Make an MLK Day resolution

Okay... I haven't got the best track record of volunteering ON Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I try and pick a few organizations or projects each year, but, though I love the concept, haven't yet taken my day off to specifically volunteer.

This year, success! I will be volunteering tomorrow, but I'm also adding something else - a commitment to both direct impact, and monetary donation throughout the year.

Lately, I've read up on some pretty selfless people who have literally given up everything they have to serve others. I also talk and work with people every day who work way beyond 9-5, who could be making much more money, because they are working toward a cause they believe in. It puts some perspective to my "money problems."

Today I'm getting paid not to work, in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his work in this world. The least I can do is make a commitment to give a little more this year, and with a little more thought.

In any case, I encourage everyone to think of something, commit to something, today. In the spirit of Dr. King, is there something small, or large, you can put into motion today? There are mountains of volunteer opportunities out there. A few off the top of my head, as ideas:

• Put together a care package for a soldier or platoon. As easy as getting some tolietry items, snacks and socks in a small box! I did this on recently, and it's kinda fun! :) There are some things to remember, so go to the link for organizations that have suggestions.
• Spend some time with an Elder. There are plenty of organizations out there that could use more people to JUST VISIT. Really - no skills needed!
• Commit a random act of kindness. Sure, sure, heard it before, but just trying browsing the stories on this site dedicated to the subject and resisting the urge to go out and commit one! From shoveling the sidewalk for your neighbor, paying for the person behind you in the coffee shop, or "over-tipping," a very cool site.
• Use- or develop- your sewing or craft skills for charity. This site shows you how to make pillowcases into cute dresses for African girls. If you like to craft, there's a charity out there looking for your skills!

"Who is winnng the Tucson murderer PR blame game?"

I came across this article that I thought was an excellent summary of the Arizona shooting communication situation - "Who Is Winning the Tucson Murderer PR Blame Game."

Clearly, right, left and center are talking about it, and many people I've talked to have had strong opinions - usually strongly pro-Sarah, or strongly anti-Sarah (we ARE in Alaska.) Not many undecideds in this one. But the article, talking purely about the overall messaging of the sides in this, does a pretty objective - and good - job of outlining what, essentially, a pretty toughspot to get out of, messaging-wise.

But really, the biggest problem I think the right, as a whole, will have to get over is to defend this clear fact:

"The conservative establishment has a gigantic infrastructure through organizations like the Media Research Center with multi-million dollar budgets all based on the premise that negative ideas put out through the media corrupt a culture and cause long term problems, even where there isn’t a direct casual relationship between any one trouble teenage mom and a specific MTV reality show. So it’s a bit disingenuous for conservatives to make the claim that all the right wing militaristic rhetoric flowing from conservative talk show hosts and politicians can have no effect."

Anyone looking at this objectively may come up with different conclusions about the "real reason" this happened - but who can say, with a straight face, the guns and violent rhetoric and not-so-veiled threats should continue as they have?

Alaska Native corporation descendants

"At what point in our growing population do we draw a line that would further disenfranchise our descendents from benefiting from ANCSA? This very important issue needs a well thought out process by all Alaska Natives so that our descendents can benefit from ANCSA in perpetuity."

I thought this was a pretty relevant issue brought up in the Cordova Times. As an "after born" myself - an Alaska Native born after 1971, and therefore ineligible to be a sharholder of a corporation - I found it irrelevant to get involved in my corporation for most of my life.

My corporation is now one of only two (I believe) corporations that voted on allowing descendants of original shareholders to become shareholders themselves. So for the past two years, I have been a shareholder allowed to vote, receive dividends, and have gained a little interest in the company. What was interesting at the time, I believe the corporation expected a flood of descendants signing up to become shareholders - but that ddn't happen. Or at least not to the extent they expected. I think they didn't consider a few things:

1) Alaska Native people my age have never been allowed to do much with the corporations. If my corp didn't vote on the descendant issue the way it did, I would not have any say in what happens with the corporation. Quite honestly, I'm still not a decisive factor in the decisions, but I do get to vote on board members and (I hope) other decisions.

