Ursala Hudson is giving a zoom-only presentation entitled, “Elevating Female-Gendered Art Practices for Collective Prosperity” on Wednesday, April 30th at noon.
Hudson describes the subject of her presentation as follows:
“Art is but the remnants left by the hands of our ancestors, the physical embodiment of countless generations shaping movement into form. Indigenous art practices are non-literary languages that communicate and shape worldviews and perspectives. By engaging in the creative practices, we place ourselves within a continuum of knowledge-making, -keeping and -sharing.
In the wake of the colonial project’s assimilation efforts, Indigenous communities have adopted Western understandings of Art, stripped of the sustenance and deep healing qualities that Art has granted us for time immemorial. In the global contemporary art world, physical form and conceptual contributions are prioritized over cultural and spiritual importance. The application of heteropatriarchal gender binaries has rendered customarily female-gendered creative practices inferior to male-gendered equivalents. Internalized Western valuation of artforms deprive contemporary tribal systems of the spiritual and unspoken tools needed to move into the future in Right Relation.
However, when refocused through a non-colonial lens, customarily female-gendered art forms reveal themselves as vital conduits of knowledge, entwined with all realms of existence and stretching across time. By elevating these practices, we unlock their wisdom in navigating and dismantling both internalized and external systems of oppression.”
This is the last event in the 2025 Share Your Culture/ Share Your Research online presentation series.
Join Zoom Meeting
Wednesday, April 30th at noon
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting ID: 883 4611 2727
Passcode: women
Guest speaker Mike iqyax̂ Livingston PhD will give a presentation entitled, “Honoring Benny Benson on July 9, 2027” about the Unangax̂ 14-year-old designer of the Alaska state flag.
Please join the Friends of SJ Museum on Saturday, May 3, 2025 from 2:00-3:30 pm for our annual meeting. Members and the general public are welcome to attend. More information at friendsofsjm.com/annualmeeting
“Honoring Benny Benson on July 9, 2027”
July 9, 2027 is the 100-year anniversary of the raising of Alaska’s flag by Benny Benson, the seventh grade Alaska Native boy who won the contest in 1927. Racism against Alaska Natives in 1927 was in-your-face and aggressive with signs on businesses: NO NATIVES NO DOGS. The panel of three judges in Seward did not want a dark-skinned Alaska Native boy to win the flag contest. They only awarded him third place. Benny was vilified in the media with derogatory names: Third placer, swarthy (dark skinned), inmate, plagiarizer, hornswoggler, motherless. Crimes were committed against Benny. His name has been erased. Others – who did less – received more. Even though Benny passed in 1972, the crimes and erasures continue to today. What can we do before the 100-year anniversary to honor this 14-year-old Alaska Native boy who rose above and continues to stand tall today as a healthy role model for all Alaskans?
Michael Livingston has thoroughly researched Benny Benson’s family tree and history, publishing several articles about the only US state flag designed by a Native American. Mike applied for and received a superior court order from the Alaska Court System which ordered Alaska Vital Statistics to correct Benny Benson’s birth certificate. Mike has served as a police officer in Alaska for 28 years, has served as a principal investigator with the National Science Foundation, and was recognized by US Senator Dan Sullivan as a “detective with a servant’s heart.”
Zoom link available soon.