Nature and indigenous Alaskan art with Joe and Martha Senungetuk

07-12-2021 • 58 mins

Mask by Joe Senungetuk
Mask by Joe Senungetuk
James Tempte
Joe and Martha Senungetuk
Artwork by Joe Senungetuk

Alaska Natives have been creating art influenced by nature and culture for thousands of years. The clothing, tools, kayaks, weapons, baskets, and other items of everyday life and ceremony were, and are, functional and artistic. During the 1960s young Native artists like Joe Senungetuk started creating Indigenous art that blended the traditional to more contemporary. They started including environmental and social issues into their art along with the influences of their upbringing in rural Alaska. Joe attended UAF, taught art at Mt. Edgecumbe in Sitka, attended the San Francisco Arts Institute (in 1968!), author of Give or Take A Century: An Eskimo Chronology, and was a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News, all while being a prolific artist. Martha was born in Cordova and is an established Native artist in her own right. This Outdoor Explorer welcomes Joe and Martha to discuss the influences that their long lives in Alaska have had on their art. Currently, Joe and his wife Martha are the Elder Artists in Residence at Alaska Pacific University. Also joining host Paul Twardock is James Tempte, a young indigenous artist, and Karli Tyance Hassell.

HOST: Paul Twardock

GUESTS: