Students from the University of Missouri collaborated for five months with the MU's Museum of Anthropology and Kawerak Inc., a consortium of 20 Alaska Native Tribes to put the exhibition together.
“Alaska Native Heritage from the Bering Strait Region” shows Alaska Native tools and other pieces from the Kawerak region both in person and digitally. It brings attention to ethical collaborations to encourage both physical repatriations and also knowledge repatriation.
“The form of knowledge repatriation that we hope to do with the digital exhibit is hoping to create as for the returning of the material, the how a material was made, how an ancestor or an elder can look at an object, and can either create some sort of reflection based on that object of their prior experience, or kind of connect that to a larger community or larger question," Lily McEwan, an MU anthropology student, said.
“It gives a lot of opportunity to make sure that the voices of the people who we are sharing the objects of are being heard [by] people who are coming to view them. Because these aren't our objects, we're just caretakers."Amanda Staley Harrison
The object McEwan conducted most of her research on is known as kuunnaqsuun, or a boot creaser, which originates from Teller, Alaska, from the traditional Iñupiaq village.
"Indigenous people are still alive. They're still very active. It's not just people from the past," McEwan added. "It's important that when people are viewing this exhibit, whether that's in person or digitally, that they are kind of being mindful that these communities still exist. They're still using these tools today."
This exhibit will be followed by many more student exhibitions once the museum officially opens its doors late this year, according to the museum's assistant curator and strategic communications manager Amanda Staley Harrison.
Staley Harrison added the museum focuses on repatriation – returning human remains, cultural items and historical knowledge – in almost all of its exhibits featuring Native cultural items and information.
“It gives a lot of opportunity to make sure that the voices of the people who we are sharing the objects of are being heard [by] people who are coming to view them. Because these aren't our objects, we're just caretakers," she said.
Many objects belonging to Native Tribes and Indigenous peoples were lost or stolen during colonization, and MU student Dani Gafford added that sharing knowledge is an important aspect of the repatriation process.
"With taking those objects, [they were] also taking knowledge with [them]. Like how to make those objects and then also, like, the practices that are associated with them. Some of these objects might not exist in communities today," she said.
This is the first exhibit at the state's only Museum of Anthropology since it finished construction in its new location in MU's Ellis Library in early 2022. It had previously been located in several other areas, most recently Mizzou North, but closed that location in 2021.
The collection of tools at the exhibit were donated from a Missourian who taught in Alaska, Dennis Corrington. He had gathered these items through trade with people from the Alaska communities. According to the students presenting, the MU Museum of Anthropology was the only museum to accept the collection in its entirety.
