Every year, one dance group is chosen to lead the procession of dancers that begins and ends Celebration — the biennial gathering of Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian people in Juneau.
About 1,600 people in regalia paraded up Willoughby Avenue to the entrance of Centennial Hall last week. Some of the 36 groups danced to the beat of a leader’s drum and calls. Babies in button blankets sat on their parents’ shoulders. The dancers came to Celebration from across Southeast Alaska and beyond.
The Dakhká Khwáan dance group led that procession into the hall — and back out on Saturday. The group’s name means “people of the inland,” and many of them came all the way from Canada for this year’s festival.
Yadułtin Marilyn Jensen leads the group. She said Celebration was a chance for inland Alaska Native people to reconnect with their coastal relatives.
“Another big theme for us is the unity between the coast and the interior, because there is an artificial, you know — like a boundary between us,” Jensen said. “And so, so much of our journey has been about reconnecting with our relatives here.”
The group formed in Carcross in 2007, but its roughly 40 members are from across Lingít Aaní. Jensen said she remembers how she felt at the first Celebration the group performed at, 16 years ago.
“We were just a brand new group,” she said. “And you know, we came to Celebration just so unsure of ourselves, so scared, but you know, our people just lifted us up, encouraged us, supported us, loved us, and made us feel welcome.”
Jensen said leading the procession this year was a huge honor.
“Never in our wildest dreams, ever thought that we’d be invited to be the lead group,” she said.
On the second night of Celebration at Centennial Hall, Jensen introduced a song the group wrote.
“I don’t know about you guys, but we like to pick berries like nobody’s business,” Jensen said on stage. “So this song is in honor of our aunties, all our aunties, that take us out picking berries. So this is our song, and it’s also in honor of our relationship with the animals. So this is a song that honors our berries and our bears and our aunties.”
Dancers — tiny and full grown — emerged from backstage and mimed berry-picking. Others, wearing bear pelts and masks, joined them and started picking their own berries. The people and the bears startled each other on stage, and Raven took the opportunity to swoop in for his own berries.
That was one of several songs the group performed over the course of the week. You can watch videos of the group’s performances — and the rest of Celebration — on the SHI youtube channel.
Disclaimer: KTOO 360TV is contracted to produce television and online video coverage of Celebration.
