Chandre Iqugan Szafran, Inupiaq

Chandre’s Inupiaq name is Iqugan, given by her grandfather after his cousin from White Mountain/Iġaluik. She is told that Iqugan was good at forecasting the weather. “Chandra” is a name common in India; a white dwarf star was named after the astrophysicist Chandrasekhar who discovered it. “Chandra” in Sanskrit literally translates to “bright, shining, glittering.”

Chandre grew up in Sitŋasuaq/Nome, going to camp in her ancestral homelands in the Fish River communities of Akauchak/Council and Aŋuutaq/Solomon; and grew up in the Spenard neighborhood of Dgheyay Kaq’/Anchorage, the ancestral homeland of Dena’ina peoples. It is Alaska’s largest city.

Point of View

Chandre’s work is rooted at the intersections of heritage, culture, class, and environment. Her music taste developed with grunge and indie, and with the heartbeats in which drumming, stomping, and electronic beats are rooted.

Chandre’s creative works are drawn to interrogate contemporary assumptions about relationships among humans, nonhumans, time, and place. She embodies the Inupiaq value of humor, which functions to de-fang forces larger than humans.

As Native creators, our work often faces the non-Native gaze. In those spaces, Chandre believes it is our responsibility to know when to deconstruct contemporary “Indigenized” narratives.

Education

Chandre is grateful to learn from Indigenous people globally through cohorts and residencies in Alaska, North America, Europe, and around the Pacific Rim. She is a working writer, creative contributor, and active Tribal and community member in Alaska.

Chandre holds an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from the United States’ only accredited university of Indigenous art forms, the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and a BA English Rhetoric from the University of Alaska Anchorage.

She loves traveling, biking, music, literature, pop culture, berries, fish, tacos, noodles, and the outdoors.