Melissa Nenantaxnen Shaginoff is an Ahtna and Paiute person, a tribal citizen of Chickaloon Village Traditional Council and the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, and a member of the Udzisyu (Caribou) clan. She is an interdisciplinary artist, language warrior, poet, and museum professional who currently serves as the Alaska Specialist for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.
Her artistic practice explores conversation as medium and land-based materiality as a guiding and relational reflection. In her museum work, Melissa focuses on expanding community accessibility and reimagining the future of cultural belongings within institutional collections.
Melissa studied at the University of Alaska Anchorage and the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is a recipient of the Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Award and the inaugural Governor’s Humanities Rising Award.
She lives and works on Dena’ina lands in Dghayitnu (Anchorage, Alaska).