Extra Tough: Women of the North

Alaska and the circumpolar region have been shaped for centuries by Indigenous women’s creativity, labor and love. With colonization and the arrival of Western cultures, the North became seen as a masculine testing ground, a place to be explored, exploited and developed. Artists, mothers, scientists and makers included in this exhibition confront and dismantle this myth, testifying to the vital role that both Indigenous and newcomer women have held, and continue to hold, in Northern communities. From ceremony to social critique, the artworks, historical objects and archival images on display capture and communicate their maker’s experiences of landscape and place, gender roles and social norms, work and childrearing. In a North being shaped at unprecedented rates by the forces of climate change and globalization, women’s voices and visions provide rich ground for imagining a future guided by principles of gender equity, sustainability and strength.

Image: Meryl McMaster, "Harbourage for A Song"