2) I don't think corporations have done a great job showing shareholders or descendants why they should get involved, and why ANCSA is so important to keep improving. The people involved in the original settlement know the before and after for Alaska Native land claims. I've lived my entire life in an Alaska with ANCSA. Why does ANCSA matter to me?

3) Shareholders are spread across Alaska and the United States now more than ever. A huge percentage of any corporation's shareholders doesn't live in the area it is based. I don't. How is my corporation relevant to my life?

4) We seem to be in a state of having the issues "settled." But land was yesterday's push. How can what was settled then be brought into help today's issue. I know corporation's will have different views on this, but I believe they have an absolute responsibility to address the welfare of their people, including culture, social issues, health, and more. By this, I don't mean to say that they don't. I think my corporation in the last decade has done an exceptional job focusing on culture.

5) It's not just about the money for shareholders. And don't get me wrong, I've seen shareholders from other corporations mae it all about the money. The corporations should be allowed to be corporations and make money - and seeing the success of Native corporations be railed against in the general public simply for doing what it was created to do is no small frustration. But first, I'd like to show people MY dividend - the last one I got from my corporation. As a hint, I could fill up my small car twice with the funds - my friend with her big truck couldn't. Don't get my wrong, I appreciate that much. But when I'm asked why I struggle to pay for college when I have Native money rolling in, I'd love a little perspective on the "rolling in" amount. There are a few corporations doing better, but the larger majority of corps are doing about what mine is, or worse.

What I mean is I don't believe my generation is looking to my corporation primarily for personal dividends. I want my corporation to operate every day thinking about culture, thinking about our health, thinking about the next hundred years and Alaska Native people thriving, and giving to the world community.

I want my corporation to work hard to invest the money it makes well - it is a corporation. But I also require it to consider what the land represents to my people - health, life, culture, history, future. The land we lost was settled for what the corporations now have. Agree or don't agree on whether it was a good or bad thing - it is what it is. Money is not a good enough replacement for me for culture and life and a future lasting longer than myself. I hope, in the coming years, I see ever more development from corporations encouraging and supporting just those things.

Step in the right direction?

I liked this little bit in the ADN I just read, as it is part of, what I hope, are some moves in the right direction.

I don't know if I even need to repeat the dismal statistics regarding Alaska Native people and suicide. The news has been out there about the bad numbers for years. Suffice it to say, there are far, far too many Alaska Native people dying each year in a 100% preventable way.

I don't know that anyone has really taken the reigns on this yet, as far as the mass organization it will take to coordinate the communities, people and organizations needed to make a real impact, but starting with talking to people who have actually been there is a big step I think has been overlooked.

The taboo of suicide is such that the people who have experienced the feelings, experienced the attempts, are rarely the people asked to be involved in helping other people like them. We usually hear from family members who have experienced the fallout - maybe a little scared to talk to people who will admit to actually attempting suicide. What do we say to them? What do we do if they still feel that way? Who do I call?

We seem to be leaving the help for this situation up to "the professionals." While there are great resources to use, it's not "somebody else's job" to talk to people who are feeling depressed, feeling suicidal. There are great resources to use and point to, but, while definitely point out metal health and hotline resources at some, or many points - I gaurantee the help they might feel if they use those resources is nothing to the help you can give them by stopping and listening. You don't have to counsel, you don't have to know what to say to them.

I'll get off the soapbox, but I encourage everyone to think about what you'd do if presented with a suicidal loved one, and to read up on the signs someone may be suicidal.

Changing the way we talk about racism

Interesting piece in the ADN covering a project I'd heard about from a couple people, and saw recently came into more public light. It covers the radio "Cash for Tlingits" incident.

Julia O'Malley's piece in ADN.

Race is not a warm 'n' fuzzy topic at best in Anchorage, and ammunition for even more hurt and anger at worst. If things like this can happen, it does make me a little more hopeful for future taks, though.

