Arts and Entertainment

Rasmuson awards to help Native artists promote heritage

Earl Atchak said he'll use the money to make the first Yup'ik shaman masks created in roughly a century.

Michael McIntyre said he wants to make Yup'ik cool again by continuing to incorporate the Eskimo language into his bluesy rock songs.

And Bobby Itta plans to buy a new sewing machine and furs, so she can keep pumping out parkas like those that kept her Inupiaq ancestors warm for generations.

They're just three artists from a list of 31 who took home a piece of Rasmuson Foundation generosity on Wednesday totaling almost a quarter of a million dollars.

The mother of this year's Individual Artist awards went to Ray Troll, perhaps most famed for his iconic Alaskan works, those fun, zany fish paintings adorning many a tourist memento.

"As a testament to his global recognition, it is estimated that 85 percent of all Harley Davidson riders own one of his 'Spawn til you Die' t-shirts - while the other 15 percent choose the 'Ain't no Nookie like Chinookie' one instead," said foundation president Diana Kaplan while announcing the lone $25,000 Distinguished Artist award in Anchorage on Wednesday.

Troll spoke briefly after accepting his award. The foundation program is important because the money goes straight to the artists to make art, without any bureaucratic obstacles, he said.

ADVERTISEMENT

Of course, the Ketchikan creator recognized his supporters, all his supporters.

"I'd also like to thank the fish, but that's another story."

As for the mask-maker from the Southwest Alaska village of Chevak, Atchak hopes to make one of the big masks once worn by shamans before Christian missionaries stamped them out of the Bethel region around the turn of the last century. They were the first masks to go because missionaries were at odds with the shamans.

The driftwood Nepcetaq masks (pronounced noop-gee-tuk) didn't have mouth-pieces or straps to affix them on faces. But they somehow stayed on as if glued, Atchak said.

How they did that is something Atchak plans to research with help from the $5,000 Project Award he won.

"That's the 150-year-old question," he said.

Part of the research will include talking to elders and researching books and the Internet. He acknowledges that he may never know the answer.

Bethel's Michael McIntyre, 27. attended the award ceremonies with his wife, Crystal, and his parents. He'll use his $5,000 to add more tunes to his demo CD, Frozen Whitefish.

"Hopefully I'll make Yup'ik cool again for the kids," he said.

He's planning to perform at the state fair this year, by the way, and during the Fourth of July in Bethel. Learn more about his work here.

Then there's Itta. She started making the traditional fur parkas a few years ago during an Independence Day baby contest in her hometown of Barrow.

She'll buy a new sewing machine - its hard guiding cloth through the other one. She'll also buy the wolf and wolverine skins that are the mainstays of the parkas, but cost about $1,000 for both.

Without the $12,000 Artist Fellowship she landed, she wouldn't have been able to buy more skins any time soon.

"I'd like to make it a profession someday," she said of her craft.

Speaking of good fortune, Itta's husband, Price, was on hand in Anchorage for the announcement. Price recently landed a special bowhead whale.

Also included in the list of winners was Rosemary McGuire, a writer from Cordova who plans to canoe the Yukon River for an upcoming project.

See more of the winners here.

This story is posted with permission from Alaska Newspapers Inc., which publishes six weekly community newspapers, a statewide shopper, a statewide magazine and slate of special publications that supplement its products year-round.

Alex DeMarban

Alex DeMarban is a longtime Alaska journalist who covers business, the oil and gas industries and general assignments. Reach him at 907-257-4317 or alex@adn.com.

ADVERTISEMENT