The Alaska Native Cultural Heritage Center in Anchorage put the finishing touches on an extensive renovation on Tuesday. The center now has four new exhibits and its renovated main building is adorned with seal fur lamps, a mural depicting porcupine quills and custom carpeting by Alaska Native artists.
“We paid close attention to detail and wanted to uplift the Alaska Native artist community,” said Emily Edenshaw, the center's president and CEO. “We're very happy with the outcome. It's so beautiful.”
The renovations and new exhibits are just part of a larger project to celebrate the center's 25th anniversary. The ongoing work aims to serve both museum visitors and Alaska Natives by preserving traditions and creating a healing space.
One new exhibit features traditional kayaks and canoes built by master Alaska Native boat builders, while another displays cultural property and Alaska Native art that was stolen or taken from Alaska Native communities.
“We have over 3,000 cultural objects in storage at the Heritage Center,” Edenshaw said, “and the entire museum has almost tripled in size, and the reason for that is because we're seeing a lot of cultural objects coming home to Alaska.”
As part of the commemorative project, the center also plans to build a theater and a healing garden.
Edenshaw said the idea for the garden came from the center's plans to erect a healing totem pole in October 2023. An elder suggested building the totem pole.
“An elder named Norma Jean Dunn contacted the Heritage Center and said, 'Emily, we need to build and raise a healing pole in honor of all the Alaska Native residential school survivors and their descendants and those who were never able to return home,'” Edenshaw recalled.
Edenshaw said the hundreds of people who took part in the pillar-raising ceremony had inspired further work around healing.
“When we had over 1,000 people at our polling place, we knew it was sending us a message that the community was craving it,” Edenshaw said. “And the construction of that polling place was the catalyst for a lot of our other healing efforts.”
The pillar will be joined by nine other healing monuments when the healing garden is complete. Once the garden is complete, the center will also build a self-sufficient kitchen where Alaska Natives will have the space and resources to fillet fish, process elk and seal, and share thousands of years of knowledge.
“There are many Native youth in Anchorage who have never filleted a fish, bottled a salmon, gone whaling or walked the tundra,” Edenshaw said. “Every Alaska Native person has a right to access and knowledge in their community, no matter where they live.”
Edenshaw said the kitchen will fit in well with the programs the center already offers, as it already has a smokehouse on-site.
The center has been able to raise enough funds to build a new theater and healing garden, and Edenshaw said he is confident and hopeful the center can raise the remaining funds needed for a self-sufficient kitchen and renovations such as restoring the parking lot and lake for its 25th anniversary project.
