The Alutiiq Museum Welcomes New Executive Director

Digital drawing of April Laktonen Counceller via Kodiak College.

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

The Alutiiq Museum recently hired a new executive director.

April Laktonen Counceller was an instructor of Alutiiq Language and Alaska Native Studies at Kodiak College before accepting the position. She says she’s been involved at the museum in different capacities for around twelve years, including as an employee and as a member of the board, and wanted to join the staff again.

“When I recently found out that the museum director position was coming open, I felt this strong pull," says Laktonen Counceller. "Even though I love working at the college and I’m maintaining a role there, I felt like I really needed to apply for this job and see if I could take the museum to the next twenty years.”
 
Laktonen Counceller is originally from Larsen Bay and has been influential in the learning of Alutiiq language in Kodiak. Margaret Roberts, the Alutiiq Heritage Foundation Chair, says she’s known Laktonen Councellor since she was a young girl.
 
“She’s been with us for a very long time, reawaking our language, documenting our culture," says Roberts. "The museum has helped to grow the knowledge of Alutiiq traditions and it has helped to grow a new generation of cultural leaders, and among them is Dr. April Laktonen Counsellor."

She takes over from Alisha Drabek and says her schedule has been packed during the transition.

“With the museum’s anniversary happening and graduation at the college and my predecessor having her start date at the Afognak Native Corporation, where she was recruited to, this has just been such an intense month so far."

She says nonprofit organizations, Native corporations and educational institutions in Kodiak are interconnected. While working for one, she says she often interacts with another.

“My very first day at work, I didn’t even make it to the museum because we were running a summit, which was over at Kodiak College, so there’s a lot of overlap with the work because of the collaborations that we do in our community."
                  
Laktonen Counceller says for museum projects in the near future, they’ll look at updating the permanent gallery.

“There are a couple of exhibit cases that have remained the same since back in the mid-2000s, and so we really want to get them updated," says Laktonen Counceller. "There’s new information about our history that comes out every time there’s an archaeological dig, so there’s new things we want to share with the community."

And she says the museum is already doing a great job with that.

“There’s not a whole lot that we need to add to what the museum already does," says Laktonen Counceller. "I just want to continue that excellent work and help facilitate my staff, because they’re so hard working and anything that I can do to make things easier for people is how I see my leadership role here at the museum.”

If you’d like me to meet Laktonen Counceller, you can drop by the Alutiiq Museum’s First Friday event at 7 p.m.