Edwin Weyiouanna

Edwin Weyionanna is an award-winning carver from Shishmaref, Alaska. Shishmaref is located on Sarichef Island in the Chukchi Sea, just north of the Bering Strait and five miles from the mainland.

Born to Steven and Flora Weyionanna on February 13, 1965, Edwin comes from a prominent family of Inupiaq artisans and culture bearers. He attended elementary and secondary school in Shishmaref. From 1983 to 1986, Edwin traveled to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he studied three-dimensional carving, jewelry and printmaking.

Upon returning to his Shishmaref home, he started working with fossilized whalebone, walrus ivory, and baleen. The subjects of his sculptures include Inupiaq hunters, fisherman, and drummers. His pieces are often inlaid with decorative circles of baleen and walrus ivory. His tools are a combination of adzes, axes, grinders, and files.

Edwin searches along the coast for old whalebone and gets much of his bone from Teller, Alaska. He says he is “an occasional hunter favoring ducks and ptarmigan.”