Giving Thanks creates a festive sense of community, on campus

Being away at college can be a lonely, isolating experience for anyone, but especially if your home, family, familiar foods and other touchstones of culture are hundreds of roadless miles away.

Two years ago, members of UAA's Native Student Council decided to reach out to students, drawing them in for a celebration of Alaska Native community here on campus.

"We know a lot of students can't go home to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families," said Aaron Tolen, a junior anthropology major who serves as the Council's president. "We organized a potluck at first, but then some of the other members also dance in the school gyms or wherever there's enough room when they go home for Thanksgiving. We bounced around those ideas and came up with the dance festival and potluck."

That event, the Giving Thanks potluck and dance festival, drew an estimated 550 people to Cuddy Hall on the Friday before Thanksgiving. It's the largest event of the year for Native Student Council, a campus group open to any UAA students interested in Alaska Native culture, history and current issues.

In the past, the student club hosted regalia shows both in the Student Union and at the Alaska State Fair. The dance festival, however, quickly became the group's signature event. Students start planning for the mid-November showcase as soon as the school year starts (if classes started earlier than August, they'd probably start planning then, too).

As guests streamed into Cuddy Hall on Nov. 18, an elder from Alakanuk opened the event with a blessing in English and Yup'ik. Standing before a welcome banner, written in 12 Alaska Native languages, he called fellow elders to start a line and fill their plates. Lucy's restaurant, usually a test kitchen for culinary arts students, was instead filled with long rows of tables weighed down with Alaska Native staples (fry bread, muktuk, Sailor Boy Pilot Bread) and American cookout standards (rice, beef, chocolate chip cookies).

Conversation filled the room. Introductions were made. Waves and head nods were delivered across the crowded tables. One guest in line leaned toward her friend; "I just saw someone I haven't seen in 12 years!" she exclaimed.

As guests snaked through the kitchen, late-arriving performers hustled into their warm-up room in sweatpants and t-shirts, stepping out minutes later in full regalia. Street artist Ariel "Bisco" Taylor painted a site-specific piece in one corner, while Native Student Council handed out raffle tickets in another (items included indigenous-inspired basketballs from Juneau-based Trickster Company).

Aaron admits that, in the festival's first year, Native Student Council wasn't quite sure which dance groups to invite, or even how to contact them. That's not a problem anymore. "The next year we just got flooded with requests from dance groups who wanted to come perform for the students," he said.

A greater amount of interest means a wider array of performance groups. Native Student Council now has enough options to represent the varied corners and cultures of the state.

This year's slate of five groups performed roughly 30 minutes each. Yup'ik dance group Yurapik opened the evening, inviting college students in beanies and fleeces to perform alongside group members in kuspuks and headdresses. Anchorage-based groups representing Tlingit, Haida, Unangax and Inupiat cultures followed, with the Yukon Knik Athabaskan Fiddlers closing out the night.

"It's gaining ground really fast," Aaron said of the event's expanding popularity (thanks to Facebook, even folks from outside Anchorage attended this year). "Other departments on campus and other people from outside organizations said we could expand this, if we wanted, from a staple in the UAA community to a staple in the Anchorage community," he added.

At the event's conclusion, the Native Student Council honored Sheila Randazzo of Native Student Services with the 2016 Student Advocacy & Support Award, an award created last year to recognize UAA faculty or staff who go above and beyond to support students, said UAA student and Native Student Council member Kyle Worl.

"In October, we had students submit a name of a UAA faculty or staff member who had helped them succeed while at UAA and Sheila Randazzo's name was overwhelmingly the most mentioned," Kyle said, adding that Karla Booth and Maria Williams received the honor last year.

Now that the dance festival seems to have outgrown Cuddy Hall-and since community members now outnumber students-that may not be a bad idea. But whatever happens next, it will be thanks to the continued dedication of UAA students who seek to bring their community together.

"I think it's important because it gives you a sense of home," UAA freshman Byron Nicholai said of the event. "Because back at home, there are potlucks like that and we all gather to dance after the potluck. So it was very wonderful."

Native Student Council organized Giving Thanks with the support of co-sponsors American Indian Science & Engineering Society, student-led Christian ministry group Arigaa, Native Student Services, Club Council and Diversity Action Council.

 

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At the annual Thanksgiving Day Feast on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2016, members of USUAA and other students volunteer will serve a full, hot Thanksgiving dinner to both the University of Alaska Anchorage and wider Anchorage communities. The meal is offered free in the Gorsuch Commons.

The event serves the community as a whole, including housing students-many of whom are unable to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families outside of Alaska.

Though the meal is offered for free, we are accepting cash and canned food donations for the UAA Emergency Food Cache + Dean of Students Emergency Fund.