Elizabeth Peratrovich Mural - Juneau, AK

ABOUT THE MURAL

Kaakeeyaa yóo x̱at duwasáakw. Yéil áyá x̱át. Lukaax̱.ádix̱ x̱at sitee. Shangukeidí yádi áyá x̱át. My Tlingit name is Kaakeeyaa. I am a Tlingit and Athabascan creator. I am a member of the Sockeye clan and a child of the Thunderbird clan. I am inspired and driven by the cultural training and values instilled in me by my family and clan members. Living off Áak'w Kwáan territory and participating in cultural events provide me a wealth of knowledge that feeds my creativity.

In 2018 a good friend of mine Pat Race proposed the idea of painting a mural to commemorate Elizabeth. Since then we worked really hard to manage this project, and jump through all the hurdles to make this mural happen in Juneau. There have been many challenges including the pandemic and natural disasters that have challenged access to materials coming from Texas. I have gotten permission from my clan members and Elizabeth's family members to create this project.

This mural was created to commemorate Elizabeth Kaax̱gal.aat Peratrovich, a Tlingit civil rights activist who worked for equality for Alaska Natives in the 1940s. She advocated and forged a way for the enactment of the State of Alaska’s Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, one of the first anti-discrimination laws in the United States. I am proud to honor my fellow clan member of the Lukaax̱.ádi (Sockeye Salmon). She is located on downtown Juneau’s library wall facing the newly expanded dock on Áak'w Kwáan territory.

The mural is 60 feet wide by 25 feet high and is made of 65 panels. The planning of the project took 3 years due to the covid pandemic and flooding in Texas where the paints and adhesive materials are manufactured. The mural was completed in rainy, windy, September, 2021. This mural was developed with community-based support. Including the help of my wonderful apprentices.

The design includes a modernized version of the Lukaax̱.ádix̱ clan crest, the Sockeye Salmon along with Elizabeth’s moiety, the Raven in Tlingit formline design. I superimposed Elizabeth’s iconic portrait of her into the vectored artwork. Once completed I sent the digital file to Mural Provisions in Philadelphia to be digitally printed on polytab (the same material as a parachute!) Fabric. Once the panels were shipped to Juneau my apprentices and I hand painted them to add texture, iridescence, and more detail. Afterwards I had help applying the panels to the wall. This required extensive measuring, operating a lift, trimming each panel, applying messy adhesive gel to each panel, and registration of each panel. The whole project took three years, but in this part we accomplished in three days since the weather was pressing. Needless to say I was a bit stressed out, but I am ever grateful for the pizza and coffee deliveries from so many community members!

There are many supplies and tools necessary to complete this massive 60ft x 25ft mural. I am grateful that I reached out to my community to help with crowd source funding and moral support. I've wanted to see a public art piece commemorating Elizabeth Peratrovich for so long, and it's my honor to contribute my time and work to see this through.

Educating the public about the local Indigenous values, culture, and history is important for Alaskans and visitors alike. I hope that this mural will contribute to the movement to transform Juneau into the Northwest Coast arts capital of the world and will beautify and enhance the downtown Juneau area. Moreover, the mural will foster community partnerships and pride, and, as an attraction, contribute to the local economy. With the world recovering from the COVID pandemic and embracing racial and social justice ideals, artists must also rise to the occasion to tell our history and our stories. Let's make Juneau colorful and show our pride of our history, on Áak'w Kwáan territory.

ABOUT Elizabeth Peratrovich

Elizabeth Peratrovich—whose Tlingit name is Kaaxgal.aat, a member of the Lukaax.̱ ádi clan of the Raven moiety—was born on July 4, 1911 in Petersburg, Alaska during a time of extensive segregation in the territory. She was lovingly raised by adoptive parents, living in various small Southeast Alaska communities throughout her childhood. With a passion for teaching, Peratrovich attended college in Bellingham, Washington where she also became reacquainted with her husband, Roy Peratrovich, who was a student at the same school. The couple married and moved to Klawock, Alaska where their role in local politics and Elizabeth’s knack for leadership drove her heavy involvement with the Alaska Native Sisterhood, one of the oldest civil rights groups in the world, leading to her eventual appointment as the organization’s Grand President.

