JUNEAU — The Sealaska Heritage Institute will hold a lecture by a professor from University of Alaska Fairbanks on Yup’ik ways of dancing at noon on Thursday, Oct. 27, in the Living History Center at the Walter Soboleff Building.
The talk by Dr. Theresa Arevgaq John, an associate professor of Indigenous studies at UAF, is titled “Yuraryaraput Kangiit-llu: Our Ways of Dance and Their Meanings.”
John is an expert on indigenous ways of knowing and is highly involved in organizations and projects that promote traditional Native culture, history, spirituality, language and education. Co-author of “Yupiit Yuraryarait: Yup’ik Ways of Dancing,” she has extensive performing experience, including several Yup’ik traditional dance groups and her one woman show “Yup’ik Arnaq.”
Her work has been presented at professorial conferences on the local, national and international level. Dr. John currently serves on the National Advisory Council on Indian Education and the International Indigenous Women’s Forum. She is a former member of the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the former Chair of the Traditional Native Arts Panel. She is also the recipient of the Governor’s Distinguished Humanities Educator Award and Alaska State Library Award.
John’s talk is co-sponsored by SHI and the Preparing Indigenous Teachers and Administrators for Alaska Schools (PITAAS) program at the University of Alaska Southeast.
