For the second year, the Sustainable Southeast Partnership is releasing “Woven” as a printed and digital collection of stories. The second edition “��̲andleeandlee sdu t’aláng iijang” (“We are coming out of the water”), in Xaad Kíl translated by lilskyalas Delores Churchill and Jaasaljuus, highlights Southeast Alaskan’s relationship to water.
The Sustainable Southeast Partnership (SSP) is a collective uniting diverse skills and perspectives to strengthen cultural, ecological, and economic resilience across Southeast Alaska. As a network of tribal governments, Alaska Native corporations, community nonprofits, individuals and more, we envision self-determined and connected communities where Southeast Indigenous values continue to inspire society, shape our relationships, and ensure that each generation thrives on healthy lands and waters.
The second edition of “Woven” is now available online, with limited hard copies available upon request. (Cover image of herring spawn by Lee House)
For the full publication visit tinyurl.com/Woven2. The stories can also be found at sustainablesoutheast.net where you can sign up for our newsletter, pitch ideas, check out resources and opportunities, request hard copies of Woven for sharing in your community at libraries and public spaces, and stay in touch. You can also continue to read our monthly column “Woven Peoples and Place” at the Juneau Empire.
The following is an excerpt from “Woven” — the “Letter from the Editor.”
Stories Unite Us
In spring 2024, I lowered my body into the cold ocean that surrounds our homes — buoyed by my growing belly and encouraged by my coworker Shaelene Grace Moler. We were dipping before our Friday meeting and discussing a watery theme for this edition of Woven. While floating in the kelp forest and rubbing the little lifeform floating inside me, I was reminded that water is a great unifier. We all begin in water. While aggravators and instigators want us to believe we are more different than alike, regardless of who we vote for, our bodies are about 60% water.
If we are careful not to overlook our shared humanity, we can find it everywhere.
In Southeast Alaska, it is especially true that water connects us. Water shapes our landscapes and defines our rainforest. We make our living on the water, play in the waves, pull fish from the falls, invest too much of our income in rain gear, and curse when we top our boots.
When an over abundance of water sends our hillsides sliding or causes our rivers to swell, we hold our neighbors tight.
Every two years, Lingít, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples paddle enormous distances across dynamic waters, to celebrate together. Southeast Alaskans truly show up for each other, rain or not.
Storytelling catalyst Bethany Sonsini Goodrich takes a cold-water dip in Sitka Sound. The theme of the second edition of “Woven” magazine focuses on water as a common thread in the lives of Southeast Alaskans. (Photo by Shaelene Grace Mole)
Fast forward to spring 2025, as I read to my now baby son, I am reminded of another great unifier: our thirst for story. Stories shape our souls, and in turn, shape our societies. We share a responsibility to raise our children in an abundance of healthy, true, tender and representative stories — and we must do this across shifting mediums, algorithms, and administrations.
The stories in this Woven show our connections to water and they also show what is possible when a group of people and Partners put progress before politics or power. When people stop fighting about what divides us and start fighting for what unites us, in our case, a shared love for people and place.
Happy reading, and with special gratitude to Shaelene and Lee House, who stepped up immensely to produce this second edition of Woven in particular so I could welcome baby Julian out of my water and into our shared world.
• Bethany Sonsini Goodrich is the storytelling catalyst for the Sitka Conservation Societ, which is part of the Sustainable Southeast Partnership. “Woven Peoples and Place” is the monthly column of the Sustainable Southeast Partnership (SSP). SSP is a dynamic collective impact network uniting diverse skills and perspectives to strengthen cultural, ecological, and economic resilience across Southeast Alaska. Follow along at sustainablesoutheast.net; on Linkedin, Instagram and Facebook at @sustainablesoutheast; and on YouTube @SustainableSoutheastAK.
The first and second editions of “Woven.” (Southeast Sustainable Partnership)
