Indigenous Celebration
Dear Editor: Gunalchéesh and thanks to everyone who attended and supported the Indigenous People’s Day events on Monday. The evening celebration and decolonization workshop was supported by Sitkans Against Family Violence, Sitka Counseling, Sitka Conservation Society, the Sitka Health Summit Coalition, SEARHC, and our host for the third year in a row, the University of Alaska Southeast – Sitka Campus. We appreciate all the people who brought food, the Sitka Fine Arts Camp for contributing a kitchen to prepare it and Nina and Brittany of CastAway Food Truck for preparing a delicious main dish. Gunalcheesh for Kiksadi Louise Brady’s inspirational opening remarks rooted in indigenous wisdom, the Sheet’ka Kwaan Dancers who offered traditional songs and dance, Lakota Harden who led a great decolonization workshop, and the estimated 250 community members who were in attendance.
If you missed the workshop you can watch the Ted Talk we screened at the event on-line. It’s fittingly called Decolonization Is for Everyone by Nikki Sanchez.
Finally, we’d like to end this letter with the words we used to start the gathering. Hopefully more events in Sitka will begin with this type of territorial recognition:
Welcome everyone, I’d like to start by recognizing that we are on Tlingit - Aani, Aani is the Tlingit word for land. The Tlingit people have been in this place for over 10,000 years. It’s important to recognize this historical fact and it’s also important to appreciate that the Tlingit people have been excellent stewards and have lived out their traditional tribal values of balance, respect, and caring for the Earth that sustains us all. So for taking wonderful care of this special place for time immemorial, I’d like to say thank you and gunalchéesh.
Indigenous People’s Day
planning team:
Alec Duncan, Chandler O’Connell, Dionne Brady-Howard,
Doug Osborne, Emy Roles,
Greg George, Kim Davis,
Lakota Harden, Leslie Gordon, Loyd Platson, Michael Mausbach, Tina Bachmeier, Vera Gibson
