Tlingit clan house opening -Glacier Bay, Alaska
Haida carver James Hart
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Kwakwaka’wakw chief ceremony
Canoe Journey - Nisqually gathering
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Celebrating the Resilient Indigenous Cultures
of the Pacific Northwest
The Living Cultures exhibit portrays an intricate balancing act.
With one foot in the modern world and one foot in the natural world, indigenous people step between their own inherited traditions and the non-native cultures that surround them. Tribal communities are keenly aware of the equilibrium they must maintain in continuing to teach their own languages and customs and to manage the everyday concerns we all share. Through her portraiture and photo journalism, Sharon Eva Grainger brings this balancing act into focus.
Sharon has collaborated with four nations in Southeast Alaska, British Columbia, and Washington State while creating the Living Cultures Project.
This project would not have been possible without the support of the Kwakwaka’wakw, the Haida, the Tlingit and the Lummi Nations.
Their participation in the making of images, the sharing of stories, opening their homes and including outsiders in their most sacred of cultural traditions has been at the heart of this mission. Sharon is forever grateful for their support.
Four prominent Native American and First Nations leaders have stepped forward to provide interpretation for the twenty-four images in this show.
For the Tlingit Nation: Jim Thomas, elder, traditional chief and statesman; the Kwakwaka’wakw Nation: Barbara Cranmer, activist, entrepreneur and ‘Namgis filmmaker; The Lummi Nation: Shirley Williams, RN, educator and community leader; The Haida Nation, Elsie Gaele Il’skide, traditional Haida wool weaver and entrepreneur with a specialty in cultural tourism.
In photographing these four Pacific Northwest Native and First Nations cultures over the last 20 years Sharon Eva Grainger celebrates their continuing resilience and cultural vibrancy through portraits wrapped in the magnificent backdrop of fog and forest, sea and salmon that defines the Pacific Northwest Coast.
With one foot in the modern world and one foot in the natural world, indigenous people step between their own inherited traditions and the non-native cultures that surround them. Tribal communities are keenly aware of the equilibrium they must maintain in continuing to teach their own languages and customs and to manage the everyday concerns we all share. Through her portraiture and photo journalism, Sharon Eva Grainger brings this balancing act into focus.
Sharon has collaborated with four nations in Southeast Alaska, British Columbia, and Washington State while creating the Living Cultures Project.
This project would not have been possible without the support of the Kwakwaka’wakw, the Haida, the Tlingit and the Lummi Nations.
Their participation in the making of images, the sharing of stories, opening their homes and including outsiders in their most sacred of cultural traditions has been at the heart of this mission. Sharon is forever grateful for their support.
Four prominent Native American and First Nations leaders have stepped forward to provide interpretation for the twenty-four images in this show.
For the Tlingit Nation: Jim Thomas, elder, traditional chief and statesman; the Kwakwaka’wakw Nation: Barbara Cranmer, activist, entrepreneur and ‘Namgis filmmaker; The Lummi Nation: Shirley Williams, RN, educator and community leader; The Haida Nation, Elsie Gaele Il’skide, traditional Haida wool weaver and entrepreneur with a specialty in cultural tourism.
In photographing these four Pacific Northwest Native and First Nations cultures over the last 20 years Sharon Eva Grainger celebrates their continuing resilience and cultural vibrancy through portraits wrapped in the magnificent backdrop of fog and forest, sea and salmon that defines the Pacific Northwest Coast.
Tlingit woman with drum
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Haida pole with dancer
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Lummi Youth
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THE ADOPTED NAME OF SHARON EVA GRAINGER
Waakh Shuh Xeet
“Eye” “That Writes”
This is a new Tlingit name given by Raven Chief kHatsati (Chief) – G’Neix Kwaan, Kwashgi Kwaan (Owl House), Grandson and son of grandmother Tlé Aan and Mother Nux Shuh Gheit (wives of Chiefs) - Grandson and Son of Chiefs Kardeetoo and Shwoo(tl) Kaan of the Brown Bear Moiety. He presented this name as he adopted Sharon Grainger as his Niece into his side of the Raven Moiety, Therefore this is now a Raven name that can only be passed down within the Raven G’Neix Kwaan, Kwash Gi’ Kwaan. As he observed his Niece to be, he marveled at her skill as she used that black box that constantly hung around her neck. The box had an eye that saw things the human eye misses. But Sharon’s eye also saw even more through the box’s eye and together they made a story only the resulting image could give. So she received this very unusual name that will live on in the world of the Tlingit of Southeastern Alaska and especially Yakutat, and of course their adopted homes on Lummi Island, Washington.
Tlingit Chief Jim Thomas
Tlingit Chief Jim Thomas
Tlingit Chief Jim Thomas in the cedars
Kwakwaka’wakw fishing boat in regalia
Kwakwaka’wakw woman in front of the Big House
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Haida, the next generations
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