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Kuskpuks And other traditional Alaska native garments are created to express cultural identity, love for a family member or friend, and to keep the bond tying ancestral culture to today alive and strong.

When I'm able to teach classes and share and using my grandmother's patterns, it just makes me feel like I'm being connected with my grandmothers and I'm able to share like what has been passed down for generations.

Infusing long standing sewing practices with new interpretations of culture.

Alaska Native designers are blending tradition and modern flair together to bring vibrant creations into mainstream fashion.

We'll discuss the growing popularity of native clothing design right now on Alaska.

Insight.

Tonight, we'll learn how native designers are blending ancient techniques with modern materials to bring new energy to longstanding cultural traditions to keep them thriving into the future.

But before we get to that discussion, we'll start off with some of the top stories of the week from Alaska Public Media's Collaborative statewide news Network.

Senator Lisa murkowski met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev this week and said she's more determined than ever to provide assistance to help that country defend itself from Russia.

The senator was quoted saying the United States commitment is an investment in the democracy of the free world because she traveled to Ukraine and Poland as part of a bipartisan delegation that also included Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, and Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona.

Murkowski, a member of the Defense Subcommittee on Appropriations, said she was there in part on an oversight mission.

The U.S. has given more than $35 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February of 2020 to the eruption of a volcano in Russia this week prompted dozens of flight cancellations, both to and from Alaska, as well as within the state.

Shiveluch of volcanoes.

Large eruption in is the largest eruption in nearly 60 years and took place just after midnight Tuesday in Russia with ash exploding at least 50,000 feet into the air.

While the bulk of the cloud is to the southwest of Alaska, around the western Aleutians, a ribbon of volcanic gas and a little ash reached the mainland on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.

By Thursday afternoon, Alaska Airlines had canceled 28 flights due to ash from the volcano.

A Twitter post from the airline recommended passengers check their flight status.

Airline spokesperson Tim Thompson said by email that as a safety precaution, the company canceled eight flights between western Alaska airports and Anchorage on Wednesday.

Those flights were to attack Bethel, Dillingham and King Salmon.

The Environmental Protection Agency has fined the owner of the Pogo Gold mine $600,000 for improperly storing, treating and disposing of nearly 365,000 tons of hazardous materials into the mine near Delta Junction, The AP EPA said in a news release issued Tuesday that it fined Australia based Northern Star Resources for 81 violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, or RCA.

The violations mainly involve hazardous waste discovered in and around an assay laboratory at the mine.

A September 2022 consent agreement between EPA and Northern Star states that Northern Star stored, treated and disposed of hazardous waste at the facility without a permit or interim status in violation of provisions of the EPA Administered Hazardous Waste Permit program.

Northern Star has agreed to stop using the tanks and seal them.

The company also agreed to stop disposing of the waste in the mine and will instead store it in containers and ship it to a permitted disposal facility, as the RC R.A. requires.

You can find the full versions of these stories and many more on our website Alaska Public Dawg, or by downloading the Alaska Public Media app on your phone.

Now on to our discussion about the history and future of Alaska native clothing, regalia and other creations that identify someone's family and culture.

We'll hear what new creative designs directions native design is stretching into.

But we'll start with a look at the practical and traditional, whether you are Alaska native or not.

Cosplay wearing is encouraged at the Cama-i Dance festival in Bethel and as Rhonda McBride shows us this traditional shirt worn by many Alaska native cultures is more than just a piece of clothing.

At the Jamye Dance Festival, you can feel the heartbeat of a culture.

The dancers in their customs seem to transcend time and space.

Once you put it on, you'll feel more complete.

All those negative feelings will just go away and you'll receive a lot more positive things coming towards you.

Almost every kuspuk you see here is handmade and each has a story and you can hear a few of them at Nikki Corbett's workshop.

So as close as you can.

Or to the (speaking yugtun) all the way around, Nikki is passionate about kuspuk (speaking yugtun), but even more so when it comes to teaching others how to make them.

It's almost done and it looks awesome and so happy.

Although Ann Luthi grew up in the Bethel area, this is her first cusp.

I don't have patterns.

I didn't grow up using patterns.

But Nikki did watch her elders to learn a system of sewing that remains in her head, hands and heart.

When I'm able to teach classes and share and using my grandmother's patterns, it just makes me feel like I'm being connected with my grandmothers and I'm able to share what has been passed down for generations.

In fact, Nikki is wearing a kuspuk made by one of her three grandmothers, a reminder of how the kuspuk is a way to stitch the past and the present together.

And while this workshop has mostly drawn adults, Nikki says she especially enjoys teaching high school students.

I also go into the heavy stuff about talking about trauma and talking about coping mechanisms and how this can be something that can be a healthy thing for you to do.

Being proud of who you are and proud of, where you're from and knowing who you are and knowing knowing your background.

For many here, aspects are really all about one thing the love.

The love of giving and receiving something made with love.

My grandma, she made me a book.

And I loved it.

So much.

I wanted to use it every day.

Never to look at your needle, to look at the edge.

As she sews alongside her daughter, Melody.

Kathy Hoffman reflects back to a time when schools and churches repressed Yup'ik culture.

When we were growing up.

We were banned.

Of our parents were banned to.

Speak their own language.

And the dances were.

Not allowed.

But they came back.

Kuspuk have become a symbol of freedom, a way to express your individuality, yet also show unity.

I do feel.

Ready to dance.

Dancing, drumming and kuspuks.

Waves of sound and color that flow into an ocean of joy from the Cama-i dance festival.

Im Rhonda McBride.

So much fun.

Joining me tonight to discuss traditional clothing and regalia and how designers are creating a lot of energy and excitement around new interpretations is Jackie Qataliña Schaeffer, an Inupiat fashion designer who hails originally from Kotzebue, and Angelina Roehl, who is the regional language coordinator for Chugachmiut Heritage Preservation Program.

Angelina is involved in a regalia restoration project that we'll learn about tonight.

Welcome, both of you.

Thank you so.

Much for being here.

It's so great to have you both in the studio.

So I'm wearing an atikluk, which, if I understand properly, is the Inupiaq version of a kuspuk.

It was made for me by a good friend, my friend Nellie Moore, who also grew up in Kotzebue.

I only wear it on special occasions.

Jackie Beyond the name, are there other design aspects that distinguish kuspuks from atikluks?

You know, it's interesting because you say kuspuk but really Toughbook is the Yupik word kuspuk is the English version of that word.

An atikluk in our Inupiaq language is our way of calling, you know, the traditional shirt.

But I don't know that there's any difference, maybe in style.

You know, on the North Slope, they have a really intricate way of doing their compacts, which is a trimming.

Ours are a little plainer.

And then as you go down to like St Lawrence, Iowa, and you see they have particular bands.

So there's different styles.

But then you could kind of if you're from Alaska, notice the traditional aspects to them.

But as far as the design, I think they're pretty much the same.

And so some of the design details you could tell, Oh, that person is from this part of the state.

That's that's fantastic.

You grew up in a very artistic family, you said, and clearly carried that forward.

You attended the American College in London for two years after high school.

I was thinking about that after hearing about that in an earlier interview with you.

You were able to travel to Paris, other parts of Europe for fashion shows, and you were just a teenager from the Arctic.

What was that like for you?

Especially in a setting that must have seemed somewhat surreal, all about fashion.

And a lot of it's just glam and not at all practical.

And you came from a culture that's all about practical applications of everything.

Clothes had to be practical for people living so far in the north.

What was that experience?

You know, as an artist, you know, you're and when you're raised in such a rich culture, actually, I was a teenager and I thought everyone everywhere on the planet thought and lived in eight.

But we did because you're not taught those aspects, right?

So and it was before cellphones, before television, we had one public station, so I didn't get to be exposed to it except through magazines.

So Vogue magazine and Glamor magazine.

And I was fascinated that this world was somewhere out there.

So the experience of being there and living it and being in fashion houses and actually seeing it in action, it really left an impact, obviously, you know, throughout my life.

But the richness of how across Europe, they were so connected to their culture, food and place impacted me just as much.

So when I came back to Alaska, you know, with my eyes wide open, I realized that even our traditional ways was very now I it wasn't just the same.

All over Alaska, we had 11 distinct cultures across our state that were very different.

And so, you know, there's a twofold there, because, one, it opened this side of my creativity.

But the other part, like went deep into my soul and reminded me that, oh, this is where you come from and you have to value that.

