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City Museum receives Award for Excellence for ‘Echoes of War’ exhibit

October 9, 2020 – News

The Juneau-Douglas City Museum has won Museums Alaska’s Award for Excellence in the Museum Field for their current exhibit, “Echoes of War: Unangax̂ Internment during WWII.” Congratulations to the museum staff, and the museum’s public, tribal, and private partners for receiving this great honor.

The exhibit was created in partnership with the Pribilof Islands communities of St. Paul and St. George, whose ancestors were forcibly interned at Funter Bay on Admiralty Island from 1942-1944. The exhibit documents the forced evacuation from the Pribilof Islands, the dehumanizing living conditions of the internment camps, the involuntary labor of the Unangax̂ men, and the U.S. military’s occupation and destruction of Aleut homes and villages. It also details the aid and comfort provided by the Tlingit people, the resilience of the Unangax̂ culture, and the attempt at restitution with the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. The exhibit is part of a larger initiative being undertaken by a statewide collaborative group working to preserve the gravesites at Funter Bay and place interpretive panels there.

On Monday at 6:30 p.m., the museum is hosting a livestream panel conversation about the exhibit. All the panelists are current or former residents of St. Paul and have family members who were interned at Funter Bay. You can watch the discussion on Zoom or Facebook Live.

The public can view the award-winning exhibit “Echoes of War: Unangax̂ Internment during WWII” through summer 2021.

More information can be found at juneau.org/museum. Enjoy FREE admission at the museum for all of October thanks to Dan and Alma Harris.