Conversations: Learning Across Generations and Back

Miqqusaaq Bernadette Dean grew up in Coral Harbour on Southampton Island in northern Hudson’s Bay, where the spring and summer seasons were spent on the land hunting, fishing and harvesting. Since then she has lived in different communities in Nunavut and has worked very closely with Elders and youth on cultural program development, culture camps for Inuit youth and women, and Inuktitut language preservation projects that resulted in record albums with traditional Inuit and contemporary songs, stories and legends. She has been a cultural advisor for museum exhibitions and documentary films about Inuit and Arctic history. She produced and co-directed Inuit Piqutingit (What belongs to Inuit) with Inuk filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk: http://www.isuma.tv/isuma-productions/inuit-piqutingit.

(Adapted from: https://www.eagle-eye.com/B-Dean)

Photo: Courtesy of Miqqusaaq Bernadette Dean © Miqqusaaq Bernadette Dean

Source: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska

Contributor: Dawn Biddison

Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi (Alutiiq) is an art historian, museums consultant and arts administrator based in Homer, Alaska. She completed her PhD at the University of Washington and focuses her research on Alaska Native arts revitalization and Indigenous aesthetics. Nadia currently works at The CIRI Foundation, where she oversees a grant program dedicated to supporting customary Alaska Native arts practices.

Photo: Courtesy of Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi ©Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi

Source: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska

Contributor: Dawn Biddison

With roots in Emmonak, Alaska, Keneggnarkayaaggaq Emily Edenshaw (Yup’ik/Iñupiaq) is the President and CEO of the Alaska Native Heritage Center (ANHC), a renowned, statewide living cultural center located in Anchorage, Alaska. For the last several years, Emily has led cultural tourism efforts across our state with the end goal of advancing the entire Alaska Native community.

In 2020, Emily was named Vice President of the Alaska Travel Industry Association (ATIA) Arts, Cultural and Heritage Statewide Chapter Board, elected to the ATIA Board of Directors, elected to the Alaska Humanities Forum Board of Directors, and appointed to the Anchorage Public Safety Commission. In 2021, Emily was appointed to the National Coalition to End Urban Indigenous Homelessness, Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, and Native Americans in Philanthropy.

Outside of work and public service, Emily is a fourth-year Ph.D. Indigenous Studies student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, researching Alaska Native Boarding School experiences and healing strategies related to these experiences. Keneggnarkayaaggaq also holds an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) degree in Strategic Leadership from Alaska Pacific University and a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Public Communications from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Since graduating with her EMBA,

Emily has worked for both public and private sectors the Central Council Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, First Alaskans Institute, VICE Media, The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, and Southcentral Foundation. Her Yup’ik name Keneggnarkayaaggaq means a person with a beautiful persona, spirit, aura, and friend. Emily and her husband Devin have four sons, one daughter, and a Bullmastiff puppy named Tuna.

Photo: Courtesy of Keneggnarkayaaggaq Emily Edenshaw © Keneggnarkayaaggaq Emily Edenshaw

Source: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska

Contributor: Dawn Biddison

Krista Ulujuk Zawadski (Inuk/Inuit) is from Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. Zawadski holds a Master’s Degree in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia, and has focused her education and career on Arctic anthropology and archaeology, museology and collections-based research, with an emphasis on fostering accessibility to collections for Inuit. Zawadski has co-curated with three other Inuit the inaugural exhibition, INUA, at Qaumajuq-WAG in Winnipeg, MB. An exhibition of Inuit art from over 90 Inuit artists, INUA opened at Qaumajuq-WAG in 2021. As part of a graduate course, Zawadski also co-curated the exhibition Echoing the Land at the Indigenous Art Centre at CIRNAC in Gatineau, QC. Echoing the Land spoke to the connection Indigenous artists have with land, interpreting knowledge from the land and projecting it into art. Zawadski has authored articles in Inuit Art Quarterly and Museum Anthropology. Zawadski is currently a PhD candidate at Carleton University.

Photo: Courtesy of Krista Ulujuk Zawadski © Krista Ulujuk Zawadski

Source: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska

Contributor: Dawn Biddison

Marjorie Kunaq Tahbone is from Nome, Alaska. She is Iñupiaq and Kiowa. She currently lives in Fairbanks Alaska with her partner and three-year-old daughter. She is a business owner, artist, teacher, traditional tattooist and hide tanner. Kunaq works hard to encourage positive change within our communities and promotes healthy cultural identity. She is currently working for her master’s degree in Indigenous studies focusing on traditional Iñupiaq tattooing and ceremony.

Photo: Courtesy of Kunaq Marjorie Tahbone © Kunaq Marjorie Tahbone

Source: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska

Contributor: Dawn Biddison