The Alutiiq Museum’s gallery has reopened to the public. We invite you to view exhibits and shop in our store, knowing that we follow strict safety measures to keep our patrons safe. Our current hours are Noon to 4:00 pm, Tuesday through Saturday. Please wear a mask. Contact Djuna Davidson with questions, 844-425-8844, x20.
Qawangurtuaq – Dream Qawangurtuataartut. –They always dream. For Alutiiq people, dreaming is a magical state, one that draws people closer to the spirit world. Encounters between people and spirits often take place in dreams or as a person awakes from sleep. Shamans, people who interact closely with spirits, their apprentices through dreams, and dreams are thought […]
QALUTAQ – DIPPER, LADLE, BAILER MAQIWIGMI QALUTAT ATURTAAPET. – WE USE DIPPERS IN THE BANYA. Enter an Alutiiq steam bath and you will find an assortment of tools for bathing. Adjacent to a wood-burning stove fashioned from a fifty-five-gallon oil drum are large metal tubs for storing, heating, and mixing water; tongs for loading the stove […]
With a $32,578 grant from the US Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Sun’aq Tribe of Kodiak and the Alutiiq Museum are collaborating on a tool that will help people locate, view, and study Alutiiq objects in the world’s museums. The Amutat project, which started this month, will begin developing a database of ancestral Alutiiq objects […]
PAMYULEK – METEOR AKGUA’AQ PAMYULEGMEK TANGELLRIANGA. – THE OTHER NIGHT I SAW A METEOR. A meteor is a piece of space rock that burns as it falls through the Earth’s atmosphere, creating a bright streak in the night sky. The Alutiiq term for meteor—pamyulek—comes from the word pamyuq for tail or handle; something that extends […]
CISLLAT – PEG CALENDAR PAAPUKA GUI CISLLANGQ’RTAALLIA. – MY GRANDMOTHER HAD A PEG CALENDAR. Charting the passage of time was once a relative process. Alutiiq people noted the seasons by following changes in the natural environment and in the economic and social activities that accompanied the yearly cycle. With the introduction of Russian Orthodoxy, however, the Alutiiq […]
AGYAQ, MIT’AQ (KAR) – STAR AGYAT UNUGMI ANTAARTUT. – THE STARS COME OUT AT NIGHT. In the Alutiiq universe, stars live in the first of five consecutive sky worlds, closest to earth. This world is also home to the moon and northern lights, and the place where people go after dying for the fifth and […]
YAASIIK – BOX CAQINKA YAASIIMEN LLIITAANKA. – I PUT MY STUFF IN BOXES. In classical Alutiiq society, craftsmen fashioned wooden boxes in many shapes and sizes to hold food, water, and objects. Hunters carried small rectangular boxes packed with supplies in their kayaks. Women cooked traditional dishes by dropping hot stones into oval wooden containers […]
UYAMILLQUAQ – NECKLACE UYAMILLQUAN QUP’ARTLLRIA. – YOUR NECKLACE GOT BROKEN. In classical Alutiiq society, jewelry was an important means of social and personal expression. Decorative lip plugs, nose pins, ear ornaments, bracelets, arm bands, belts, pendants, and necklaces were worn by both men and women, providing outward signs of the wearer’s place in society. Jewelry […]