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UAF to host Indigenous Peoples Day community celebration

September 28, 2018

UAF News

The ��ķ��Ƶ will celebrate its second annual Indigenous Peoples Day with a community celebration from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 8, at the Fairbanks campus.

The celebration’s theme, “Achieving Well-being Together,” recognizes the long-term adverse effects that colonialism has inflicted on Alaska Natives and Native Americans and the positive and successful work being done to address this.

“Since the first celebration in 1992 in Berkeley, California, there has been a nationwide movement to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day,” said Sandra Kowalski, director of indigenous programs at the College of Rural and Community Development. “UAF is leading the way for others to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day.  Our theme focuses on being grounded in indigenous culture, language and identity to ensure well-being. It is well known that indigenous people in Alaska have suffered the oppression. This year’s celebration focuses on the resiliency and enduring strength of Alaska’s indigenous people. We hope that those attending the events gain a sense of pride, whether Alaska Native or not, in the strengths that Alaska Native peoples bring to our communities.”  

Last year, UAF, , University of Texas El Paso and Fredonia College celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day rather than Columbus Day for the first time. In Alaska, the change was unanimously supported with resolutions from student, staff and faculty groups across the University of Alaska system. University of Alaska President Jim Johnsen asked each campus to host a culturally relevant event incorporating elements of the indigenous history of place, culture and language associated with their regions.


UAF’s Indigenous Peoples Day celebration will include a full slate of events that honor Alaska Native peoples, cultures and indigenous knowledge. All events are free and open to the public. The event will run from 10 a.m. through 7 p.m., with most activities in the Wood Center multilevel lounge.

The festivities kick off at 10 a.m. with a blessing at Troth Yeddha' Park, named for the ridge on which the Fairbanks campus sits and the future site of an indigenous studies center. The park is the green space just east of the UA Museum of the North.

Activities will continue at the Wood Center multilevel lounge at 11 a.m. with an opening ceremony. At 11:30 a.m., there will be a student wellness panel, followed by a community wellness panel at 12:45 p.m. Presentations will feature faculty, staff, students and community partners. At 2 p.m., there will be two workshops about Alaska Native dance and Alaska Native traditional tattooing. At 3:30 p.m., there will be an Alaska Native storytelling workshop. Refreshments will be served at 5 p.m.

At 5:30 p.m. “,” an award-winning film by UAF student Joe ‘Waats’asdiyei Apayuk Yates, will be screened in the Wood Center in conference rooms E & F. The film has been featured at The Fatherhood Image Film Festival,  23rd RCNI Red Nation International Film Festival, and First Nations Film and Video Festival. “Voices of Our Ancestors” was nominated for a best directing award at the Newark International Film festival, won an award at the Ketchikan Film Festival in 2018 and won Best Alaska Film at the MôTif Film Festival.

“My daughter, Nayak’aq, was the inspiration for ‘Voices of Our Ancestors,’” said Yates, a UAF film student. “The film shares the story about how my wife and I are teaching our daughter the heartbeat of our Alaska Native cultures and our hope that our Yup’ik and Haida languages be revitalized. UAF’s film program gave me the knowledge and skills to create a documentary about what is closest to my heart — my family and our languages.”

Following the film screening, there will be an Alaska Native dance performance at 6 p.m. The celebration concludes with a closing ceremony and regalia parade at 6:30 p.m. All events are free and open to the public.

CONTACT: Leona Long, lclong2@alaska.edu, 907-474-5086.

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