Not so long ago, children\u2019s books with an authentic focus on Alaska Native stories and culture were harder to find.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s changing with Baby Raven Reads, a Sealaska Heritage Institute program focusing on children up to age five.<\/p>\n
Dec. 10, SHI released five new children\u2019s books \u201cthat reflect the Native worldview;\u201d it aims, said SHI Chief of Operations Lee Kadinger, to publish 18, and to distribute the books to libraries around Southeast Alaska. Through social media, they\u2019ve even had a request from Europe that the books be translated into French.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we looked at it eight years ago, there were no books like this out on the market,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was really our goal in the grant \u2014 to make high-quality, culturally-based, place-based books.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three of the books have to do with Raven creation stories: Raven and the Box of Daylight,\u201d \u201cRaven Brings us Fire,\u201d and \u201cOrigins of Rivers and Streams.\u201d They\u2019re written in rhyme by retired Sitka first grade teacher Pauline Duncan and illustrated by Lindsay Carron. At the book release, Carron brought the originals of each of her illustrations, originally done with colored pencil, and completed in colored pencil, watercolor and ink.<\/p>\n
Saturday also saw the release of \u201cTlingit Alphabet,\u201d illustrated by Crystal Worl, edited by Katrina Hotch, Linda Belarde and Keri Eggleston, and reviewed by Dr. Walter Soboleff. That book\u2019s words will be added to one of SHI\u2019s language apps, Kadinger said.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the institute released \u201cColors,\u201d illustrated by David Lang.<\/p>\n
Lang and Duncan worked together on \u201cTen Sitka Herring,\u201d one of the first three books released under the grant. Worl drew the formline in two of the other first three books, \u201cBaby Eagle\u201d and \u201cBaby Raven,\u201d which teach Tlingit words for clan crests. Nobu Koch did the illustrations of the environment in the books.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe release of the books is groundbreaking because so few culturally-relevant children\u2019s books from Southeast Alaska exist that are not tailored for the commercial market. And, research has shown that Native students do better academically when their cultures are incorporated into learning materials and classes,\u201d said a press release from SHI.<\/p>\n
Incorporating traditional stories is something Duncan did for years, as a first-grade teacher in Sitka. \u201cI had it (two of the stories) up in my classroom,\u201d she said. (She also created felt panels that told the stories visually, which she brought with her to a Baby Raven Reads event prior to the release.<\/p>\n
Jeff Ketah said he and his wife Crystal were there with their kids, two-year-old Selena and five-year-old Dexter, because \u201cIt\u2019s important to read to the kids, and also for them to learn a little bit about their heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact Capital City Weekly editor Mary Catharine Martin at maryc.martin@capweek.com. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Not so long ago, children\u2019s books with an authentic focus on Alaska Native stories and culture were harder to find. That\u2019s changing with Baby Raven Reads, a Sealaska Heritage Institute program focusing on children up to age five. Dec. 10, SHI released five new children\u2019s books \u201cthat reflect the Native worldview;\u201d it aims, said SHI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":4768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4767"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}