared much about traditional Yup’ik crafts.

A four-day class attracted a lot of interest and gathered 14 participants in total. The event was truly intergenerational: students’ ages ranged from 11 to 60+. It was incredible to see grandmothers making fans together and for their granddaughters. The timing was perfect too: the following week, Quinhagak school was going to perform at the dance festival in Tununak and some dance regalia was very much needed! 

None of the participants had made dance fans before and Annie did an amazing job teaching participants how to weave beach grass into flat round bases (meticulous and delicate work!) and how to cut and attach reindeer fur to the grass. The reindeer neck fur for this class traveled all the way from Nunivak (thanks, Warren!). The results of the class went beyond any expectations—just see yourself!

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie project nr. 101063760, Collab4Multi. The workshop was made possible also with funding by Rasmuson Foundation through the Youth Cultural Heritage Fund, and is administered by the Alaska State Council on the Arts.

Nunalleq Museum Tablet Guide (Alice)

Meanwhile, Alice began brainstorming the design and content for our new tablet museum guide which will support visitors and local teachers in navigating the many drawers of artefacts in the Nunalleq Museum. This was a chance for some of the core design team (Alice, Sean, Lonny and Dora) to sit down together in person for a few days and work through our ideas – and we have lots!

Alice also dropped by Kuinerrarmiut Elitnaurviat (the school) to talk about some of the resources we already have available (check out our Educational Resource from 2019 and our recently launched Digital Museum!) and to discuss how the new museum tablet guide can support classes coming in to visit the museum more regularly through lesson plans, etc.

Stay tuned as we continue to develop this exciting new project…

The digital museum guide project is funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).