great granny helen konig

i spent three days with a curator last week at the burke museum in seattle. as a “bill holm center visiting artist research grant” awardee, i had access to the burke’s large collection of yup’ik ancestral objects. i was most interested in studying masks, carved figures, and dolls. many of the objects i experienced were made in the area on the kuskokwim river where my great granny helen was born and raised. the museum ethnology outreach coordinator who arranged my visit and shared history and information with me about the material culture of the objects i viewed, is a fellow yup’ik person! here is a picture of our great grandmothers together in bethel, alaska (my great granny konig on the right)…