On our nation’s first official Juneteenth federal holiday, I have mixed feelings. The holiday is not a bad thing – I do think it can have a good impact for future conversations. But it was enacted at the same time state after state are proposing and passing bans...
After a couple of years of talking and planning, and then six months of initial work, we’re starting to get the Tlingit opera off the page and into some vocal chords! Today was the first day that actual, real live actors and singers started working with the first few...
This purposeful lapse “to focus on recovery” is as good a reason as the many, many others to recall Dunleavy. He’s shutting down a major tool that helped us to slow the spread at a time we can very quickly speed the spread again. We are NOT out of a state of...
I have been so proud of how the Alaska Native health system has been handling the pandemic in general, and the vaccine rollout specifically. So imagine my surprise to open the news this morning and see an absolute hit job piece of poor journalism published with a...
Last summer I was “attending” an online funeral and it really hit me how wrong it felt. Death and grief should be a time of community, of gathering, an acknowledgement of our collective grief and the very first moment of healing. So much of what happens with our...
It’s here! My dad and I created a Christmas coloring book! With 19 of his beautiful Tlingit-y Christmas illustrations, and 9 adapted Tlingit Christmas song lyrics, plus a few activities thrown in, it’s a fun and quite Tlingit coloring time. 🙂 The book...
That’s right! Tlingit musician Ed Littlefield and I are releasing “A Tlingit Christmas Carol” album, filled with adapted (aka Tlingit-ized) Christmas music! Music and arrangement by Ed, lyrics by myself, and a couple of amazing guest artists! You can...
So it’s not a whole week, but I had to wrap up the last few days of November! And maybe encourage a look at the rest of the year, too. Day 29 You’ve already been learning and saying “thank you” in the Indigenous language of the land...
I’ll be posting downloads of the lyrics for “A Tlingit Christmas Carol” as they are released here. You can catch each stave as it is released at the links below – they’ll be up from their release through Jan. 7. You can also get all of...
It’s a busy week, so we’re gonna make it quick and easy… ish. Day 22 This may sound silly, but find a story online about Native joy – positive stories about Native people, or culture, or communities. Try to find one close to you, but make sure...
