For a few days at the end of September, all the second graders in the Juneau School District sat in Shuk\u00e1 Hit, the clan house in Sealaska Heritage Institute\u2019s Walter Soboleff Building, listening to storyteller Lily Hudson Hope and learning about Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian customs. Next year\u2019s second graders will do the same, as will the next, as part of an ongoing initiative from many collaborators to give all of Juneau\u2019s kids arts excursions every year.<\/p>\n
These second graders were full of questions.<\/p>\n
One wanted to know about the custom of fire dishes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you burn it and send it up?\u201d he asked of the food in a fire dish, which Hope told the kids sends food to a deceased loved one. Hope was telling the kids about payoff parties, when people of one moiety, a year after a family member has died, tell stories, sing, dance, host a feast, and give gifts to people of the other moiety.<\/p>\n
Other kids wanted to volunteer information about their own heritage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a Dog Salmon,\u201d one told the room, after Hope identified Walter Soboleff\u2019s clan (he was also a Dog Salmon.)<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandma has a robe like that,\u201d another kid commented, shown a Haida beaver button blanket made by Selina Peratrovich and donated for display by her daughter, renowned weaver Delores Churchill.<\/p>\n
Hope also told kids about the differences between button blankets and Chilkat robes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe learned that it takes a year to make a (Chilkat) cloak,\u201d said third grader Lena Field. (In contrast, Hope said it takes her mother, Clarissa Rizal, who creates a lot of them, about 10 days to make a button blanket.)<\/p>\n
Shaina Fernandez said Hope\u2019s rendition of the story about Raven losing his nose was her favorite part of the trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cI liked it when the fishermen pulled the beak out,\u201d she said. (Raven\u2019s under the ocean, stealing the seal fat the fishermen are using as halibut bait. Fortunately for Raven, he figures out a way to trick people and gets it back.)<\/p>\n
Anna Haggerty\u2019s favorite part was seeing Singletary\u2019s glass house screen; Jamal Canon\u2019s was going into Shuk\u00e1 Hit.<\/p>\n
Their lessons extended beyond that day, however. K-5 Art Specialist Nancy Lehnhart visited with kids ahead of time for a pre-trip lesson, said Juneau Arts and Humanities Council education committee chair Mandy Mallott. Each kid colored in part of a miniature replica of Singletary\u2019s glass house screen.<\/p>\n
At Auke Bay Elementary School, Paula Kalbrener\u2019s class also created an e-book about Walter Soboleff, Mallott said.<\/p>\n
Fellow teacher Davin Savikko and Lehnhart also worked together on a song about ovoids, the central shapes in Northwest Coast formline design.<\/p>\n
The expeditions are elements of a partnership with big goals: to provide arts excursions for every grade level in the Juneau School District. It\u2019s part of a Kennedy Center program, \u201cEnsuring the Arts for Any Given Child.\u201d<\/p>\n
Juneau is one of 18 places the center works with around the country, said an SHI release. Partners are an important part of the effort: the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council, the Juneau School District, and Behrends Mechanical, Inc. also worked to make the trips a reality, as did others.<\/p>\n
This year, 8th graders visited Perseverance Theatre for its performance of \u2018Othello,\u2019 and 5th graders will see the Juneau Symphony perform.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026This is just one project, but it\u2019s such a positive example of wonderful teaching and community experiences for all second graders in our district,\u201d Mallott wrote in an email.<\/p>\n
Maybe student Tarin Valle summed up his experience of the trip \u2014 and why arts educators know such efforts are important \u2014 best.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of it was my favorite,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was my first time being there.\u201d<\/p>\n
To read a blog about the effort, check out https:\/\/juneauarts.wordpress.com\/2015\/11\/12\/2nd-art-excursion-for-any-given-child-juneau\/<\/p>\n
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\u2022 Contact Capital City Weekly staff writer Mary Catharine Martin at maryc.martin@capweek.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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