Local Partner: Aleut International Association
Aleut International Association in partnership with regional tribal governments will work with Talking Circle Media to offer digital story telling workshops for youth in up to three communities in the Aleutians. After the workshop is finished, the youth will be paired up with elders to visit and learn from. This activity will help build the intergenerational dialogue and help to preserve traditional knowledge. The topics to be covered will be inclusive of climate change issues, weather, traditional food use and resilience. The youth will be coached by Dr. Liza Mack and Jonathan Butzke on techniques in interviewing. (Dr. Mack has her Phd in Indigenous Studies and conducted her dissertation research in the Aleutians) These interviews will be made into digital short stories that will be shared in the community and online.
The Aleut International Association (AIA) is an Alaska Native not-for-profit corporation, 501(c)(3), registered in the State of Alaska, United States of America, in 1998. AIA was formed by the Aleutian/Pribilof Islands Association, U. S., one of the thirteen regional not-for-profit Alaska Native corporations created as a result of Alaska Native Settlement Claims Act in 1971, and the Association of the Indigenous Peoples of the North of the Aleut District of the Kamchatka Region of the Russian Federation (AIPNADKR). AIA is governed by a Board of Directors comprised of four Alaskan and four Russian Aleuts under the leadership of a president. The day-to-day work of AIA is managed by the Executive Director and a small staff based in Anchorage, Alaska.
Local Partner: AIA represents the Aleut people of the United States and Russia as a Permanent Participant to the Arctic Council. An important part of AIA’s mandate is to promote community involvement in the research, monitoring, and assessment that has the potential to affect the lives of community members every day. Further, we strive to advocate for the educational opportunities necessary to create the next generation of Indigenous scholars and to create Indigenous institutions and centers of knowledge that will allow communities to not only promote and participate in research, but to pursue issues of interest in culturally appropriate ways, and on their own terms.
