Louise Brady, facing camera, helps coordinate events at the Herring Protectors gathering on Totem Square in April (Sentinel File Photo)
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
A year after its initial release, a short film that stresses the importance of herring, their eggs and related ceremonies for Tlingit people premiered in Sitka Tuesday evening.
The 20-minute film, “Yáa at Wooné,” tells the story of the Kiks.ádi connection to the herring and advocates for stronger legal protections for the fish.
In English, the film is titled “Respect for All Things.”
The concept for a film began with the herring Koo.eex celebrations held in recent years, co-director Louise Brady said after the film showing. Her Tlingit name is Kh’sheechtlaa.
“The thing about deciding to do it is that herring are so beautiful, spring is so beautiful and with the Koo.eex and all our At.oow (cultural items), I knew it would be visually pretty spectacular,” Brady said. “And so we did our best to capture all of those and get that into a story that would tell people what this is about.”
With local graphic artist Lee House as the second co-director, the film came together over several years. About three dozen masked Sitkans attended the free film screening at the Coliseum Theater.
For Brady, the springtime herring spawn is an important communal event.
“It’s the whole Herring Protectors – people are really inspired by the movement, by what we’re doing, by the need for community. And I think one of the things we’ve done a really good job at is we want to move forward. We want to promote… that sense of community, and herring, and what we have here as a community,” she said.
The Herring Protectors advocate for policies limiting commercial harvest in the annual herring sac roe fishery.
The film includes footage of the gathering of herring eggs on branches and the subsequent events where the eggs are shared. The importance of herring as a forage fish which support other species such as whales and salmon also was underscored.
Though Tuesday was the film’s Sitka premier, it was shown at the Anchorage International Film Festival last year and featured at the Red Nation International Film Festival.
Brady said she looks forward to the herring-related events that mark the end of winter.
“I struggle every winter, and so in January I can tell myself, ‘March, the herring will be here, the eagles are coming back,’ and I think we all do that,” she said. “And there’s just the way that we all come alive, the same as the eagles and the seagulls and the marine mammals and everything. I talk about my brother harvesting and bringing in herring eggs. We always got the boxes and started eating fresh herring eggs off the branches.”
The history of large-scale herring gatherings in Sitka runs deep, she added, citing a report from the Russian era of Sitka in the 1800s.
“Thousands of people would come here to harvest herring eggs, which is interesting, because historically (herring) were all across Southeast Alaska. But there must be something about Sheet’ka,” Brady said.
For her, the herring harvest each spring represents a chance to come together.
“It’s always been a time for gathering and getting together as a community,” she added.
Brady underscored the importance of ceremony as a form of sovereignty, particularly at the Koo.eex.
“Our ceremonies contain our history, and our history contains our self-governance. So us coming out and having the Koo.eex as Kiks.ádis, and bringing out the Tin.aas and the robes, we’re telling everybody that this is our responsibility and we’re taking it very seriously,” Brady said. “It’s really hard to explain. People look at these as quaint stories; they’re not quaint stories, they’re our original instructions from the creator… We give our names in ceremony, we honor our allies in ceremony, we honor our opposites in ceremony.”
As part of the advocacy work of the Herring Protectors, Brady plans to attend the Alaska Board of Fish meeting in Ketchikan in January.
“Life is definitely changing, and I think I can’t wait. We have plans to move forward. Of course it’s always pending what’s going on with COVID. We’ve definitely made some changes with what we’re planning to do in Ketchikan with the Board of Fish,” she said.
Brady doesn’t think the state understands herring beyond the dollar value assigned to sac roe.
“What I really want to say is our political gathering, our building momentum, building a movement comes with the Koo.eex, because we understand herring in a different way that I really don’t think the state of Alaska will understand. And it’s not a one-dimensional monetary thing, it’s a social way,” she said.
At the film screening, the Herring Protectors asked Sitkans to submit comments to the Board of Fish. The Herring Protectors support proposals that would limit the take of older herring and another that would prevent the commercial fishery from occurring if spawning biomass falls below a certain threshold. The group also stated their opposition to Board of Fish proposals that would shrink the area of Sitka Sound closed to commercial herring harvest, and another that would institute a permit process for subsistence herring roe gathering on branches.
Comments to the Board of Fish can be submitted to dfg.bof.comments@alaska.gov or by mail to Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game Boards Support Section, P.O. Box 115526 Juneau, AK 99811. Comments are due by Dec. 22.
