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Healing Generational Trauma through Cultural Connection in Alaska

News

Health Equity

Carvers create designs at the Alaska Arts Alliance workshop in Anchorage, Alaska. Direct Relief's Fund for Health Equity supported the Alliance with a grant to support the carving program that allows Alaska Native people experiencing homelessness to connect with their culture. (Ollie Riley-Smith)
By Lara Cooper

Inside a downtown Anchorage storefront, two dozen carving stations hum with activity as men work on traditional Native Alaskan designs, inscribing them into ivory.

The Alaska Art Alliance provides space for these men, many of whom are experiencing homelessness, to come inside and out of the harsh elements and connect with their culture.

The Utuqqanaatmiñ project, or “From Our Elders,” seeks to overcome generational trauma by connecting Alaska Native people with cultural practices. The Alaska Native Heritage Center, or ANHC, in Anchorage, serves as a cultural and educational hub established 25 years ago by the Alaska Federation of Natives. The cultural center works to share the heritage of Alaska’s diverse Indigenous cultures and support them with programming that spurs social change and community healing.

“Trauma can be very personal, but it’s also collective,” said Emily Edenshaw, President and CEO of the Native Alaskan Cultural Heritage Center. Native children separated from family and culture in boarding schools, relocation from climate change, and the erasure of cultural practices all contribute to that collective trauma, she said.

ANHC works with partner organizations, including the Alaska Art Alliance, to provide the necessary infrastructure for more than 25 Alaska Native men who are experiencing homelessness. The program uses the cultural practice of ivory carving to create a safe space for healing via the art form.

A high percentage of homeless individuals in Anchorage identify as Alaska Native, Edenshaw said, and the program offers them a space to create work that they can then sell, including at the Native Alaskan Cultural Heritage Center.

Direct Relief’s Fund for Health Equity supported the Alaska Art Alliance, through the Native Alaskan Cultural Heritage Center, with a $150,000 grant.

Connecting to culture is a beginning to healing from trauma, which has real health impacts on Native people, Edenshaw said.

“A lot of the health issues we see today, whether it’s substance abuse, whether it’s suicide rates, whether it’s domestic violence rates… We have to understand that these are symptoms of a root cause.”

“We know that the strongest form of medicine is connection to culture,” she said. “We are in a generation of healing. This has really allowed us to operationalize our unconditional love for our community. We want to find ways to help our people become more whole.”

Since 2021, Direct Relief, through its Fund for Health Equity, has granted more than $50 million to 163 organizations across the U.S.

This video was directed, produced, and edited by Oliver Riley-Smith Cinematography.

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