Nudging my way into existence

Bearing in mind my voice might be echoing in the halls here, I still felt a desire to comment on something I saw in the ADN Newsreader today. Or rather, something the Newsreader brought from the Stop and Smell the Lichen blog.

Nuna Inua starts out, "I do not exist."

It goes on more about how it is her position, her job that does not exist as far as traditional culture. What position is there of "artist" in traditional culture, and how can creating art possibly trample upon culture?

It is something I have struggled with as a Tlingit fiction writer. While engaging since high school in nonfiction forms of publication, it is creative fiction that has my heart. Tlingit culture, I think, embraces the idea of "artist" more readily than what Nuna Inua describes her own culture as being able to define. There is no traditional "artist" who "only" created art for a living, but it was a position nontheless. People talented and disciplined in beautiful carving would supplement their own living by creating commissioned pieces to wealthy folk. This kind of practice goes far, far back in our culture.

But, as my mother said, "There's no such thing as Tlingit fiction."

In trying to recreate ficitonal stories from traditional legend, I now begin to wrestle with how I can do this without "lying" by creating a part that is not true to history, without plagiarism, without taking from what belongs to others. You see, while Native stories are more often labeled as "myth and legend" in educational circles, these stories were passed down for millenia as history. Fact. Only in very modern times has society begun to play with our culture's history as fiction, with little regard to the ramifications.

So, as a fiction writer trying to honor my culture's past, how do I fictionalize it and honor it at the same time?

To be honest, I'm not completely sure that my story isn't going to be rejected outright by many Elders immediately, despite the care I've taken for that not to happen, and despite my own fears.

There are many things in my culture, and I imagine in other Native cultures, that honor the past by "dishonoring" it. Tlingit people have so much complicated protocol, a traditional political and familial system that still weaves its way into contemporary politics and family life - and I love it. But it does present some difficulties for the modern Tlingit fiction writer.

Whenever you see a traditional Tlingit dance group, remember that there used to be no such thing. Everybody danced, everybody knew their clan songs, and they sang them with the clan. The need for, or the entertainment value of, a dance group would be quite strange. Being a member of one, I'm not saying there isn't a need now - but you see how things that are even now considered "traditional" become a little hairy when you talk about how traditional they really are? Yet a culture that does not change is not alive.

I was very intrigued by the inherent questions posed in the blog, because they are things I've long struggled with, and, clearly, I'm not alone in. How do you balance the razor's edge between tradition and adaptation? How do you keep a culture alive if it never changes - yet how much change makes the culture extinct? I like a friend's description of how Alaska Native cultures are in a twilight period between what they were, and what they will become... but it is still a bit bittersweet to think of.
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I'm a firm believer that art will play a monumental part in the revival of Native culture in Alaska. So how do we artists, we Native people, we "real human beings" navigate this new realm built on the shoulders of our ancestors?

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Happy Census Day!!

First question: I've heard this a lot lately, but really, whose idea was it to have Census Day on April 1? I mean - people aren't exactly focused on April 1. They're either too busy scheming, or too busy looking over their shoulder.



That being said, it's still HUGELY important to fill out and send in the census!! No - I don't work for the government. But I do know how directly funds can be affected depending on the census. So I'm poking all my Native peeps many, many times to send it in especially!! It will determine Native health care funds, housing funds, population counts determining legislive power, and MUCH MUCH MORE!!



Okay, that's only the first of many annoying personal PSAs I'll be doing. Just FYI - Alaska is WAY behind the nation in getting their forms back - DEAD LAST.



So other big news:



I FINISHED MY BOOK!!!



WOOOT!!



And - because I didn't explain this fully enough to one person, who thought I was excited about reading a book - I finished writing my first book!



Which is why I'm back blogging. I promised I wouldn't blog, paint, or do a host of other thing until I was done, so I've jumped back on the horse. Incidentally, painting is not as easy to get back into after so long off... little rusty. Hoping blogging will be less so.



So... anything happen in the last few months? :)