Beach rye grass on Sitkalidak Island.
If you entered a typical Alutiiq household of the seventeenth century, fine weaving would surround you. Grass mats would line sleeping benches, cover the walls, and hang in doorways. Woven containers for collecting, storing, and cooking food would surround a central fireplace. People would wear woven socks, mitts, and caps. A mother would hold her baby in a woven carrier. And the rafters would hold woven tools, nets for fishing and birding, and braided lines for harpoons and boats.
Weaving was both a functional and aesthetic art. Woven objects served many purposes, yet were made with great care. Alutiiq people once made basketry from a variety of natural fibers. Weavers worked spruce root, grasses, birch bark, baleen, and animal sinew. Today, Kodiak weavers continue to work with spruce root and grass (weg’et). Grass basketry is particularly prized for its extraordinarily fine weave and warm natural color. The most commonly harvested wild grass is beach rye (Latin: Elymus sp.), which weavers cut in coastal meadows between June and September.
Supported by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
After the Russian conquest of Kodiak, weaving faded from daily practice. The Inartalicirpet exhibit explored the renewal of Alutiiq weaving, a process that began in the 1950s. Studies of closely related Aleut/Unangan weaving traditions, examinations of ancient objects, and trips to Russia to explore historic weavings are reawakening ancestral knowledge in a new generation of weavers. Learn more by downloading the exhibit guide.