July 6 PA Arts Sunday - Part 2

On June 30th, a dramatic sculpture by artist Roy Peratrovich, Jr, dedicated to his parents, Elizabeth and Roy Peratrovich, was unveiled at Peratrovich Park, in the heart of downtown Anchorage.

The artist is Roy and Elizabeth's son. Roy, like his parents, has challenged barriers all his life. He was the first Alaska Native to be registered as a civil engineer. His company, Peratrovich, Nottingham & Drage, has built some of the most remarkable, enduring structures in Alaska.

After a long and very successful international career as a civil engineer, he turned to sculpture. As his web page biography describes it, "in 1999 Roy retired from PN&D and turned full time to his life long love of creating art, a natural talent that had been put on hold for many years.

"Often drawing on tribal legends, he loves telling a story through his art."

Interviewing Roy about this, he told me "somebody gave me a piece of clay some time back, and I just liked the feel of turning it into something." The sculpture just dedicated, is called "The Flight of the Raven." It is bronze, stainless steel, ceramic and marble. Roy, still an engineer at heart, told me, "it had to be designed to withstand 100 mile-per-hour winds, and the ice and all that. It took four years."

At last week's dedication, Roy got to see the finished work for the first time. He had created a much smaller version of the piece, to study his design concepts, but the finished, full-size sculpture is an impressive addition to Anchorage's community art.

At the dedication ceremony, Anchorage Mayor and U.S. senate candidate, Mark Begich, said, "the Flight of the Raven sculpture is symbolic of the tireless work the Peratrovichs did to eliminate discrimination and bring equal rights to Alaska. Elizabeth and Roy are an important part of Alaska’s rich history and it’s fitting that we honor them today with the dedication of this beautiful sculpture.”

Alaska Native progressive blogger, Writing Raven from Alaska Real was there, and took the picture of the statue at the top of this article. She wrote a post about it afterward that includes some great links on the elder Peratrovich's and their key role in making Alaska a far better place. Roy's bust of his mother, is on display in the foyer of the State Legislative Building in Juneau, and a copy of it is on permanent display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indians.

Along with Mayor Begich, Alaska civil rights leader and U.S. House seat candidate Diane Benson was there. Benson, who has written a play, now being made into an HBO movie, about Elizabeth Peratrovich's heroic civil rights battle, gave the speech Elizabeth delivered before the Alaska Territorial Legislature, in February, 1945. The speech was in favor of banning public discrimination against Alaska Natives in the Territory of Alaska.

In that 1945 speech, Peratrovich was testifying in the wake of some very ugly comments earlier in the day by prominent Alaska Republican legislators.

Fairbanks Senator, Frank Whaley, in opposition to the bill, said he didn't want to sit next to an Eskimo in the theater, "Because they smell."

Republican Allen Shattuck said, "Far from being brought closer together, which will result from this bill, the races should be kept further apart.

"Who are these people, barely out of savagery, who want to associate with us whites with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind us?"

There were other ugly, racist comments, so typical of the GOP then, and now.

Last week, Diane Benson recited Elizabeth Peratrovich's heroic 1945 response:

"I would not have expected, that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind gentlemen with five thousand years of recorded civilization behind them of our Bill or Rights.

"When my husband and I came to Juneau and sought a home in a nice neighborhood where our children could play happily with our neighbors' children, we found such a house and had arranged to lease it. When the owners learned that we were Indians, they said 'no.' Would we be compelled to live in the slums?

"There are three kinds of persons who practice discrimination.

"First, the politician who wants to maintain an inferior minority group so that he can always promise them something.

"Second, the Mr. and Mrs. Jones who aren't quite sure of their social position and who are nice to you on one occasion and can't see you on others, depending on who they are with.

"Third, the great superman who believes in the superiority of the white race."

images courtesy of Writing Raven, Roy Peratrovich, Jr, and the Diane Benson campaign