Last year, the museum accepted a gift into the collection that serves as a powerful symbol of change and resilience. It has not yet been on view.
In 1971 Timothy Kennedy was on a small mail plane in Alaska when he noticed the light casting perfectly on the face of a woman sitting in the seat behind him. He was not a photographer but felt compelled to take a picture. Using a camera he had for a project he was working on for the Domestic Peace Corps, he snapped the picture, producing a stunning black and white close-up portrait of the woman he would learn was named Naanguaq. Her English name was Martha Camille. Neither of them knew it then, but the portrait soon would become a symbol of the Alaskan Native land claim fight.
When Alaska became a state in 1959, there were unresolved disputes about who had rightful claim to Alaskan Native lands. Land issues had been put off for decades with the understanding that Congress would settle land claims in the future. When oil was discovered in Alaska in 1967, this changed with a sudden sense of urgency to address the issues, and Alaskan land claims became a nationwide debate.
“Take our land, take our life,” became a rallying cry for the Alaskan Native communities that had banded together to demand that Congress grant them ownership of the land they had been stewarding for thousands of years. With permission from Naanguaq, Kennedy donated the photograph of her to the advocacy group, Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN), which printed posters using the picture with the words “TAKE OUR LAND … TAKE OUR LIFE.” This impactful image became synonymous with Alaskan Native land and civil rights, reminding us of the potential power of a portrait.
The AFN’s efforts were largely successful. In 1971 President Nixon signed into law the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), transferring 44 million acres to Alaska Native shareholders. The federal government also compensated the people $962.5 million for land lost. It was the largest land claim settlement in U.S. history and widely regarded as a major achievement for the Alaskan Native population—though challenges and complexities introduced by the Act are still being addressed today.
This photographic work was donated to The James Museum in 2024 by the artist, Timothy Kennedy. When Kennedy took this photograph in 1971, he was working as a VISTA volunteer in Alaska, where there were some 17 language groups, dozens of tribes and dozens more villages. Further, the terrain and lack of infrastructure made it difficult for these isolated villages to communicate with each other, let alone with government “decision-makers.” Recognizing these problems, Kennedy spent 11 years building the SKYRIVER project—a video-based initiative that allowed Native Alaskans in remote areas to directly express their concerns to government officials. The project led to three significant policy changes, enhanced citizen participation in policymaking, and fostered communication among neighboring villages. For more information about this, we recommend reading Kennedy’s book, Where the River Meet the Sky: A Collaborative Approach to Participatory Development. Kennedy now lives in the Tampa Bay area.
If you have any information you would like to share about Martha Camille (Naanguaq), please contact the Curatorial department at [email protected].
