ANCHORAGE—90.3 FM KNBA will produce and air full coverage of the 2019 Alaska Federation of Natives Convention, October 17-19, from the Carlson Center in Fairbanks. Now in its twenty-third year producing the live broadcast, KNBA brings back an award-winning team of producers featuring key programming moments:
Each broadcast day starts at 8 a.m. with the comprehensive hour-long radio program, AFN: Alaska’s Native Voice, hosted by Antonia Gonzales, producer and anchor of National Native News. The program features live interviews with key stakeholders.
The KNBA AFN Live Feed begins at 9 a.m. with a host and co-host guiding the audience through the important speakers and activities happening live from the main podium.
A daily, five-minute AFN Newscast, led by KNBA news director Tripp Crouse, will summarize the daily AFN activity.
The AFN broadcast team includes KNBA’s news director Tripp Crouse, Antonia Gonzales of National Native News, reporter Emily Schwing from Reveal, Center for Investigative Reporting, and KYUK reporter Krysti Shallenberger. We also welcome back Native Voice One network manager Bob Petersen as the AFN Live Feed host and Nola Daves Moses, the distribution director for NV1.
The annual production is an important opportunity for the Alaska Native community, and all of Alaska, to be in touch with critical issues of public policy, opportunities, challenges, reports from political leaders and expert panels, and community leaders’ hopes for the future. Alaska stations historically using the broadcast include KBRW (Barrow), KYUK (Bethel), KOTZ (Kotzebue), KUHB (St. Paul), KHNS (Haines), and KIAL (Unalaska).
Costco Wholesale Warehouse – Elders and Youth and AFN attendees (not necessary to be delegates) will be able to shop one time (1 time) without a membership
Denny’s – Top Sirloin & Eggs for $10.99 (10-14 to 10-19)
Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center 101 Dunkel St.
Wednesday October 16, 2019
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM – Reception
6:00 PM – Premiere Film Screening: “To Continue or Be Remembered: Preserving and Sharing Alaska Native Arts”
6:30 PM – Artists’ Talk
5:30 pm to 7:30 pm Wednesday, Thursday and Friday join Dixie Alexander w/TCC Cultural Programs as she hosts a Native Artists Bazaar on the first floor of Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center as well as an artist demonstration.
This exhibition celebrates the tradition of Passing Forward knowledge, skills, and traditions, while developing the future of Native Arts in Alaska. Renowned Dene artist, Kathleen Carlo Kendall, and her mentee, Chris Ehler (Diné) will present an exhibition of carvings which celebrates this sharing of knowledge. (click here for the event poster)
In conjunction, please join us for a premiere screening of “To Continue or Be Remembered” a film showcasing the work of perpetuating Alaska Native Arts at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Proudly presented by the University of Alaska Fairbanks FRAME Film Production Services in collaboration with KUAC-TV and the UAF Native Arts Center. Guided by Alaskan Native Artists Kathleen Carlo Kendall, Peter Williams, Joel Isaak, Marjorie Tahbone, and Da-ka-xeen Mehner, we discover the ongoing efforts underway to continue and expand Alaskan Native Arts such as fish skin and fur sewing, qupak design, and carving. Produced through the support of the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies. Directed by Maya Salganek. Edited by Keara Anderson and Keziah Anderson. (26 min)
This film will air on KUAC-TV in November.
Kathleen Carlo Kendall Through all her years of creating art, one of Kathleen Carlo Kendall’s greatest satisfactions is having taught in the artist-in-schools programs. This provided her an opportunity to visit remote villages across the state of Alaska, teach her art, and inspire rural residents to produce and express themselves through wood carving and sculpture. In the end, many of these Alaska Native villages have independently launched art programs and have proudly shown their work through first-time village exhibits. In the late 1970s, Carlo Kendall emerged as one of the first Alaska Native women to carve wood, traditionally considered a men’s practice. As masks were not used extensively within her own culture, she reflected upon the masks of the Yup’ik and other cultures for inspiration. The inspirations influenced her departure from traditional sculptural concepts, which inspires her students today and has helped develop new prospects for future artists by manifesting traditional cultural art forms into expanded contemporary visualizations. Her work is deeply rooted with vast cultural knowledge and wisdom, and Carlo Kendall re-imagines this into beautiful and mesmerizing artwork that exquisitely exemplifies her talent. In 2018 she was awarded a Mentor Artist Fellowship, by the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation through which Carlo Kendall mentored Chris Ehler (Diné)in carving methods to help him develop his own wood sculptures. Ehler was involved in all aspects of exhibition preparation, curation, and documentation, and throughout the process, cultural traditions and heritage were emphasized as the foundation of the art-making philosophies.
