UAS Faculty & Leadership Featured in Princeton Symposium

On February 10, Princeton University will partner with the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) and other organizations to present the symposium “Tlingit Art, Spirit, and Ancestry: Healing Histories of Dispossession.”

Juneau, Alaska

Date of Press Release: February 8, 2023

On February 10, Princeton University will partner with the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) and other organizations to present the symposium “Tlingit Art, Spirit, and Ancestry: Healing Histories of Dispossession.” The event will take place in the Chancellor Green Rotunda of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs in Princeton, New Jersey. The event will be recorded for later viewing.

UAS faculty and leadership featured in the symposium include:

• Ernestine Saankaláxt Hayes, Kaagwaantaan Clan, Tlingit Nation, author, and UAS Professor Emerita, Presentation: "Coming Home"
• Dr. Judith Daxootsú Ramos, Kwáashk’ikwáan Clan, Yaakwdáat Kwáan, Tlingit Nation, Program Coordinator, Haa Yoo X’atángi Deiyí: Our Language Pathway, UAS; Presentation: “The Spiritual Role of Ceremony and At.oow in Healing Grief”
• Wayne Price, Tlingit master carver and Northwest Coast artist, Haines, Alaska, and UAS Associate Professor of Northwest Coast Indigenous Arts
• Guná Megan Jensen, Dakhká Tlingit and Tagish Khwáan Ancestry from the Dahk’laweidi Clan, Tlingit artist, and UAS Assistant Professor of Northwest Coast Indigenous Arts, Presentation: "Rethinking Decolonization"
• Carin Silkaitis, UAS Dean of School of Arts and Sciences, Presentation: "Somatic Learning: The Need for Embodied Research"

The symposium explores the restoration of Tlingit belongings and art to the places from which they were taken. It will “confront histories of dispossession and ask how we can restore ancestral connections. Speakers will reorient Western understandings of material objects towards Tlingit and Indigenous experiences of embodiment, spirituality, land, and kinship,” according to its promotional materials. Princeton acquired hundreds of Tlingit belongings when Presbyterian missionaries brought them from Southeast Alaska to the Princeton Theological Seminary in the late 19th century.

"This event is an opportunity to share the strength, spirit, and dignity captured in the art, artifacts, and artists of the Pacific Northwest Coast, both past and present. UAS is represented by an amazing team of experts. We look forward to continued collaboration with Princeton University,” remarked Ronalda Cadiente Brown, Associate Vice Chancellor for Alaska Native Programs at UAS.

In addition to the University of Alaska Southeast, the symposium sponsors are the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative at Princeton; the Language, Land, and Art: A Humanities Council Global Initiative; the Effron Center for the Study of America; the Princeton University Art Museum and Program in Canadian Studies.

Speaker Carin Silkaitis notes, “I am so excited to be part of developing this promising partnership between Princeton University and the University of Alaska Southeast, and I look forward to our evolving conversations around Tlingít art, healing, and the restoration of these belongings. I am thankful to Dr. Ramos for her work in opening this door for UAS, and for everyone at Princeton University for their generosity and collaborative spirit. I look forward to many more visits between our campuses as Dr. Ramos continues her work with their museum, and we pursue a meaningful dialogue around these belongings.”

Learn more about Alaska Native Studies at the Univeristy of Alaska Southeast; speak to an advisor at 907-796-6000.