PROJECT BACKGROUND

How the Cultural Identity Project came to be

The Cultural Identity Project arose from Alaska Native staff in Native Student Services at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) noticing that Alaska Native students were not being supported holistically at the university. They developed an online portfolio (ePortfolio) template that would help students begin to reflect on and recognize all of the important parts of themselves. Students recorded their life stories and shared on the importance of Native cultural identity. 

While the ePortfolio template and its reflection prompts were perfect for some students, other students desired more support to better understand who they are. This project curriculum came from that desire.

This curriculum was developed by Alaska Native Elders, Alvin ‘Dooner’ Edenshaw (Haida), Aqpayuq (James) LaBelle Sr. (Iñupiaq), Suggia (Susan) LaBelle (Suqpiaq), Ilarion ‘Larry’ Merculieff (Unangan), Lucy Sparck (Yupiaq), and Sonia Vent (Koyukon Athabascan), with support from Sara Buckingham (non-Native, German ancestry, a psychologist and UAA faculty member). It was also informed by the scientific literature on identity and insights from Alaska Native UAA students about their cultural identities and how they came to develop them.  

The project was also developed and carried out with other partners at UAA. They include Jacy Hutchinson (Koyukon Athabascan, UAA Clinical-Community Psychology PhD student), Tiera Schroeder (Yupiaq, UAA Clinical-Community Psychology PhD student), Paula Jones (Yupiaq, UAA’s Native Student Services), Shamai Thacker (Tsimshian & Iñupiaq, UAA’s eWolf) and Paul Wasko (UAA’s eWolf). Special thanks also to Jordan Lewis (Aleut) and Rosemary White Shield. 

This entire project has been overseen by an advisory board whose members are Alaska Native people of diverse cultural backgrounds, including university students, staff, faculty, and community members: Cheryl Turner and Amber Christensen-Fullmer (UAA’s Native Student Services), Sheila Randazzo (Office of Children’s Service/Indian Child Welfare Act, originally with UAA’s Native Student Services when this project began); Brian Walker (West High Indian Education), Eva Gregg (Rural Alaska Community Action Program, UAA alumnus and now graduate student), Hannah Bisset and Jennifer Clark (UAA undergraduate students); Edna Standifer, Scott Larionoff (UAA graduate students who were undergraduate students when this project started); and Jacy Hutchinson and Tiera Schroeder (UAA PhD students who joined the advisory board when their time as research assistants ended).

Funding to develop and pilot the project was supported by the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U54GM115371. Technology for ePortfolios associated with the project has been provided by Digication. All research that supported the development and pilot testing of the program was overseen by the Alaska Area and UAA Institutional Review Boards.