Chris Ehlers Chris Ehlers is originally from Tucson, Arizona. He has lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for eleven years. He has been wood carving for the past four years at the University of Fairbanks in the Native Arts Center, where he is a student. He met Kathleen Carlo Kendall at the UAF Native Arts Center there she teaches workshops on mask carving. In 2018 she became his mentor through a fellowship with the Native Arts and Culture Foundation. He began to explore his own culture as a Diné (Navajo) artist, as a result. He wanted to understand Kathleen’s influences for making such beautiful and imaginative work. She has cultural, personal, and stories in her work. So Ehlers explores those areas in his work as well. The exhibition of “Passing Forward” will be on display in the Elder’s Hall at Morris Thompson through the end January 2020. Sponsored by Denakkanaaga, UAF Native Arts Center, UAF Department of Theatre and Film, KUAC-TV, The Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center.
This October, Fairbanks will host the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention which is the largest annual gathering of Alaska Native peoples and the largest convention in Alaska, drawing more than 4,000 people from around the state. The Cross-Cultural Communication Committee will provide several free one-hour training opportunities in September and October that are open to the public and employees of businesses in the Fairbanks area to help ensure the comfort, safety and satisfaction of visitors during the convention.
Courses will be offered at the Morris Thompson
Cultural and Visitors Center on September 28 at 10 a.m. or 3 p.m., October 7 at
2 or 5:30 p.m., October 10 at 5:30 p.m. and October 11 at 1 p.m. Training
topics include an understanding of what culture is, who are Alaska’s diverse
Native peoples, differences in communication styles, how to avoid
misunderstandings while communicating and how to accommodate cultural
differences. Register for a Cross-Cultural Communication Training session at afnfairbanks.com/cultural-training.
If preferred, managers may have
their staff trained on-site. The length of training can be customized to meet employees’
needs. The Cross-Cultural Communication Committee is an outgrowth of the
Explore Fairbanks coordinated Native Leadership and Community Committee formed
to locally plan the hosting of AFN. For more information about training content
or to schedule an on-site training session, contact Helen Renfrew at (907) 459-3765 or email hrenfrew@explorefairbanks.com.
Explore Fairbanks is recruiting volunteers for
a variety of opportunities throughout the week of October 13-19. During this
week, Fairbanks will host the First Alaskans Institute Elders & Youth
Conference, the AFN Welcome Potlatch, and the Alaska Federation of Natives
Annual Convention.
If you have a minimum of 2 1/2 hours to
volunteer, you are invited to join in welcoming guests from around the state.
There are a wide range of volunteer activities available, such as setting up at
the Carlson Center and Big Dipper, stuffing delegate bags, greeting guests at
the airport, potlatch servers at the Big Dipper, registration assistance for
the Elders & Youth Conference and the AFN Convention, lobby & door greeters,
traffic plan and parking lot attendants and setting up for the banquet at the
Carlson Center.
Golden Heart Greeter Volunteers will be required to
attend a 1-hour training session which will focus on Customer Service and
Cross-Cultural Communication. An additional on-site orientation may also be
required. More information about volunteer opportunities is available at www.afnfairbanks.com/volunteer
The Alaska Federation of Natives and the National Congress of American Indians is pleased to announce that the 8th Annual Tribal Conference, will be held on October 16, 2019 in Fairbanks, AK. The conference invites all tribal leaders, tribal administrators, tribal court judges, court administrators and tribal members to participate, learn, and share experiences on federal, state, and local issues important to Alaska tribes. (read more)
Celebrate critical importance and diversity of our Alaska Native languages at the First Alaskans Institute 36th Annual Elders & Youth Conference (Elders & Youth). Our theme, “Qaneryararput Yugtun Piniqerput” (Yup’ik) and “Qaneryararput Cugtun Kayuqerput” (Cup’ik) loosely translates into English as “Language is Our Superpower.” To learn, live and speak our languages every day, a direct line to our Ancestors and the living personification of our beautiful lands of Alaska, brings us both backwards and forwards in time! As indigenous peoples alive today, we get to be part of the generation who keep the fires of our languages alive, and that makes us stronger. We proudly announce our keynote speakers who will speak to this theme (read more)
Join us for the 2019 AFN Welcome Potlatch on October 16, 2019 at the Big Dipper Ice Arena in Fairbanks. Doors open at 5:30pm and dinner will be served at 6pm.
Help us welcome thousands of visitors by contributing Alaska Native food. Frozen Alaska Native foods can be delivered to Fairbanks Native Association or Doyon Industrial Facilities during regular work hours. Cooked donations can be brought the day of the event to the Big Dipper.
