Latest posts
Northern Regional Traditional Games brings athletes together in Juneau for COVID-conscious competition
Middle school boys One Foot High Kick at the Northern Regional Traditional Games. Photo by Lyndsey Brollini. (Official Results) By Lyndsey Brollini Athletes from Juneau and four other communities, Hoonah, Anchorage, Unalakleet, and Kotzebue, competed in the Northern Regional Traditional Games held May 8-9. Last year’s Traditional Games occurred before the pandemic shut down the city, so this was the [...]
A CLOSER LOOK: How SHI’s Celebrations are being digitized, made available online for the first time
Emily Pastore with the original U-matic and Betacam tapes that Celebration 1982 were recorded on and the external hard drive where all the digitized footage is saved. Photo by Lyndsey Brollini. By Lyndsey Brollini Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) recently released all its video from Celebration 1982 onto YouTube, bringing the footage online for public access [...]
Cyril George: 75 Years of Perspective through Photos
Cyril George at Sealaska Heritage recording stories in 2013. Photo by Christy Eriksen By Mikayla Mitchell “I want to thank you for everything you’ve done for pop. Some people will never be forgotten, and neither will you,” said Roberta Jack, daughter of the late Angoon Elder Cyril George, to Kathy Kolkhorst Ruddy over Zoom at [...]
Celebration 2018: Day 1
Thirty-six years after the first Celebration was held in Juneau at the urging of Elders, representatives of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people gathered on stage at Centennial Hall Wednesday evening to welcome thousands of dancers and visitors to Juneau, and to reflect on the continued evolution of an event that has come to be [...]
Photo blog: Frontlet carving workshop
Sealaska Heritage organized a frontlet carving workshop led by Ray Watkins in April and May as part of its Haa Latseen Community Project. About 10 students took the class, held at the Gajaa Hit building in Juneau. They began with fresh-cut alder blanks. Tlingit artist and SHI staff member Donald Héendei Gregory created a Beaver frontlet [...]
Juneau team heads to Native Youth Olympics
A look at the competition categories (About NYO) (Sponsors) Juneau’s newly formed Native Youth Olympics team is heading to the games this week! Ten students from Juneau will via in competitions, including the Alaskan high kick, Eskimo stick pull, one-foot high kick and the seal hop. The games are scheduled April 26-28 at the Alaska [...]
Q & A with Rosita Worl: I feel connected to my Tlingit heritage but am only 1/8 Native by blood quantum. What does this mean for me?
At Sealaska Heritage, we field a lot of questions from the public, researchers and the media about Northwest Coast cultures. This question comes to us from an Anchorage resident with blood ties to the Wooshkeetaan Clan. This person is very passionate about his Native heritage but feels left out because he is only 1/8 Native [...]
Juneau NYO coach wins six medals at circumpolar Arctic Winter Games
Now preparing Juneau team for Native Youth Olympics program co-sponsored by SHI Juneau athlete Kyle Kaayák’w Worl, lead coach for Juneau’s Native Youth Olympics team co-sponsored by Sealaska Heritage, brought home six medals from last week’s Arctic Winter Games, a biennial, international sporting competition open to northern and Arctic athletes. Held this year in Northwest Territories, [...]
SHI President Rosita Worl gives presentation on cultural appropriation to educators, artists
The line between cultural appropriation and cross-cultural communication can be difficult for educators to figure out, acknowledged SHI President Rosita Worl in a presentation to art teachers, artists, and school administrators at the Walter Soboleff Building yesterday. But understanding the difference and building awareness of Northwest Coast (NWC) art traditions in the classroom is critical [...]
Indigenous invention created thousands of years ago recognized for ingenuity
The induction of an ancient Alaska Native tool into the Alaska Innovators Hall of Fame during this week’s Innovation Summit in Juneau highlighted a theme echoed by multiple speakers: traditional Native knowledge can greatly enrich discussions about innovative thinking in Alaska. (The ancient halibut hook engineered by northern Northwest Coast people was inducted into the [...]
Q & A with Rosita Worl: Our orthography, it’s important to get it right
Elders and linguists have spent decades developing a method for spelling our Native languages, which historically were oral languages and not written. It’s important that the orthography is recognized and adhered to in scholarly papers, news stories and books. It is disheartening to see Native words misspelled in public materials and it does a [...]
SHI, Klawock City School District, sign agreement to expand Northwest Coast art program
Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Klawock City School District have signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to help develop the district’s existing elective Northwest Coast (NWC) art courses for high school students into a career pathways course over a three-year period. The effort is funded through a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education, [...]
Baby Raven Reads: Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
Sealaska Heritage sponsors Baby Raven Reads, an award-winning program that promotes early-literacy, language development and school readiness for Alaska Native families with children up to age 5. The pilot program in Juneau ended in 2017, and SHI received funding to offer the program for another three years and to expand it to nine other communities [...]
Juneau as the Northwest Coast Art Capital: Why it should matter to you
By Rosita Worl President, Sealaska Heritage Institute Nearly 100 years ago, the small town of Santa Fe, New Mexico, held its first Santa Fe Indian Market. The market, though humble at first, has grown into an economic goliath for the town, drawing an estimated 100,000 people from around the world every year. Over four days each August, the [...]
Thank you veterans
In commemoration of Veterans Day, we offer this roundup of videos honoring Alaska Native veterans, including Tlingit code talkers, and traditional warriors. Thank you veterans for your honorable service and for all you have sacrificed to protect our peoples and our land. "Hunting in Wartime" This video features a screening of an excerpt of the [...]
