JUNEAU, Alaska — Hundreds of people stood in the gentle Juneau rain with their necks craned toward the sky. Their focus was not on sky, but instead on a healing totem that towered over the crowd.
AWARE, Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, the Wooshkeetaan and L’eeneidì A’aakw Kwáan hosted a community gathering on Saturday afternoon to unveil a healing totem pole and screens carved by Tlingit master carver Wayne Price honoring survivors and victims of domestic violence and sexual assault along with their families and communities.
People gathered in raincoats and boots at the Twin Lakes Kaasei Totem Plaza to witness the two-hour ceremony. It included speeches from community leaders and representatives along with cry songs, dance performances as well as grief release and fire dish ceremonies among other acknowledgments.
Mandy Cole, executive director of AWARE, gave a speech at the event on behalf of AWARE to thank Price and all other people and groups that dedicated time and effort to bring the project to life. She said AWARE will continue to stand beside survivors who are healing or trying to heal in the Juneau community and across Alaska.
“We will hold the people in this community who are in danger and are in the middle of their own storm,” she said.
She said it’s been a project that has been multiple years in the making, first taking steps toward creation in 2016 when AWARE commissioned Price to begin the project. She said it serves as a way to recognize and honor those who have experienced sexual and domestic violence, and also Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and those affected by both.
”The healing spirit by this project is needed by more people today than ever before,” Cole said. “May this be one more light, the little light that we all need to heal ourselves, our families and our community.”
City and Borough of Juneau Mayor Beth Weldon also spoke at the event on behalf of the city, which was a major donor and contributor to the project.
“It provides an opportunity for healing on multiple levels,” she said. “It takes a community to end gender-based violence.”
As the ceremony proceeded and large tarps still covered the art beneath it, people wrote names on wood shavings from the project, which then were burned with the hope that the act brings healing to the person written on the wood. Children from the Tlingit Culture Language and Literacy Dance group also performed multiple dances at the event.
“It reminds us of the women who might have died from violence, the children who are so special and we need to remember, we want to forever keep them in our mind,” said Jacqueline Kuseen Pata, president and CEO of Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority.
