A Conversation with Sven Haakanson

Sven Haakanson. Courtesy of the MacArthur Foundation

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

The former executive director of the Alutiiq Museum and a prominent member of Kodiak’s Alutiiq culture revival scene, Sven Haakanson, recently returned to town for a brief stay. Haaksanson is a 2007 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, has studied the lives of reindeer herders in Siberia, and is now Curator of Native American Anthropology at the Burke Museum in Seattle and an associate professor at the University of Washington.

In an interview with KMXT, Haakanson talked about how he embarked on his first globe-trotting adventures, and how those experiences influenced his views on Alutiiq culture in Kodiak.

Here’s an excerpt of that conversation he had with KMXT’s Kayla Desroches.