CELEBRATION
A centuries-old tradition since 1982. Next Celebration: June 5-8, 2024
Sealaska Heritage will hold an in-person Celebration in Juneau from June 5-8 in 2024.
SHI’s board of trustees made the decision this week, in part because participants and staff need many months in advance to plan for the four-day event.
The in-person Celebration in 2020 was cancelled because of the pandemic, and staff instead offered a virtual version. With the release of the vaccine and widespread immunizations so far, staff has a sense of confidence that life will be back to normal by next year, said SHI President Rosita Worl.
“We cancelled the in-person event because we had to protect our people. We look forward to reuniting in 2022 and celebrating our cultural survival,” Worl said. “We survived this pandemic. We are still here.”
The trustees also chose the theme Celebration 2022: Celebrating 10,000 Years of Cultural Survival. Celebration 2022 will mark the 40th anniversary of the event, first held in 1982...(more)
The lead dance group will be Shx’at Kwáan (People Near the Mainland) of Wrangell.
For four days every other June, the streets of Juneau fill with Native people of all ages dressed in the signature regalia of clans from throughout Southeast Alaska and beyond. There is traditional song and dance. Arts and crafts. Food. And people speaking local Native languages. This is Celebration, our biennial festival of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures.
Celebration is one of the largest gatherings of Southeast Alaska Native peoples and is the second-largest event sponsored by Alaska Natives in the State of Alaska. The event draws about 5,000 people, including more than 2,000 dancers. Thousands more watch the event online. A 2012 study showed each Celebration generates an estimated economic impact of $2,000,000.
Time-honored customs made new
Prior to European contact, the peoples of the Northwest Coast held many traditional ceremonies in which singing, dancing, formal oratory, and feasting took place. As the economy of the region changed to one based on cash rather than trade and sharing, some Native traditions floundered. Dance, song, traditional oratory, and knowledge of clan protocol were in danger of being lost to history. Realizing this, Native elders created Celebration as a way to bring Native people together to showcase and preserve their traditions and customs.
Celebration is a new tradition. During earlier times, a clan from one moiety would always host a clan from the other moiety. An Eagle clan, for example, might host a Raven clan and, then, the reverse would occur in order that balance, reciprocity, and respect be maintained. Those who danced together as either hosts or guests were from one clan, one side. Now, clan members have scattered in order to pursue careers and personal interests, and the formal system of reciprocal obligation has become more difficult to maintain although traditional ceremonies are still a vital part of Northwest Coast culture. At Celebration, some clan members still gather as single-clan Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian dance groups but most groups at Celebration represent combinations of many clans.
As times have changed, the peoples of the Northwest Coast have adopted revitalized festival traditions while continuing to maintain the old. Although Celebration follows the pattern of a traditional ceremonial it is not a potlatch or memorial party. Adoptions, name giving, memorial services, and other events that are a proper part of those traditional gatherings are not part of Celebration and are observed at other times.
