Sealaska
Download PDF of the Sealaska Stage at Cathedral Park Schedule
Sealaska Corporation and Sealaska Heritage Institute will feature Southeast Alaska Native artists, cultural performances by a dance group from Yakutat, Alaska, and a high fashion show at Cathedral Park, August 20-21, 2011.
The Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian hail from vibrant cultures indigenous to the southeast region of Alaska. They have produced art and ceremonial pieces in the unique and distinctive Northwest Coast style for thousands of years. Despite an era of attempted assimilation by westerners, the cultures today are thriving, and people have perpetuated their ancestral art and cultural traditions to this day. Some of the objects created by the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian may look like art, but they are actually ceremonial pieces that are still used in modern times. For example, clan hats are some of the most sacred objects and they are brought out during ceremonies to evoke the spirits of our ancestors. In Tlingit, such pieces are called a clan's at.óowu (at oooh wu). Native people also produce art for sale in traditional and contemporary styles. Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian art is prized by collectors and museums worldwide.
Sealaska Heritage Institute is a nonprofit founded to perpetuate and enhance the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures, and one of its focuses is on the perpetuation of Native art (particularly endangered arts, such as spruce-root weaving and canoe carving). The institute also operates programs to document and teach Native languages, produce educational materials, and preserve archival and ethnographic collections. For more information see www.sealaskaheritage.org
Sealaska Corporation is a for-profit company formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 and founded for the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian of Southeast Alaska. Since inception Sealaska has strengthened business with culture and operates diverse operations in Southeast Alaska and worldwide for the benefit of its 20,000 tribal member shareholders and the communities it operates within. In 1980 it established Sealaska Heritage Institute to operate its cultural and educational programs. For more information see www.sealaska.com
Photo Credit:(left) Bill Hess, (center, right) Brian Wallace. Photos courtesy of Sealaska Heritage Institute