above: It's Me! With my new traditional chin marking.
Welcome to my world. I'm so happy you found me!
You made it. Let's get comfy-cosy. I am Iñupiaq. Iñuit is a word that also works, Iñupiaq is what I am, how I was raised.
Uvaŋa (I am) Allison Akootchook Warden, also known as AKU-MATU. AKU-MATU is the abbreviation of two of my Iñupiaq names, Akootchook and Matumeak. This homepage is my chance to tell you more of my story. There are also links up above if you want to get right into the work I have done, or if you want to read my artist statement, or if you want to watch videos, contact me, or read about my work in the press. I hope that you will stay here a bit, relax and breathe. This is a space for you to be a human being.
A decolonization space. A space to unpack a bit.
I am an Artist. I recently was awarded a 2018 Rasmuson Individual Artist Fellowship in New Genre. I am thinking the name of the genre is: Iḷuqavsi nakuuqsisitchi avanmun! It translates as "Everybody heal yourselves!" in Iñupiaq. I live in this world as an Iñupiaq woman, and I see connections, I see artistic possibilities. I see patterns in the world, I connect to the collective psyche and I reflect on the world in a way that I feel my Ancestors would if they found themselves in 2018. I am my Ancestral representative in 2018, and I translate the world through my bloodline and then come up with a cohesive idea to address what I see. I then look to different artistic genres to support the idea, like tools in my qanitchaq (shed). I care deeply about my fellow human beings and I feel a responsibility to bring an Iñupiaq perspective and worldview to the largest possible artistic stage.
Also in 2018, I received a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation National Fellowship in the field of Music. As I am writing this, I am working to honor my NACF Artist Fellowship, on an artistic residency in Seattle. I incorporate performance art techniques and also theatrical techniques into my musical performances. My musical performances serve to help the audience have a spiritual and healing release, a transformational experience.
I perform each time to give to the audience a performance of a lifetime, my way of honoring all of the musical performers that have been on the stage before me.
I am connected to my traditions, my language, my culture, my community. I am an enrolled member of a federally recognized tribe, the Iñupiaq Native Village of Kaktovik. I consider Kaktovik home, even though I have only lived there for very short periods of time. I belong there, I belong to the earth, to the people there. I grew up in Fairbanks, yet travelled to Kaktovik since I was a baby, and my Mom lived there for quite a bit of her life.
The village also would land in Fairbanks, and there was a strong Iñupiaq community in Fairbanks, connected to one another and connected to the Arctic at the same time. I grew up going out on the land, having a relationship to the land, in the Arctic and also Fairbanks.
Reminds me of being about eight years old. There was a trail, alongside the road lining our trailer court community. I was determined to carve out steps on the side of the trail, into the earth. Each day, I would return to the same spot of the earth, meticulously digging holds, as steps, going up. Going up, going up. Each step took a concerted amount of effort. I ended up digging steps going up an entire dirt wall, most likely ten steps total. This gave me a short cut from the mailboxes, allowing me to climb up to get back on the hidden trail.
Seeds of who I am today, planted throughout my childhood. Still creating holds.
I will continue to add to this biographical long form introduction, so keep visiting back. Thank you for connecting with me here. I look forward to staying connected.
Uvaŋa (I am) Allison Akootchook Warden, also known as AKU-MATU. AKU-MATU is the abbreviation of two of my Iñupiaq names, Akootchook and Matumeak. This homepage is my chance to tell you more of my story. There are also links up above if you want to get right into the work I have done, or if you want to read my artist statement, or if you want to watch videos, contact me, or read about my work in the press. I hope that you will stay here a bit, relax and breathe. This is a space for you to be a human being.
A decolonization space. A space to unpack a bit.
I am an Artist. I recently was awarded a 2018 Rasmuson Individual Artist Fellowship in New Genre. I am thinking the name of the genre is: Iḷuqavsi nakuuqsisitchi avanmun! It translates as "Everybody heal yourselves!" in Iñupiaq. I live in this world as an Iñupiaq woman, and I see connections, I see artistic possibilities. I see patterns in the world, I connect to the collective psyche and I reflect on the world in a way that I feel my Ancestors would if they found themselves in 2018. I am my Ancestral representative in 2018, and I translate the world through my bloodline and then come up with a cohesive idea to address what I see. I then look to different artistic genres to support the idea, like tools in my qanitchaq (shed). I care deeply about my fellow human beings and I feel a responsibility to bring an Iñupiaq perspective and worldview to the largest possible artistic stage.
Also in 2018, I received a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation National Fellowship in the field of Music. As I am writing this, I am working to honor my NACF Artist Fellowship, on an artistic residency in Seattle. I incorporate performance art techniques and also theatrical techniques into my musical performances. My musical performances serve to help the audience have a spiritual and healing release, a transformational experience.
I perform each time to give to the audience a performance of a lifetime, my way of honoring all of the musical performers that have been on the stage before me.
I am connected to my traditions, my language, my culture, my community. I am an enrolled member of a federally recognized tribe, the Iñupiaq Native Village of Kaktovik. I consider Kaktovik home, even though I have only lived there for very short periods of time. I belong there, I belong to the earth, to the people there. I grew up in Fairbanks, yet travelled to Kaktovik since I was a baby, and my Mom lived there for quite a bit of her life.
The village also would land in Fairbanks, and there was a strong Iñupiaq community in Fairbanks, connected to one another and connected to the Arctic at the same time. I grew up going out on the land, having a relationship to the land, in the Arctic and also Fairbanks.
Reminds me of being about eight years old. There was a trail, alongside the road lining our trailer court community. I was determined to carve out steps on the side of the trail, into the earth. Each day, I would return to the same spot of the earth, meticulously digging holds, as steps, going up. Going up, going up. Each step took a concerted amount of effort. I ended up digging steps going up an entire dirt wall, most likely ten steps total. This gave me a short cut from the mailboxes, allowing me to climb up to get back on the hidden trail.
Seeds of who I am today, planted throughout my childhood. Still creating holds.
I will continue to add to this biographical long form introduction, so keep visiting back. Thank you for connecting with me here. I look forward to staying connected.