June Pardue

Medium: Weaving, Skin Sewing

June (Simeonoff) Pardue is an Alutiiq and Inupiaq artist who resides in remote Sutton, Alaska. Originally from Old Harbor Village on Kodiak Island, June is recognized as an Alutiiq grass weaver, fish skin tanner, fish leather and sea mammal skin sewer, jeweler, and beader.

During June’s fifty year career as an artist, museums have collected her work—beaded headdresses, grass baskets and grass socks, jewelry, and Alutiiq garments are in permanent collections at the Alutiiq Museum, Palmer Historical Museum, Autry National Center in Los Angeles, Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka, the Arctic Studies Center in Maine, and at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, Alaska.

She taught and demonstrated weaving, fur sewing, and beading at the United Nations in New York, the Smithsonian’s Institute of Master Artists, Autry National Center in Los Angeles, California, and Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

June also instructs cultural art as an adjunct professor for the University of Alaska-Kenai Peninsula College, University of Alaska-Anchorage, and at the Matanuska Susitna College in Palmer, Alaska.

June is employed as a cultural developer and instructor for the Matanuska Susitna Borough School District. She brings to K-12 classrooms her expertise in Alutiiq language, beading, fur sewing, doll making, history of Alaska Native peoples, beginning Alutiiq language, Alutiiq dance and storytelling, fish skin and fur sewing, beading, kuspuk making, acrylic and alcohol ink painting, mask making, weaving, and storytelling.

The Knik Tribal Council in Palmer, Alaska employs June as an Elder Culture Bearer, instructor, and storyteller for their prevention and wellness program. Since the onset of the corona virus pandemic, live Zoom workshops have been offered to students in quarantine and isolation. Over 100 participants have received moccasin, fur mitten, Eskimo yo-yo, and sewing bag kits designed by June. These live zoom classes bring students together so that they can maintain visiting and working together in a safe environment where cultural arts are used as a tool to encourage healthy lifestyles.

During times in isolation, June brought live Zoom workshops to Alaska Native communities. Traditional Native councils, Native corporations, and wellness programs used funding to host June as an instructor to teach youth and adults how to use traditional methods for turning fish skins into leather. This podium provided a way for community members to visit and to learn an ancient skill for garment construction and jewelry making while in quarantine and isolation.

A moto that June’s parents instilled in her is this, “Remain teachable, we don’t know everything and there is something to learn every day.”