Native American Radio Network
Hosted by Chandre Szafran
Leon Misak Kinneeveauk (Inupiaq) from Pt. Hope in Arctic Alaska is an artist operating the largest ivory carving studio in Deghay’kaq, known today as Anchorage, at the Alaska Art Alliance. Carving walrus ivory is an original artform of Indigenous communities in the Arctic, stretching across Inuit lands in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland.
In this episode, Leon shares the journey of discovering his role in community leadership after being incarcerated for a crime involving a death. Under Leon’s leadership, the studio offers a much-needed place of cultural belonging and camaraderie, that meets the specific needs of the art of ivory carving.
Jerome Saclamana (King Island Inupiaq) joins to share his years of experience in ivory studios, and what makes Leon’s studio a rare gem in the urban center of Anchorage.
Hosted by Chandre Szafran
Laine Neech.yanagút Yéil Rinehart (Lingít/Taos Pueblo) is based in Lingít lands in what’s today known as Juneau, AK.
Laine practices the traditional Lingít artform of Chilkat weaving, an intricate craft that retains its traditional designs, meanings, and uses.
In this episode, Laine shares how their art practice is a natural way to express personal and cultural identity, and makes space to acknowledge the harms of colonization. Also, a peek at their ambition to increase access to the mountain goat wool used in original weaving practices. Their stories are imbued with gratitude for the communities of teachers from whom they’ve learned.
Hosted by Chandre Szafran
Dorthy is a professional performer and business owner of a dance company based on Dena’ina lands in Deghay’kaq, known today as Anchorage, Alaska. Dorthy’s talent reflects a lifetime of discipline and love for dance. She performs as Violet Lee Vamp. Along with her business partner, performer Lady Duchess, the two co-founded the Sweet Cheeks Cabaret dance company in 2013. Their work straddles the discipline of live performance, the closeknit community of small businesses, and the energy that comes with cabaret—a niche in live theater that combines entertainment with an artform that is gender-body-and-sex-positive, and where safety-and-consent come first.
Violet Lee Vamp and Lady Duchess have helped make Sweet Cheeks a fan-favorite in the Anchorage nightlife scene, frequently earning the company, and its cast of dedicated performers, awards in audience-voted theater and burlesque.
At the core of it all, as an Indigenous performer and entrepreneur in the small business community, Dorthy’s work marks a steady, subtle sense of ownership for Indigenous women in entertainment.
