Sharing Our Knowledge: A Conference of Tlingit Tribes and Clans will be held Oct. 28 through Nov. 1 at Centennial Hall in Juneau. A “Warming of the Hands” opening ceremony will be held Wednesday night at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center, and is free.
Sharing Our Knowledge is a multi-disciplinary conference that includes artists, academics, students and other learners meeting with Alaska Native tradition bearers, elders, and fluent speakers to discuss subjects such as linguistics, archaeology, art and music, Alaska Native history, museum studies, cultural anthropology, indigenous law and protocols, fisheries, and traditional ecological knowledge.
The theme of this year’s conference is Haa saaxú, haa latseení (Our names, our strength).
Admission to the conference is $85 or $30 for seniors and students, and covers the entire conference. Single day admission is $35/general and $15/seniors and students. Anyone interested in the indigenous peoples of Southeast Alaska is welcome to attend.
The conference is organized into morning general sessions (plenary) for all attendees, and afternoon concurrent workshops. The Centennial Hall lobby will be a gathering place for weavers and other artists.
The first clan conference was held in May 1993 in Haines and Klukwan, pioneered by the late Andy Hope III. In recent years, conferences have been held in Sikta (2007 and 2012) and in Juneau (2009 and 2013).
The organizing committee for this year’s conference includes Gerry Hope (executive director), Dione Cadiante-Laiti, Steve Henrikson, Ishmael Hope, Marsha Hotch, Harold Jacobs, Sergei Kan, David Katzeek, Harold Martin, Peter Metcalfe, and Alice Taff.
To find out more and look at a schedule of events, visit http://sharingourknowledge.org
