A Week of Native Movement Events During AFN and Elders & Youth

Oct 31

This year during the 2023 Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) Convention and the First Alaskans Institute Elders and Youth Conference week, (October 15, 2023 - October 20, 2023) Native Movement focused on creating space for community to gather, create and learn.

We had an eventful week full of discussions, workshops and art builds to prep us for our Defend the Sacred: Extraction is NOT Our Way of Life Rally.

The week started off with an in-person Artist Pop-Up event on Sunday (October 15, 2023) at the Native Movement Anchorage office that featured many artists and their work. Moose soup was served and shared among many amazing artists and community members.

***Artist Orianna Cingquk Greenberg shares their work at the Artist Pop-Up event in Anchorage at the Native Movement Office.***

***Community stopping by at the Native Movement Table .***

On Monday (October 16, 2023) we set up at the First Alaskans Instituteʻs Annual Elders and Youth Conference to share some of our Native Movement work with attendees.

Later in the afternoon, we hosted a Protect the Arctic Refuge Tailgate Rally to prep for the Arctic Refuge Public Hearing. Updates on the on the proposed oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Refuge (ANWR) were shared and information was given to help assist for comment writing

**Native Movement Team at the Arctic Refuge Tailgate Rally before the public hearing.**

**Native Movement team members tabling at the 2023 Elders & Youth Conference.**

Tuesday (October 17, 2023) was the first day of events at the Akela Space and it was jam packed! In the afternoon Native Movement Advisory Board Member Rosemary Ahtuangaruak hosted Grandmotherʻs Growing Goodness work-shop and shared about indigenous led resistance. Check out the workshop recording of the event here.

**Native Movement Advisory Board Member Rosemary Ahtuangaruak hosts Grandmotherʻs Growing Goodness Workshop**

In the evening folks stoped by the Akela Space to for dinner and a film screening of Paving Tundra followed by a Q + A session to discuss the film.

Wednesday (October 18, 2023) was all about rally prep as we prepared for the Defend The Sacred: Extraction is NOT our Way of Life Rally. Community members joined in as we spent the day creating banners, screen prints and signs with Native Movementʻs Arts in Action Coordinator, Jessi Thornton.

Thursday (October 19, 2023) was a big day as we rallied along side United Tribes of Bristol Bay, Mother Kuskokwim, Grandmothers Growing Goodness and community members at the Defend the Sacred: Extraction is NOT Our Way of Life Rally outside of the Annual Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) convention. The theme of the AFN Annual Convention this year was “Our ways of life”, which many of the rally signs and speakers spoke to when highlighting how critical their relationship to the land is for hunting, fishing, and food sharing with their communities.

**Native Movement Gender Justice and Healing Co-Director Charlene Aqpik Apok speaks during the Defend the Sacred: Extraction is NOT Our Way of Life Rally.**

For years communities have been speaking their concerns over the extraction industry and the harm that it perpetuates on Alaskan land, water and air. As Indigenous people, we have always known that the world is interconnected and that when you take from the land or water, you pay for it in other ways. Today, we are seeing that cost, with the loss of the salmon on the Yukon River, the decline of the caribou herd populations and the scarcity of the moose, all of these issues are in part caused by either extractive development or climate change caused by extractive development. Listen and watch the full live stream of the rally here.

On Friday (October 20, 2023), we celebrated and ended the week with some dance moves and tarot card pulling at the INDIGEQUEER: A DANCE PARTY hosted by theres more, the indigequeer, Indigenize Productions and our Gender Justice & Healing Native Movement Team.