Our Medicine, 2022, by Dustin Newman. — *Our Medicine*, 2022, by Dustin Newman.

GOOD MEDICINE

On view March 21, 2023 through March 19, 2024
Art of the North Galleries, Third Floor, East Wing

Good Medicine brings together Indigenous healers and medicine people to collectively create, share knowledge, and practice in community. Unfolding over the course of a year with the work of different Alaska Native healers, this multi-disciplinary exhibition offers diverse opportunities for gathering and exchange.

Colonialism has attacked and suppressed medicine people and Indigenous knowledge systems for hundreds of years. This exhibition addresses harmful legacies and shows how the revitalization of healing practices and traditions provides ways of being in alignment with oneself, with community, and with our planet.

Curated by Tlingit traditional healer Meda DeWitt, Good Medicine emphasizes spiritual renewal, cultural renascence, and the importance of co-creating futures where nature can thrive.

Scroll down this page for related content, including upcoming programming and recorded talks.

Traditional Healer Meda DeWit
Meda DeWitt’s Tlingit names are Tśa Tsée Naakw, Khaat kłaat, adopted Iñupiaq name is Tigigalook, and adopted Cree name is Boss Eagle Spirit Woman “Boss.” Her clan is Naanyaa.aayí, and she is a child of the Kaach.aadi. Her family comes from Shtuxéen kwaan (now referred to as Wrangell, Alaska). DeWitt’s lineage also comes from Oregon, Washington, and the BC/Yukon Territories. She lives on Dena’ina lands in Anchorage, Alaska with her family. Her credo is “Leave a world that can support life and a culture worth living for.”

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Inupiat Mukluks

Mary Sears

Mary Sears created these mukluks with the help of her niece Effie Dirks, who crimped the ugruk (bearded seal) skin bottoms. Sears incorporated black and white calfskin, red felt, white leather lace, and fox skin in the upper parts of the mukluks. She embellished the tops of the mukluks with a beaded flower pattern and stitched a black and white seal pattern on the upper lip.

Tlingit Button Blanket

Natalee Wigen

Indigenous healer Natalee Wigen created this button blanket during the COVID-19 pandemic while also immersing herself in Tlingit language, Tlingit dance classes, and watching Sealaska Heritage Institute’s online lecture series. Wigen did this with the spiritual goal of reviving knowledge lost during her great grandmother’s time in the Chooutla Indian Residential School in Yukon, Canada. 

The blanket is decorated with killer whale design to represent her great grandmother Lydia Linda Boss’s heritage. The design was created by Don Starbard and approved by Wigen’s great aunt Phyllis LeTourneau (née Boss). Wigen incorporated 448 buttons and 1,344 beads in alternating combinations of red and black to represent her three daughters: Jazmin Nicole Taylor and twin girls Tiana Elaine Taylor and Toni May Kehaulani Taylor. She added abalone buttons and dentalium shells to represent water coming out of the killer whale’s spout. Inside the whale’s body is a healing hand, representing her life’s work as a tribal doctor. Along with the hand at the at the front of the blanket’s enclosure, the two hands form an embrace of her heart, keeping her close to her ancestors while she dances with Anchich’x Kwaan Dance Group, perpetuating her great grandmother’s culture one dance at a time.

Tlingit Octopus Bag

Ruby Soboleff

Ruby Soboleff’s octopus bag depicts a beaded raven and seaweed patterns on the fringe, or “legs” of the octopus. The artist used colorful beads to represent inclusivity and allyship with the LGBTQ community. The octopus bag has been danced by Ruby Soboleff’s daughter, Emberlee, on a few occasions with their Anchorage dance group Anchich’x Kwaan, as well as at Emberlee’s first Celebration in Juneau in June 2022.

Indigenous Traditions of Healing and Coming of Age with Meda DeWitt (Chatter Marks Podcast, Feb. 28, 2021)

Seclusion Hut: Traditional Plant Uses and Community Wellness (Crowdcast, Nov. 24, 2020)

Seclusion Rites: The Men's Roles in Building and Protecting the Women's House, A Conversation with Meda DeWitt (Crowdcast, Oct. 20, 2020)

Virtual Talk: Traditional Healing & Coming of Age:
A Conversation with Meda DeWitt (Crowdcast, Sept. 4, 2020)

Book Talk & Panel Discussion: Walking Together, Working Together: Engaging Wisdom for Indigenous Well-Being (Crowdcast, May 25, 2022)

Anchorage Museum Features the Knowledge, Work, and Art of Indigenous Healers (Alaska Public Media, Sept. 7, 2023)

Good Medicine Exhibit is a Look Into Indigenous Healers and Medicine (Alaska's News Source, April 12, 2023)

Please visit the calendar to see all upcoming Anchorage Museum events.

Walking Together, Working Together: Engaging Wisdom for Indigenous Well-Being

Leslie Main Johnson &
Janelle Marie Baker

This collection takes a holistic view of well-being, seeking complementarities between Indigenous approaches to healing and Western biomedicine. Throughout, the voices of Elders, healers, physicians, and scholars are in dialogue to promote Indigenous community well-being through collaboration.

$ 35 (10% discount for museum members)
Find it in the Anchorage Museum Store

GOOD MEDICINE

In the Curator's Words

Objects On View

Inupiat Mukluks

Mary Sears

Tlingit Button Blanket

Natalee Wigen

Tlingit Octopus Bag

Ruby Soboleff

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