NEW BEDFORD, MA—The Alaska Native Heritage Center's High School Dance Group will present a traditional Native dance performance at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 23, at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, located at 18 Johnny Cake Hill. Admission is free.

The group, dressed in traditional regalia, will perform dances that tell the stories of traditional Alaska Native legends and lifestyles. Their performance repertoire includes Tsimshian, Aleut, Inupiaq, and Yup'ik singing and dancing, which reflect the state's major cultural regions. The group is under the direction of Stephen Blanchett and Ossie Kairaiuak, members of the popular Alaska Native singing group Pamyua.

Co-sponsored by the Museum, New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and the New Bedford Oceanarium, the performance is being funded through the Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations (ECHO) Act. Established by Congress as part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, ECHO is an educational and cultural enrichment initiative serving hundreds of thousands of children and adult continuing learners in Alaska, Hawaii and Massachusetts. It brings collaborative programs produced by six regional cultural institutions to diverse audiences. Working with local partners, such as the National Park Service, schools and community-based organizations, ECHO programs amplify educational benefits, foster greater appreciation of local and national history and assist communities in maximizing the social benefits of new technology.

The ECHO partners include the Museum, Oceanarium and Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts; the Bishop Museum in Hawaii; and the Alaska Native Heritage Center and Inupiat Heritage Center in Alaska.

New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park was established in 1996 to help preserve and interpret America’s 19th century whaling history. The park, which encompasses a 13-block National Historic Landmark District, is the only National Park Service area addressing the history of the whaling industry and its influence on the economic, social and environmental history of the United States. The law creating the park also established an affiliation between the park and the Inupiat Heritage Center in Barrow, Alaska—the northernmost community in the United States—to commemorate over 2,000 New Bedford whaling voyages to Alaska’s North Slope.

The dance troupe's two-day tour in the SouthCoast also includes performances on March 24 at Friends Academy in Dartmouth, Old Hammondtown School in Mattapoisett and Dartmouth Middle School.

For more information on the performance, contact the New Bedford Whaling Museum at (508) 997-0046 x 140.

Prepared March 21, 2003