Raktenga Elaine Kingeekuk Lecture

Raktenga Elaine Kingeekuk will give a public presentation about her cultural and artistic experiences this Friday. Ms. Kingeekuk is a St. Lawrence Island Yupik culture bearer and co-author of the book Seal, & : , .

She is in Juneau courtesy of the Access to Alaska Native Collections grant funded by the CIRI Foundation and administered by Museums Alaska. At the Alaska State Museum, she will be studying items in the collection, viewing the exhibition "Visceral: Verity, Legacy, Identity," and researching gut with conservator Ellen Carrlee. 

Kingeekuk has collaborated with institutions such as the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center and the Cordova Museum to repair gut parks for exhibition. She hopes to connect broadly with various entities in Juneau to enhance her artistic and teaching practices making dolls, gut baskets, toddler regalia, and jewelry from customary St. Lawrence Island Yupik materials.

Video of ElaineKingeekuk

Image: Raktenga Elaine Kingeekuk demonstrating about gut. Photo by Jackie Hrabok