On Page 73, Mathew Macasaet, wearing a yellow and black woven Killer Whale Chilkat robe with a frontlet headdress, or shakee.át, dances with his arms outstretched, his legs wide apart, his head turned to the side and his mouth open. His gaze looks up to the space above his head and the energy and spirit of the moment seems to lift right off the page.

This photo is one of many taken by photographer Bill Hess and featured in Sealaska Heritage Institute's new coffee table book, "Celebration: Tlingit Haida Tsimshian Dancing on the Land."

The first edition features more than 200 color and black-and-white photos of dancers, singers, children, elders, regalia, art and events centered around Celebration, including the Grand Entrance and Grand Exit, regalia, canoe races from as far back as the first Celebration in 1982.

Hess first came to Celebration in the early 1980s as a photographer for the Tundra Times, a newspaper out of Bethel. He is author of other books depicting Alaska Native culture, including "Gift of the Whale: The Iñupiat Bowhead Hunt, A Sacred Tradition."

"When I went (to Celebration) in '82 and '84, it was indeed a joyous event, but at the same time there were all these speeches given and all these words spoken by many elders who expressed the fear that this was the last call for this side of their culture, that it was dying," Hess said. "When some people spoke, it had the feeling of a wake, almost."

He also noted there were very few young dancers at those first Celebrations.

"When I came back in 2004, and I saw the multitude of young people dancing and the multitude of dance groups and the singers and the power and the beauty in the songs, it was so overwhelming and it just felt like they had wholly succeeded," Hess said.

For Rosita Worl, president of Sealaska Heritage Institute and one of the book's authors, the publication serves as a retrospective but also as a memoriam for those who have passed on.

"I think we've captured, really, the essence of Celebration - the happiness people have in celebrating their culture. But I think those of us who were involved in putting this book together were really happy to see a lot of our elders who are no longer with us," Worl said.

A variety of photographers and authors contributed to the project, including essays by Worl, ethnomusicologist Maria Williams and artist Robert Davidson.

In a forward offered by Byron Mallott, former president and chairman of Sealaska Corp., he recalls the days when Southeast Native languages and customs were nearly lost due to crusades by a variety of invaders. He also expresses appreciation for those who lived through those times.

"It is good that Native grandparents and those before them hung on passionately to all that defined them even as they bowed to the onslaught," he wrote. "It is good that we know deep in our spirit that Celebration will go on long beyond our time."

In the preface, Worl notes that Celebration has given Native children a forum for learning the ancient songs and dances and has prompted the formation of dance groups throughout the region.

She also recounts the process of gathering and identifying the photographs, as well as offering acknowledgments and a dedication to the ancestors.

Essays featured in the book include, "Honoring Our Ancestors and Cultural Survival: A Retrospective View of Celebration," "Art and At.óow," "Tlingit Ceremonial Music and Dance: Survival and Adaptation," "Ceremonial Masks of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian," and "Becoming the Mask."

The book also has an overview of Celebration events.

"It is a time for cultural and family renewal," Worl wrote. "It is a time to reconnect with our past and our ancestors. It is a time to dance on our land and feel the ground beneath our feet. It is a time to watch the faces of our young and our future."

• Teri Tibbett is a writer and musician living in Juneau. She can be reached at www.tibbett.com.