Sealaska Heritage to host lecture on Baby Raven Reads

As part of Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Native American Heritage Month lecture series, SHI will host a talk on why cultural continuity produces long-lasting results within early literacy programs.

In his lecture “Why Baby Raven Reads Endures,” Daaḵw ḵuwdéin Patrick M. Anderson will speak about why children’s reading skills often deteriorate after leaving most early literacy programs, and why that pattern doesn’t apply to SHI’s Baby Raven Reads program.

Anderson, who is a Tlingit Elder of the Shangukeidí clan from Xéitl Hít, Dry Bay, doesn’t believe more robust curricula will solve the well-documented “fade-out” effect plaguing early childhood education. In his lecture, he’ll explain why the methods behind Baby Raven Reads foster a successful learning environment for young children.

According to Anderson’s research, Baby Raven Reads restores the conditions a child’s developing brain is designed to learn in. A trusted adult who reads and responds to the child fosters a sense of belonging while encouraging continuity of Alaska Native languages and traditional stories.

“Regulation and relationship come first; durable literacy is what consolidates on top of them,” he says. “Culture, in this account, is not enrichment added at the edges — it is the ground the learning stands on and the reason the gains hold.”

SHI has also developed Baby Raven Reads materials in the Xaad Kíl (Haida) and Shm’algyack (Tsimshian) languages.

Anderson, a former attorney and independent scholar, has four decades of executive leadership in Alaska Native health, education and governance in addition to his current work on durable learning and early development. He studies why relationship and cultural continuity produce learning that lasts through his Shaman’s Trail (Haa Latseení) framework. His involvement with cultural and language restoration includes the 1992 SHI Board of Trustees delegation to Hawaiʻi that helped pave new pathways for Lingít revitalization.

The lecture will be held from noon-1 pm, Thursday, Nov. 12 in Shuka Hít (the clan house) on the first level of Sealaska Heritage Institute, which is located at 105 Heritage Way in downtown Juneau. Anderson’s lecture will also be live streamed and available to watch on SHI’s YouTube channel.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a non-profit tribal organization founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. Its goal is to promote cross-cultural understanding by educating the general public about the Indigenous cultures of Alaska. SHI also conducts scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee, a Southeast Regional Language Committee and an Education Committee.

CONTACT: Kathy Dye, Deputy Director of Publications and Communications, kathy.dye@sealaskaheritage.com

Caption: Flyer for Daaḵw ḵuwdéin Patrick M. Anderson’s lecture. Note: News outlets are welcome to use this photo for coverage of this story. For a higher-res version, contact chloe.anderson@sealaskaheritage.com.