Seeking better access to lawmakers who could help effect change, the Peratrovichs moved in 1941 with their three children to the Alaskan capital of Juneau, where they were met with blatant discrimination. When attempting to buy a home in their new city, they were denied when the sellers saw they were of Alaska Native descent. Instances like these were unfortunately common for Alaska’s Indigenous peoples and further motivated Peratrovich to take action in the name of systemic change.

Elizabeth and Roy worked with others to draft Alaska’s first anti-discrimination bill, which was introduced in 1941 and failed to pass. On February 5, 1945 following years of perseverance, a second anti-discrimination bill was brought before the Alaska Senate, and Peratrovich took to the floor to deliver an impassioned call for equal treatment for Indigenous peoples. She was met with thunderous applause throughout the gallery, and her moving testimony is widely credited as a decisive factor in the passage of the historic Anti- Discrimination Act of 1945.’ - Google

TEAM ELIZABETH PERATROVICH APPRENTICES

Crystal Worl
Pattern on EP’s Jacket & Earrings are designs by Rico Worl
Ben Volta of Mural Provisions
James Temte of Alaska Pacific University
Carl Tuzroyluke (SHI Intern)
Konrad Frank
Pat Race
Cedar Group Alaska
Ryan Cortez
Mark Rainery
Kai Monture
Chloey Cavanaugh
Marcus Austin Hines
Philadelphia PA
Logan Dale Terry
Juneau AK
Apprentices for painting:
Shara Kay Diamond
Anchorage, AK
Jalynn Michael Gregory
Juneau AK
Chelsea Rae Bighorn
Santa Fe, NM

About the materials & method

https://fb.watch/jo_Z9MIwZ2/

3 Layout of panels at Centennial Hall.JPG

Mural Cloth also known as Polytab and Parachute Cloth.

Mural Cloth is non-woven fabric that is primed with 2 coats of the highest quality interior / exterior primer. It can be worked on with almost any paint and media. Your mural can be painted on cloth inside and adhered to a wall using acrylic gel medium.

Over the past 4 -5 years Mural Provisions has worked with hundreds of artists to print outlines and ghost images of their designs on mural cloth. Printing the mural design eliminates the hours spent transferring the artist design to the cloth. Since the print registration is incredibly accurate printing the design has proven to save an incredible amount of time during installation.

We sell primed mural cloth by the linear foot to more traditional mural artists who like to use a projector to transfer their design onto mural cloth.Primed mural cloth is also great for collage, crafting and for painting in art classrooms.

We also print unmatched high resolution pigment prints on cloth. These prints come ready to install and can be painted over if desired. High Res prints are coated with acrylic sealers for interior walls and coated with a thick UV protective coating to maximize life outdoors. - Mural Provisions

You can learn more about mural cloth here:

https://www.muralprovisions.com/mural-cloth-polytab

The Mural cloth for the EP mural was first printed on, shipped to Alaska, and then painted on using Golden paint mural paints.

Golden Paintworks® Mural & Theme Paints are formulated using advanced, exterior pigments and resin technologies to create an array of clean, intense, lightfast colors for painting and enhancing a wide variety of projects from murals to themed façades, entertainment venues, and color branded commercial buildings.

After painting, each panel of mural cloth are applied to the wall surface using mural adhesive gel. Golden Paintworks® Mural Adhesive Gel is an excellent adhesive with flexibility, chemical, water and UV resistance. Designed for adhering parachute cloth to the wall when creating a mural on sections of parachute cloth (non-woven fabric) for later installation.

You can find Golden mural paint and adhesive gel here: https://www.goldenpaintworks.com/gpw-mural-paints/