ADORNMENTS FROM THE SEA

My latest research on how fish remnants: skins, bones, bladders, vertebrae, and otoliths, were transformed into garments, shoes, containers, tools, oils, glues, and adornments among Alaska Native and Greenlandic Inuit women. These practices reflect zero-waste traditions, local ecologies, and ancestral relationships with the marine world.

The paper draws on Indigenist methodologies, ethnographic records, and sustainability studies to reveal how these technologies were used far beyond the utilitarian, linking makers and wearers to spirits, animal kin, and Arctic environments. These traditions lasted even after European contact, adapting through the incorporation of new embellishment items such as glass trade beads and cotton threads. 

As in my previous work, I connect research on Indigenous innovation and environmental humanities to contemporary applications of fish by-products, highlighting their relevance for today’s makers, researchers, sustainability practitioners and current debates in fashion and material design. I remain committed to making my research accessible to all, not just academics. Access to knowledge should be shared widely.

I am especially thankful to all the Native Elders that keep supporting my work, Smithsonian Institution Arctic Studies Center and to Wild MDPI editors for offering the opportunity to publish in this new journal within MDPI. I am also very grateful to The Costume Society which allowed me to share the preliminary results of this research at their conference last November. 

You can find the article here: https://www.mdpi.com/3042-4526/2/3/30


209f353c735df4781f6d7918280c1091.jpg4b3f7826a8e6b6df787c2a640208431d.jpgf4ca391bbb87043f0d9293c99ddfa6eb.jpg