The University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Oral History Archive hosts a unique treasure of 13,000+ recorded interviews. To facilitate the access to these recordings, the archive has created Project Jukebox, which provides convenient access to recordings by themes. The latest addition to the Project Jukebox collection is ‘Ethnobotany, Ethnomedicine and Traditional Ways of Healing’. The project aims to make existing interviews accessible and to add new ones to the collection.
The project would not be possible without the dedicated support of the Oral History collection’s team and our two most dedicated interviewers and transcribers, Jennifer Andrulli and Stefanie Burich. Jennifer Andrulli is a traditional healer of Yup’ik-Italian descent and adjunct professor at UAA. Jen started a series interviewing contemporary Alaska Native healers to showcase the vitality, diversity and relevance of Indigenous Knowledge in today’s world.
Project Jukebox Ethnobotany is a work in progress. All interviews have to be transcribed before they can be published, which is a time-consuming process. Several interviews are being prepared for publication and the website does not reflect all the treasures we have to offer. At this point, we just want the first steps – please bear with us and keep checking in!