Trina Landlord

Development Officer
Healthy Alaska Natives Foundation

Anchorage, Alaska
 

November is Alaska Natives and Native American Heritage Month, and I am honored to have welcomed Trina Landlord to Episode #28 of “People in Fundraising.”

 

An Alaska Native of the Yup’ik tribe, Trina wonderfully and colorfully shares her personal and professional experiences working with Alaska-based non-profits that serve the 299 Indigenous tribes and 5 distinct cultural groups in the 49th state. She works in Anchorage, which is on the Dena’ina tribal land and is the 4th-largest U.S. city by land area.

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Her one-year anniversary at the Healthy Alaska Natives Foundation is tomorrow, November 15th. Our interview was the day after Mary Peltola, the first Alaska Native in Congress and the first woman to represent Alaska in the U.S. House of Representatives, led in the polls for a full term. 

 

Highlights of our conversation:

* Her passion is nonprofit work within the Alaska Native community

* The small community of nonprofit fundraisers in Alaska who come from the Alaska Native/Indigenous community

* General assumptions, misconceptions, and lack of awareness that people in the Lower 48 have about Alaska and the Indigenous Inuit peoples native to Alaska

*The answer is always no…until you ask 😉

* Trina’s emphasis on three R’s – respect, relationships, and reciprocity

* The significance of the raven (tulukaruq in Yup’ik) in Alaska Indigenous cultures. One is seen in a print behind Trina in our chat, titled “The Madonna of the Beginning of the Mountains to the North and to the South”

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Thank you, Trina, for a very thought-provoking and special interview!