This project was developed with the Alaska Native Heritage Center and educators Lauren Ayagakuchax̂ Peters (Unangax̂) and Stephen Qacung Blanchett (Yup’ik). It features the contributions of artists and cultural practitioners from across Alaska. Alaska is the largest geographic state in the United States, encompassing over 660,000 square miles of diverse landscapes: oceans, mountains, forests, and tundra. It is the homeland of many Native peoples whose ancestors have lived on and moved across the land since time immemorial.

This series is based on cross-cultural themes: Family, Sustenance, Transportation, and Celebration. Each theme is introduced by a short film featuring cultural practitioners from different regions of Alaska. Their voices enliven the collection and connect historical objects to contemporary communities.

The themes are grounded in the Shared Values of Alaska Native Cultures and explore the importance of language, ecology, resiliency, and survivance across these topics. This is not a comprehensive survey of Alaska Native arts; it offers an alternate interpretative framework.