A Tradition Unmasked

For centuries, the Yup’ik Eskimos prayed for food, driftwood, and other resources they needed to survive on the cold, harsh tundra in southwestern Alaska. They made ornate masks decorated with feather tufts and wooden appendages and held dance ceremonies as part of their religious tradition.

But when Christian missionaries came to Alaska to seek converts, they strongly discouraged the making of religious masks, says Sharon Abbott, curator of education at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. For years the tradition disappeared.

Today, however, the Yup’ik masks are receiving lots of attention. Through the museum’s efforts and help from Yup’ik elders, more than 200 masks that had wound their way from Alaska to private collections and museums around the world have been brought together in an $850,000 exhibit. The exhibit, which was supported in large part by foundations and corporations, has traveled to New York and the District of Columbia, and is on display at the Seattle Art Museum.

In addition, the museum offered a symposium, four residencies to artists to demonstrate mask making, and a four-day Yu’pik heritage festival, paid for in part by the Fund for Folk Culture in Santa Fe, N.M. During the festival, modern artists revived the tradition by creating their own contemporary masks.