In this video, https://youtu.be/5nMxXwy4QNA Sheldon Jackson Museum artist-in-residence Chuna McIntyre (Yup’ik) describes a Yup’ik mask (SJ-II-A-9) from Nushagak in the Sheldon Jackson Museum’s collection. The mask was collected by Sheldon Jackson in 1893 and was just one of all of the masks examined by McIntyre. Transcripts of his words and films of him speaking About artifacts are being saved to the museum files and will be invaluable for staff, artists and visiting researchers.
In this short clip, McIntyre describes in detail, the significance of hoops in Yup’ik masks. This is just an excerpt from this Cultural Consultation and a glimpse of the nearly fifteen minutes that he spent discussing this artifact. As Chuna pointed out “it is a little mask, but it is saying so much.”
While here, Chuna provided invaluable information on the Yup’ik artifacts in the collection. The Friends of Sheldon Jackson Museum are grateful for the generous support of the Lindblad National Geographic LEX-NG Fund to bring this talented culture bearer to Sitka and to Chuna for his time and wealth of knowledge.