Blog

Lemon Creek Correctional Center inmate and Tlingit and Tsimshian artist David Guthrie was clueless about his culture and unsure about his future before he got caught up in a world of copper, creativity and camaraderie. “I feel that your class and the carving classes have saved my life, giving me purpose and helping me want [...]

Throughout the third and fourth day of Celebration 2018, dance group leaders spoke of the biennial event as a time of renewal, using their moments at the microphone to share words of support, encouragement, and healing with the hundreds of people gathered in Centennial Hall, and thousands more viewers watching the broadcast. They urged tribal [...]

Only a few children attended the first Celebration in 1982, and Elders worried that the culture might not survive. But in recent years the presence of youth has become one of the most visible and vibrant elements of Sealaska Heritage’s biennial dance and culture festival, a tangible reminder of educators’ and families’ success in engaging [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

  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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]