The Kenai Peninsula is no stranger to arts and crafts fairs, like the Soldotna Wednesday Market and Kenai’s Holiday Cheer Christmas Bazaar. But only one fair in the region is exclusive to Native arts and wares.
The Kenaitze Indian Tribe’s monthly arts and crafts sale, at the Dena’ina Wellness Center in Kenai, has become a hub for Alaska Native and American Indian creators to sell their creations. Shoppers can expect to find anything from paintings, to beaded necklaces, to hand-sewn mittens.
“The arts and crafts sale that we have here is a way that we're able to kind of support our Native community here, let them be able to bring in their arts, their crafts, the things that they've worked on themselves, and kind of promote them to the community that they're able to sell and get money,” said tribal wellness department employee Gavin Ivanoff, who helps run the fair.
The arts and crafts fair averages about 15 Native vendors each month. One of them is Michelle Ravenmoon, a multidisciplinary artist who’s been with the fair since it began a few years ago.
Ravenmoon makes fish skin jewelry and cheekbone earrings from salmon she’s caught. She also sews hats and mittens with fur sourced from local trappers, something she learned from her grandmother and other Native elders.
“When I first started sewing, it felt like coming home," Ravenmoon said. "It was something that I've always done, and I felt like, I don't know, maybe it was just in my DNA.”
Ravenmoon also makes and sells medicinal pain salves from Alaska plants. And because the craft fair is hosted in the lobby of a medical clinic, she says those sell quite well.
“I think that's the beneficial part of being here at the clinic, is that people come looking for healing," Ravenmoon said. "I feel like natural things, not only the plant medicines, but things that are made from the land, are very healing. It's our connection back to the earth.”
The tribe’s craft fair only accounts for about 10% of Ravenmoon’s sales. But she says it's her favorite market because it gives her a space to network and connect with other Native artists, like Denise Nerby.
Seated across the clinic’s lobby with thread and needle in hand, Nerby says she reignited a childhood passion for bead art during the pandemic and now does it as a way to make money on the side. She’s also new to Kenai, and says the Native craft fair helped her meet like-minded people in the area.
Nerby says the supportive community of crafters, and buyers, is what brings her back to the tribe’s craft fair each month.
“I think just support to local artists is important, because we live here and we are paying bills here, we're buying our groceries here," Nerby said. "So getting that and putting it back into the community just helps to bolster the economy.”
The monthly fair makes up less than a quarter of Nerby’s sales. But like Ravenmoon, she mostly participates in it because of its camaraderie. And she likes that the tribe doesn’t charge vendors to sell their goods, which she says is uplifting to Native creators.
“I just think it's important to come out and support your local artists, especially Native artists, because we're trying to bring awareness to our culture so that it doesn't seem like such a distant thing,” Nerby said.
“I think it's really important to have diversity and for people to be exposed to that, especially in the summertime, when we have so many people coming in," Ravenmoon added. "It is important to have that exposure in a safe place, too, for Native crafters to come and sell their wares.”
While the clinic primarily serves the medical needs of Native people, the clinic’s arts and crafts fair is open to all shoppers. It typically runs the second Friday of the month.
For updates on the tribe's arts and crafts sale, visit the Kenaitze Indian Tribe's Facebook page.