So it has really, like taken me on a journey throughout my career, not just in fashion design, but in my professional life.

So it's so.

Fascinating that you went far away to kind of rediscover your own place back home.

That's really fascinating.

Angelina, tell us about the regalia restoration project that you've been working on.

Can you tell us about the community and what the regalia is, or is that sort of being kept quiet?

Oh, well, in this case, to get within the village that the artist came from were from Nanwalek.

And I definitely want to share their names, but it says it's a remote island, a remote village on the coastline.

It has a lot of history coming from, you know, some of the the history shows that the people came from Port Chatham on to and and moved to Nanwalek and then and that's where a lot of people from Port Graham where I'm from originated from it was originally also a fort Fort Alexandra.

And that's where a lot of people came was to help with that.

And it definitely seemed to affect how our regalia was originally and the type of material used, traditional material used.

So so the piece that you're restoring now, what was it?

Was it for a particular ceremonial application or what exactly is is it and what are the materials that it was made from?

Oh, my gosh.

Right now, we had a male and a female regalia created.

But really for the male regalia look into the history, it's also females could use it.

Traditionally, it was used the bird bird skin was used puffin coming camera.

That's a hard one.

And then or there was another when they used.

But those two were most common.

The puffin was very common.

So we had to look at nontraditional material because it takes a lot of for a. Bird, 150 birds or the.

Other 40 to 50, depending on the size of the person.

Yes, but they were the only swellings.

She had created a similar male regalia.

And so when she told me that, I, I shared that with everyone and they agreed she would be a good person to create these two regalia as the male and the female.

And I guess we've got a photo we can take a look at what the what that regalia looks like and and how did you find folks that had the skills?

You know, there's as we know, there's been a lot of language loss or certainly fantastic efforts at revitalizing language and culture in so many aspects now.

But a lot of those traditional skills, I imagine, have fallen away, too.

So how were you able to find folks that could do those things?

Sorry about that.

And you found some people that have that expertise?

Well, actually, she was the one that we went went to to see.

And we saw the pieces there for a moment.

Yeah.

She was the one who agreed to do it.

And she she shared with us that she had craft night with some some artists in the village.

And so we left it up to her to go ahead and do that.

The only thing is her and I, we we utilize pictures from historical books about our regalia, and we use that to choose the types of material she was going to use in the regalia.

Yes.

Yeah.

And I have to I had to bring a list because it was she was very detailed and so.

Well, Jacqui, you mentioned that you got back into creating different pieces last year when you helped with the Far North fashion show.

During Arctic Encounters here in Anchorage.

Talk about what you created and then we're going to see some pieces.

Yeah.

So last year was kind of the first year of getting back into what I would call fashion.

I've always created this is one of my daughter's pieces I'm wearing and I, you know, make my own atikluks.

I make parkas and my cloaks and mittens and everything for my family.

But I haven't really done anything in the fashion world.

So when I was helping with that show, I decided to create some pieces and and really just kind of take the elements of eveningwear and infuse traditional aspects, textures, materials from our from our world and just create something that was different and unique.

And and it was really fun because it even pushed me beyond Western textiles, you know, being more creative with even the Western textiles themselves and looking at different ways to create depth.

So the pieces became art and, and from an extension from that, I wanted to make sure that those pieces spoke not only to my creation, but to the amazing artistic creation our people have across the state.

So in that fashion show, you know, I incorporated one of my cousin's masks, and that was the finale of the show.

And and in that piece, it had feathers to replicate, kind of mimic a raven feather.

It had silk in it had the mask was made of caribou, skin and polar bear and wolf hair.

So it really was like living art.

Well, as you've been talking about the designs and and you had mentioned previously that you want them to tell a story.

Let's look at one now.

Tell us about this work in you're creating this piece to represent murdered and missing indigenous women and girls.

It's a very powerful piece of art.

Yeah.

So yeah.

So this again, you know, a lot of my creations come to me in dreams and we have this connection to Ravens, not only in our culture but in our family.

One of my uncles raised the abandoned baby Raven when we were kids.

So was had this thing with Raven.

So I wanted it to not only represent our stolen sisters, but I wanted it to also represent that they're also being watched over.

And so we have Ravens all over.

Actually, I do someone at Starbucks.

