Sealaska Heritage to host lecture on Indigenous climate resiliency

As part of Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Native American Heritage Month lecture series, SHI will host a talk on Tlingit adaptation to climate change.

“The Temporality of Haa Shuká: A Scalar Perspective on Climate Change, Lingít Knowledge, and Alaskan Identity” by Dr. Aandax̱joon Sabena Allen will focus on Tlingit climate resiliency by examining Alaska’s social construction as a site of climate change in the American consciousness. Taking a Tlingit cultural perspective, Dr. Allen will discuss the Raven Cycle as a foundation of cultural knowledge and values.

Dr. Allen, who is an assistant professor of Indigenous studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, will also examine three case studies discussing tourism, research by non-Indigenous scientists and Transformative Scenario Planning. These case studies expand upon identity in Alaska in regard to place, Tlingit futurity and cultural authority in a changing environment.

Dr. Allen is Gaanax̱teidí, a child of the Kaagwaantaan clan and an enrolled tribal citizen of Sitka Tribe of Alaska and Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. She received her PhD in anthropology from the University of Chicago, and her work focuses on Tlingit oral history and climate change. She uses Indigenous methodologies and community-based research to understand how traditional knowledge is being considered in responses to the changing environment, especially in non-profit and tribal government spaces. Her work is invested in Indigenous methodologies and community-based research.

The lecture will be held from noon-1 pm, Tuesday, Nov. 10, in Shuka Hít (the clan house) on the first level of Sealaska Heritage Institute, which is located at 105 Heritage Way in downtown Juneau. It 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 Dr. Aandax̱joon Sabena Allen’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.