FISHSKINLAB - CRAFTING CONNECTIONS

CRAFTING CONNECTIONS

For the V&A Creative Connections: Museums, Makers and Inclusion Symposium, I presented together with Ana Cordoba Crespo the paper Crafting Connections: Arctic Indigenous Fashion and Museum Collaborations.

Arctic Indigenous communities have long adapted to extreme latitudes through women’s ecological knowledge, crafting garments from fishskin, birdskin, gutskin, and woven grass. Colonial-era displacement of these belongings into distant institutions disrupted intergenerational knowledge transmission. This presentation examines how creative practices rooted in Arctic Indigenous clothing traditions can inform equitable museum practices and support reconnection with historically marginalised communities.

Building on over three decades of work by the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center (ASC), which has collaborated with Alaska Native Elders to return over 600 artefacts and co-curated a permanent exhibition at the Anchorage Museum, this presentation explores shared stewardship as a pathway to institutional change. Since 2017, ASC research associate and fashion designer Elisa Palomino has led workshops engaging Indigenous artists in reviving Arctic fashion and accessing traditional knowledge within museum collections. In 2025, the Smithsonian and the Penn Museum—two of the largest North American museums—co-hosted Deep Dig Arctic Fashion, a virtual programme featuring Indigenous Elders and curators. Two case studies: Salmon Entanglements, led by Sugpiaq Elder June Pardue, Palomino and William Wierzbowski, Curator of Penn’s North American Collections; and Arctic Fashion: Sustainability, Identity and Healing, led by Palomino and Stephen Loring, ASC Museum Anthropologist, highlight creative co-production in reshaping institutional narratives.

Reconstructing the processing of fish skin through historical artefacts, examining its creation, use, repair and preservation, reveals that as globalisation threatens to render centuries of knowledge obsolete, safeguarding it becomes increasingly urgent. The programme featured partnerships based on trust and centred on Elders as Knowledges Keepers. These collaborations between museums help move institutions from extractive repositories to co-creative spaces that expand interpretation, inform conservation, and reach underserved audiences. These efforts model a shift towards relational practice, confirming that we are strongest when we work together to honour the past, sustain the present and shape inclusive futures.