And so, you know really in creating that it really connects me one to remind me that we have a history that is still a living history of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, and that we should always advocate for that.

But the other the creative side was that we also have this thread of resiliency and incorporating a piece of that as a healing element was just as important.

So it does speak slowly and smell.

You know, I think I shed lots of tears over it, but it also becomes this beautiful piece of a tapestry.

And resilience, a representation of both.

So powerful.

Let's look at another creation of yours with a lighter theme fishing.

And that's this is really so fun.

I just.

I love this.

When I saw this particular piece that you created, and also one here's the fishing nets and I just that's such a great creative design of the fish just kind of right in the net there.

It's fantastic.

So growing up on the coast of Alaska in Kotzebue sound kicking tugger because in your back word and this was my one of three pieces from my kicky Dunkirk series and I of you was so blessed last year to work and collaborate with my cousin, who's a master builder who also made my ears.

But she did the earrings for me last year and so I thought, you know, we could do a kick out of a series with two amazing artists that could pull things together and and create this fashion.

So fishing nets is fun because in Kaspi we catch salmon in the summer, we have herring season, and then in the winter we have our ice fishing for fish.

And so it was really fun to create that element of reality.

And if you're from Cosby sound, it gives you the sense of pride.

Like, here is this series presentation, everything we live in, eat and love.

Well, yeah.

And then the other to wear it.

And birds and berries, too.

I want to take a quick look at that, too.

Another design that brings together long standing cultural practices with modern flair.

Did you make these at someone's specific request, or was this just your own having fun with being creative?

No, I you know, I of course, it came to me in a dream.

And, you know, I love to, like, pull my dreams and weave them into whatever whatever medium of art it is.

And in this case, my cousin Cheryl Brantley, who lives here in Anchorage, I commissioned her to do all the beadwork.

And I, you know, just gave her specifics.

I said, this is what I envisioned.

And and she came through and pulling them together was really fun.

So it really was a collaboration with a master builder and and the birds and berries.

We get all our traditional berries right behind Kotzebue and in the surrounding area.

And our fish camp is is 30 miles north of Kotzebue.

So you could walk outside the back door and there's all these swallows.

So that was the swallow the birds and they're very social birds.

So if you haven't been at a fish camp where you have the same swallows like families come back, it's really an intriguing, interesting and fun relationship.

Blending all that.

And then you have all the berries, right?

So so we only have a couple of minutes left.

Angelina, when will the regalia, what state is it in now?

How far along.

It has been completed by the the artistic group?

They sent it in last week and now we have it hanging in our display case.

All right, that's fantastic.

What an accomplishment.

AT They did all the work.

I'm just so excited.

Emily and her crew, Emily sweating.

She had her daughters involved.

She had even a ten year old helping out with it by drilling holes for some of the material that they carry that we're hoping to have it.

So that's called a curtains.

Yeah.

Well, and in our final minute here, Jackie, I love what you had to say in a previous interview about the differences between an indigenous fashion show from a Western style show, your statement that it elevates everyone from 2 to 60.

Talk about why they're so different.

I was just sharing that earlier.

It really is.

You know, we take our kids everywhere.

It's about family.

It's not about me.

It's about we and so it's really fun organizing the show last year for the for an Earth fashion show, we had 100% indigenous designers and models and extra special this year was the series was modeled by three of my four daughters.

And so all their kids came to well, not quite all of them, but most of the kids grandkids came to watch their moms model, their grandma's fashions.

And and that is, you know, that's the traditional way of Alaskan life is we're exclusive to everybody.

We don't exclude anything.

Yeah, it's yeah, it's multigenerational.

Well, thank you both so much.

It's just been such a joy to have you both in the studio and to see these fantastic creations.

Thank you both for what you're doing on behalf of all Alaskans.

Blending the ingenuity of ancient design masters with new interpretations by the indigenous artists of today helps native culture thrive into the future.

The growing appreciation across the fashion world for the creativity of native designers will continue to elevate the work of Alaska's first people and the pride that comes with it.

That's it for this edition of Alaska Insight.

Visit our website, Alaska Public dot org for breaking news and reports from our partner stations across the state.

While you're there, sign up for our free daily Digest so you won't miss any of Alaska's top stories of the day.

Thanks for joining us this evening.

I'm Lori Townsend.

Good night.