SHI lecture to uncover story of Alaska Native Surrealist

Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will sponsor a presentation next week as part of its November lecture series honoring Native American Heritage Month.

Dave Hunsaker Skaay’adaháich and Jim Simard Kóoshdaak’w Eesh will present their talk, “Xenia Kashevaroff Cage,” on Nov. 3.

The lecturers will present a brief overview of their research on the life and work of Xenia Kashevaroff Cage, a Juneau-born artist who was an important contributor to 20^th century avant-garde music and was a major artist in the Surrealist movement.

Xenia Kashevaroff Cage was born in Juneau in 1913. She was the youngest daughter of Martha Bolshanin Kashevaroff, who was Kiks.ádi from Sitka, and the Russian and Alutiiq Orthodox priest, Father Andrew P. Kashevaroff.

Dave Hunsaker is an Alaskan screenwriter and playwright based in Juneau, Alaska, and Venice, California. He has written for major studios including Fox 2000, Fox Searchlight, Sony, Warner Bros, Disney and HBO, and worked with directors Robert Redford, Norman Jewison and Guillermo del Toro, among others. For ten years he was artistic director of the Juneau-based Naa Kahidi Theatre, an international touring company of Native Alaskan artists. He is a recipient of the Alaska Governor’s Award for the Arts and received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Alaska in May 2014. He is a Fellow of the Sundance Institute, a member of the Writers Guild of America and is an adopted member of the Lukaax.ádi clan.

Jim Simard, a librarian and archivist, is retired from the Alaska State Library where he was the head of the Alaska Historical Collections. Simard’s work with the Alaska State Library included the development of Alaska’s Digital Archives. He was a contributor to Sealaska Heritage Foundation’s Naa Kahidi Theatre and produced and directed Ishmael Hope’s play Gunakadeit, which was invited to the National Museum of the American Indian in 2006. Jim is an adopted Lukaax̱.ádi clan member.

The lecture is scheduled for noon Monday, Nov. 3, in Shuká Hít (clan house) within the Walter Soboleff Building, 105 Heritage Way, in Juneau. The event will be livestreamed and posted 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. 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 a newly formed Education Committee.

CONTACT: Therese Pokorney, SHI Communications Officer, therese.pokorney@sealaska.com