A dramatic story of a culture saving its lost art and history comes to life with in the special edition of Koahnic Broadcast Corporation's national program, Earthsongs. This one-hour radio documentary project stems from a partnership with United States Artist (USA) Rockefeller Fellow and George Peabody Award-Winning Artist, Dmae Roberts and Koahnic's Earthsongs Host and Producer, Shyanne Beatty.
The documentary details the long-sought return of the Alutiiq Masks from France to Kodiak. In the winter of 1872, a French anthropologist, Alphonse Pinart, traveled the Kodiak archipelago, assembling one of the world's most extensive collections of Alutiiq ceremonial masks, and brought them back to France. In May, 2008, 34 of these Alutiiq ceremonial masks were returned to their people and exhibited at The Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak, Alaska. The documentary features artists who helped make the return possible and unveils secrets of the masks that unlocked song, stories and forgotten language once thought lost.