Northern sea ice levels are at an historical and millennial low, and nowhere are the effects of contemporary climate change more pronounced and destructive than in the Arctic. The Western Arctic rim of North America is considered the climate change "miners canary", with temperatures increasing at twice the global average. In the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (Y-K Delta), Western Alaska, the indigenous Yup'ik Eskimos are facing life-altering decisions in an uncertain future, as rising temperatures, melting permafrost and coastal erosion threaten traditional subsistence lifeways, livelihoods and settlements - the Yup'ik face becoming "the world's first climate change refugees" (The Guardian 2008). For the Yup'ik, however - whose relationship to the total environment is central to their worldview - coping with global climate change entails far more than adapting to new physical and ecological conditions. This is reflected in the holistic incorporation of both natural and social phenomena embodied in the use of the Yup'ik word ella, (variably translating as "weather", "world", "universe", "awareness"), which is understood in intensely social as well as physical terms. Ella reflects the relationship Yup'ik society has with the natural world. As changing environmental conditions jeopardise traditional subsistence practices in the Arctic, their deep-rooted dependency and social connection to the land is also threatened - further severing their ecological ties and compromising their cultural adaptive capacity that has defined Yup'ik community and identity for thousands of years. Rapid climatic change is by no means a uniquely modern phenomenon and the indigenous cultures of this region have faced such life-changing situations before. In fact, Western Alaska has experienced pronounced climatic variations within the last millennia, with the forebears of the Yup'ik being similarly challenged by regime shifts that would have influenced the availability of important subsistence resources, much the same as their descendants face today. The ELLA project will use both the products and processes of archaeological research to understand how Yup'ik Eskimos adapted to rapid climate change in the late prehistoric past (AD 1350-1700), and to inform and empower descendant Yup'ik communities struggling with contemporary global warming today. Taking full advantage of the spectacular but critically endangered archaeological resource now emerging from melting permafrost along the Bering Sea coast, this community-based project will illuminate the adaptive capacity of the precontact Yup'ik; build sustainable frameworks for the documenting of local sites under threat; and reinforce Yup'ik cultural resilience by providing new contexts for encountering and documenting their past.

This grant follows on from research grant AH/K006029/1 and networking grant AH/R014523/1 This project supports the development of an online 'digital museum' facilitating remote access to the internationally significant but remotely located Nunalleq archaeological collection. This will be realised through co-curation between the local Yup'ik community and Nunalleq archaeologists of an interactive website containing a selection of digitised artefacts from the collection, accompanying multi-vocal narrative and mixed-media outcomes. The Nunalleq Project was initiated in 2009, and has since produced an archaeological collection of nearly 100,000 artefacts, by far the largest existing example of pre-contact Yup'ik material culture - and a crucial anchor for a wide range of local and non-local heritage and humanities research and educational efforts.The collection was returned to the descendant community of Quinhagak, a Native Yup'ik village in the Yukon-Kuskokwim (YK) Delta of Southwestern Alaska, in August 2018. It is now under the care of the local community, housed in the purpose built Nunalleq Culture and Archaeology Centre, the only native owned archaeological repository in the area and a direct outcome of AHRC grant AH/K006029/1.The quantity and quality of the archaeological material recovered at Nunalleq is exceptional and has provided an entirely new chapter in Alaska archaeology. Disseminating these significant findings and archaeological material to a wider audience is essential for ensuring the long-term impact of the project, as well as supporting the longevity and vitality of the Culture Center. The collection, being housed in a remote location, while immediately accessible to the residents of Quinhagak, is difficult to access for people in the other 47 Native villages in the YK Delta - as well as the wider world outside the Yup'ik homeland. As such, digitising this collection is vital for wider engagement and dissemination and should be created on conditions which respond to the local needs to ensure that the descendant community retains authorship of their history. This project will take a collaborative approach to generating content and narrative for the digital museum, working in partnership with the local community in Quinhagak to curate and creatively respond to artefacts digitised using 3D scanning and photography for the online collection. This collaboration will be structured by a series of 4 workshops responding to themes identified by community members during the 'Living