Bird skin (auk) parka with hood. trimmed with white fur at cuffs and hem; brown fur around hood. parka made up of whole skins with feathers interspersed with tufted feathers in perpendicular bands.
Donor:
Valene Smith McIntyre
Collection place:
Gambell Village, St. Lawrence Island, Nome Borough
Culture or time period:
Yup'ik
Collector:
Valene Smith McIntyre
Collection date:
1965
Materials:
Fur (hair material) and Skin (collagenous material)
Taxon:
Aethia
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Parkas
Function:
2.1 Daily Garb
Accession date:
May 19, 2005
Context of use:
clothing
Department:
Native US and Canada (except California)
Dimensions:
sleeve to sleeve— width 145 centimeters, width 82 centimeters, and length 110 centimeters
Comment:
From exhibit text at Valene Smith Museum of Anthropology loan: This parka was made for Smith in 1965 by Hilda Aningayou on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Strait. It is made from the skins and feathers of more than 80 auklets. It took three years to fashion the whole garment; two years to hunt the full amount of birds and one year to prepare and stitch the skins and feathers in the traditional manner. While Aningayou made the parka, many younger women gathered to watch her methods. This technique had not been witnessed previously by that generation. A few years later, this parka was featured in Smith’s film version of Three Stone Blades. To anyone’s living memory, this was the last time an auk parka was made by someone in the Arctic.
Loans:
S2009-2010 #5: California State University, Chico (November 24, 2009–May 24, 2010)