Native groups from Southeast Alaska will come together to share indigenous songs, dances, art, food and languages as Celebration 2008 kicks off Thursday, June 5, in Juneau.

The event - which started in 1982 to encourage Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people to share their heritage - has grown to include about 2,300 dancers. It is open to the public, and an estimated 5,000 people are expected to attend the three-day event.

Fifty-two dance groups from Southeast Alaska, Canada and Washington state will participate this year, according to Kathy Dye, spokeswoman for Sealaska Heritage Institute, which created and sponsors the event.

Celebration is a modern creation that mixes traditional Native customs with new ways of recognizing culture. It occurs every two years.

The first Celebration saw only a couple of hundred people who mainly danced and sang songs, but the event now includes an art competition and artist market, recipes made with traditional foods such as seaweed and soapberries, workshops to teach languages, and a parade.

But the festival is still rooted in dancing, and dance groups from around the region have prepared for months before traveling to Juneau to participate.

About 70 people from the Mt. St. Elias Dancers in Yakutat plan to dance in Juneau during the event, according to dance group leader George Ramos. They were chosen as the lead dance group this year and will start the procession into the main hall during the Grand Entrance, which kicks off the event on Thursday.

The group also will lead a parade on Saturday morning through downtown and the Grand Exit, which happens after a closing ceremony on Saturday evening.

Ramos said the group added four new songs for the event, which has been successful in teaching children about their heritage.

"It's not only dancing and singing that we try to teach, but we try to teach who they are," Ramos said of passing the culture on to younger generations. "Celebration has proven that there is a lot of

young people that want to learn who they are."

Dancing and singing was traditionally done by clans not dance groups, according to Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Worl, Ph.D. young people that want to learn who they are."

Dancing and singing was traditionally done by clans not dance groups, according to Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Worl, Ph.D.

But as more people began to participate, communities started forming dance groups that include people from different clans. They sing and dance together, but the clan that owns the song is recognized before the performance, Worl said.

"You could really see the emergence of dance groups," Worl said of how the event grew among people in the region. "Prior to Celebration, there were a few dance groups here and there, but over the years we began to have these dance groups from all of the communities. It took dance from the ceremonial context to the secular, and it became like a dance festival."

Along with generating excitement for learning dances, Celebration brought a resurgence in music, art production and dance regalia. Some of the newer events show how interest in these areas is growing.

A recipe contest for black seaweed, which was started a few years ago, ended up being so popular that new categories were added. This year, soapberry recipes will be judged along with seaweed during the event.

An event to recognize regalia also proved popular in 2006, when a Toddler Regalia Review allowed parents and other family members to make clothes for their children, who then showed the work on stage. The review will occur again this year, on Saturday.

This year's theme is "Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian: Dancing on the Land." The first part of the theme was crafted to show solidarity among Southeast Alaska Natives, and the last part highlights Natives' spiritual and environmental relationship with the land.

"Land is really important to us," Worl said. "It is critical to our survival as Native people."

Celebration 2008 will include a juried art show, which showcases some for the best work by Native artists in a competition that was judged this spring. Works are on display during Celebration at the Juneau Arts & Cultural Center downtown. In the same building, an artists market allows for more viewing of traditional art as well as an opportunity to buy.

Forty-eight artists from Southeast Alaska, Canada and Washington state will sell their work at tables in the center's large hall. The market is free to the public and is open from noon to 8 p.m. Thursday; 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

• Kim Marquis can be reached at kim.marquis@juneauempire.com.