Heritage' workshops (AH/R014523/1) in Quinhagak in August 2018 as especially relevant to the community and their contemporary engagements with the archaeological material; (1)hunting and fishing (2)subsistence gathering (3)ceremony and celebration (4)identity and adornment. Selected artefacts will serve as inspiration for workshop activities and as catalysts for focussed storytelling, combining archaeological and local knowledge with hands-on activities to create engaging mixed-media content such as photo stories, short films, artefact replicas and interactive media. By supporting our methodology of community co-curation in practice this grant will strengthen the impact of the existing research by connecting the contemporary lived experience and traditional knowledge of the Yup'ik community with archaeological science and interpretation. This approach of collaboratively creating public outreach reinforces the project's ethos of cultivating an equal partnership between academic practice and local community. To date, the Nunalleq Project has not only produced world-class scientific research on pre-contact Yup'ik culture but has evidenced time and time again the strength of community collaboration through the work Quinhagak is doing to take charge of its story and share it with the wider world. Ultimately, the project is an ongoing demonstration of how and why we should be working to make archaeology relevant for people today.

The main aim of the proposed project is to bring together researchers, local community representatives and decision makers, regional professionals in the heritage sector and representatives from regional Native Alaskan organisations in order to build a support network to ensure the success and long term-sustainability of the newly established cultural centre and archaeological repository in the Native village of Quinhagak, Alaska. The goal is to provide a platform for collaboration across academic/non-academic boundaries, and to engage - on equal terms - different stakeholders in a dialogue to identify new and creative ways of participation and engagement in archaeological material and traditional culture. Since the Nunalleq archaeological project began in 2009, seven field seasons have produced one of the largest archaeological collections recovered from Alaska, containing more than 60,000 artefacts. The quantity and quality of Yup'ik pre-contact material in the collection are unprecedented, and represent an invaluable cultural and scientific resource. With the conclusion of the AHRC founded ELLA project, the Nunalleq project is entering a new phase, with the collection being returned to the indigenous descendant community of Quinhagak where it will be housed in a purpose built cultural centre and archaeological repository; the Nunalleq Culture and Archaeology Center. The collection will be curated by the village community, with technical advice and training from the University of Aberdeen. The Nunalleq project is a fully integrated community-based effort with full and heartfelt participation and engagement. The return of the archaeological material will allow for this engagement to continue beyond the summer field season. Returning an archaeological collection of this importance to an indigenous community is nearly unique with no set protocols, so these must be established in a collaborative dynamic. The archaeological collection is a significant cultural asset for the local community, and taking full control over it provides fantastic opportunities. However, it also comes with considerable challenges. The success and sustainability of the Nunalleq Center is hinging on continued collaboration between researchers and professionals on one hand, and the Native community and local representatives on the other. This demands engagement from both sides, and after the formal funding of the project comes to an end this engagement is dependent on personal commitment. This networking event will take the form of a short series of highly focused workshops directly connected to the return of the Nunalleq archaeological collection to the Indigenous Yup'ik community of Quinhagak, Alaska. The proposed series of workshops is a crucial step in strengthening existing ties within the project, and creating new ones including regional professionals from the cultural sector as well as regional Native Alaskan organisations. The overarching goal of the project is the preservation and long-term protection of the archaeological collection, and the development of a concrete plan for its continued engagement with, and support for, Yup'ik cultural and educational life in the village and region, as well as ensuring it continues to be an accessible recourse for research. The aim is that the archaeological collection should be an accessible and multifaceted resource for cultural engagement on many different levels. The outcome of the workshops will be strengthened collaboration, and a set of ideas on how to create sustainable ways of communication, dissemination and engagement for the future. This is in the interest of the preservation and long-term protection of the archaeological collection, but also to promote the archaeological material as a resource for engagements with traditional Yup'ik culture, and for education purposes, as well as a resource for researchers.