Celebration

Though this year’s lead dance group has deep roots in Southeast Alaska, it was formed in 2005 in Anchorage by leader Se’iga Liimii Marcella Asicksik. The group performs songs in Sm’algyax, the Ts’msyen language.

Old growth trees used to make traditional dugout canoes in Southeast Alaska are scarce. So carvers have developed a new method to build traditional boats, the first of which completed its maiden voyage this week, landing back in Juneau for Celebration.

Every other June, more than 100 paddlers arrive in Juneau to kick off Celebration, a gathering of Alaska Native people celebrating cultural revitalization.

A group of canoes from several different communities embarked from Petersburg on May 24 to paddle together to Juneau, camping and visiting villages along the way. It’s a tradition known as Journey. Kéet yaakw — a hand-painted, 39-foot, Tlingit-style fiberglass canoe — is Petersburg’s first in over a century. The local tribe says launching the canoe Journey…

The cultural festival celebrating Southeast Alaska Native culture officially kicks off Wednesday with the theme “enduring strength.”

Some toddlers were shy. Others were ready for an audience.

One theme of the opening of Sealaska Heritage Institute’s new arts campus was unity among Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian people.

This year’s theme is “Celebrating 10,000 years of cultural survival.”

To limit spread during the events, all staff will be tested daily, temperatures will be taken at the door of each event, and masks will be required. 

Deborah Head was a committed judge during the competition. She parked her car in a friend’s driveway to download pictures.

The virtual Celebration features a four-day live broadcast with recorded performances from 2018 and new videos submitted by past participants.  

Nellie Vale, 10, of Yakutat arrived by canoe to Celebration 2018. The festival is held every two years to celebrate Southeast Native culture, and it unofficially begins with canoes representing various tribes arriving into the Juneau area.

What began 36 years ago as an attempt to save Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures from extinction has become a vibrant reminder that Alaska Native traditions are alive and thriving.

A collection of photographs from KTOO Public Media staff members during Celebration 2018.

The totem pole was created for Goldbelt Heritage Foundation and Douglas Indian Association, as part of a healing process for the T’aaḵú Ḵwáan Tlingit tribe. The pole memorializes the deliberate burning of Akáx Yaa Andagán, the Douglas Indian village, in 1962 and honors the residents who lost their homes.

The competition wasn’t just about awarding the traditional food. The event organizer says it’s also about a history of cultural resilience that still resonates today.

A weaving presentation displayed blankets, aprons and other items made by practicing artisans from Southeast Alaska and British Columbia. About 50 people attended the presentation Wednesday by weavers and weaving historians in the Shuka Hit clan house in the Walter Soboleff Building.

Members of the T’aaḵú Ḵwáan gathered Tuesday at Savikko Park in Douglas for the raising of the Yanyeidì Gooch kootéeyaa, or Wolf totem pole.

A group of paddlers and their canoes have finished their weeklong journey to Juneau. They traveled from Ketchikan, Sitka, Kake, Angoon, Hoonah, Yakutat — even Canada for Celebration.

Ahead of Celebration in 2016, Dennis Jack of Angoon organized a canoe group with seven veterans paddling. This year, the combat veteran says there’s 22.