Monthly Archives: April 2020

An indigenous cultural organization in Southeast Alaska is suing luxury retailer Neiman Marcus, claiming the Dallas-based company violated copyright and protection laws for Native American arts by selling a knit coat with a geometric pattern borrowed from native culture.

In the federal lawsuit filed Monday, the Sealaska Heritage Institute maintains that the retailer falsely affiliated the $ 2,555 “Ravenstail” coat with Native artists of the Northwest Coast through the design and use of the term Ravenstail.

The plaintiffs say that the term and style Ravenstail have been associated for hundreds of years with the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian tribes. According to the lawsuit, the coat also mimics a Ravenstail coat created by a Tlingit weaver nearly a quarter of a century ago.

“For a very long time, they were seen as some kind of resource that anyone can use,” Adams said. “And it goes beyond inspiration to become outright violation.”

Representatives for Neiman Marcus did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Nieman Marcus has 43 stores in the United States, none in Alaska.

Sealaska says it discovered the retailer was selling the coat in 2019.

According to the lawsuit, Neiman Marcus violated India’s Arts and Crafts Law which requires that products marketed as “Indian” be in fact made by indigenous peoples. The Juneau-based nonprofit works to preserve and enhance the culture of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian tribes of Southeast Alaska.

Sealaska also says that the Neiman Marcus dress infringes the copyright of Clarissa Rizal, a deceased master weaver who created the Ravenstail dress in 1996. Upon her death in 2016, her family obtained the rights to the dress, Adams said. .

Rizal’s heirs last year registered the dress with the U.S. copyright office, according to the lawsuit. The copyright was then exclusively licensed to Sealaska, according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs seek an injunction prohibiting Neiman Marcus or the parent companies from selling the coat, as well as unspecified compensatory, punitive and other damages.

As calls for physical distancing keep people home and away from friends and family, members of Alaska’s native community are coming together online. A new Facebook group, called “Alaska Native Virtual Gathering Place,” provides a space for joy and healing amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are going through a collective trauma right now and although we cannot physically come together, we can bring these traditions of community grief and healing into this new format,” said Vera Starbard, one of the group’s founders.

Starbard is Tlingit and Dena’ina. She is playwright-in-residence at the Perseverance Theater, editor-in-chief of First Alaskans Magazine, and writer for the PBS KIDS children’s program “Molly of Denali”.

The group was inspired by the similar “Social Distance Powwow” page, formed by people from Lower 48, she said. On Monday, the largest powwow group numbered more than 150,000 members from across the country and became a hub for sharing videos featuring dances, songs and words of encouragement.

“It’s a great and active group and it felt good to watch all these aboriginal people singing and drumming and dancing,” Starbard said.

She and ‘Gathering Place’ co-founder Erin Tripp, a Tlingit theater artist based in Juneau, started the Alaskan version after several large Indigenous events were canceled due to concerns about COVID-19. The annual Cama’i Festival and the Indigenous Youth Olympics have been suspended, as has the biennial celebration in Juneau.

“Our cultures focus more on the community than the individual,” said Tripp, Deisheetaan of Yeil H? T. “We’re not the only person going through this. It’s a shared experience. There is healing in sharing our songs, our stories, our wisdom with one another.”

Anyone in the group can post to the thread. The organizers have also set up a series of recurring events to strengthen the consistency of people. These include nightly shows scheduled at 7 p.m., as well as games for prizes and more.

Upcoming livestreams will feature guests like frontman Stephen Blanchett on Monday, who many may know from the band Pamyua, and North Slope’s own Cordelia Qiġ? Aaq Kellie on Friday.

“Vera and Erin contacted me and asked if I would like to participate in the rally, sharing songs and stories,” said Napiryuk Polly Andrews, of Shevak, whose name Cup’ik means “to sharpen.” Andrews was one of the first guests on the nighttime show.

When social distancing began in Alaska, she had just returned home after visiting Chefornak, where her children shared their first dance ceremony with the community which is the hometown of her husband, singer and songwriter Aassanaaq “Ossie “Kairaiuak.

“The ceremony, which had been performed from ancestral times among our Yup’ik / Cup’ik people, was performed to honor our children’s accomplishments and our connection to the land and culture,” said Andrews. “This ceremony brought together the communities of Chefornak, Toksook Bay, Tununak, Nightmute and Shevak. When we were all together in this space, drumming and dancing, you could feel the joy and strength of our Alaskan natives resonate strongly.

It was a feeling of wholeness and connection and strength that was old. With the announcement of the first COVID case in Alaska and the announcement of the closure of gathering places in our state, we knew we were among the last to gather and dance for an unforeseen amount of time. “

When she returned to Anchorage, she felt it was a gift she needed to keep going. So she accepted the invitation.

“One thing my husband has wisely said in the past (is): ‘with being rooted in culture comes with responsibility’. Part of our responsibility as Aboriginal people is to share our cultural gifts and values ​​with others, ”said Andrews.

On an hour-long live broadcast on Friday, Andrews shared stories from his family, sang songs and talked about the challenges of adapting to life in quarantine. His video has since been viewed over 300 times and has inspired many conversations.

“Our songs, dances, stories and ancient practices translate into the health and well-being of our Indigenous communities,” she said. “Our paths are our resilience. And in times of challenge and adversity, this is how we heal together. During this time, our community has been challenged to explore creative ways to continue our healing practices – to practice the ancient value of coming together in different healing ways. And with that, our indigenous community overcame the challenge and created a space for our songs, dances and stories to connect with people’s hearts.

The practice of seclusion or distancing is no stranger to many Native Alaskan cultures, Starbard said. But the foundations remain collective.

“We came together during harvest, we came together while preparing food. We came together to raise children and we came together to chat, drum, dance and share stories,” Andrews said. . “An example of our gathering in Yup’ik culture was qasriq, a multi-purpose gathering place. Young boys learned skills such as making tools and listening to stories about the hunt. Various men and elders in the community taught the young boys in the qasriq. This place was also used as a gathering place for dance ceremonies. This unifying value – and the collective nature of our people – is inherent in each of us. We were all like this in the past. In many areas where we come from – our villages – we may not be strong economically, but we are strong culturally. And that’s what keeps our people alive. “

Regardless of other changes over time, these values ​​are always expensive.

“Every Native Alaskan culture has traditional gatherings throughout the year, and they are an integral part of our sense of connection to each other as clan members, tribal members, families,” said Starbard. “We have always known in our cultures that physically coming together to celebrate, mourn, commemorate is the healthiest way to ensure strong relationships.”

These gatherings can be virtual now, instead of being physical, she said, but their healing power remains, even in difficult times like these.

“Particularly because we live in such a digital age, it’s possible for all of us to still connect in different ways while maintaining our physical distance,” said Tripp. “That’s not to say it’s not difficult. It always is. But I’ve seen many wonderful and creative ways to use the Internet to connect with friends, loved ones, their community or even off the internet, like those videos you see of people singing together from their apartment windows. It reminded me that we are not alone and that we are all in the same boat. “

You can join the Alaska Native Virtual Gathering Place by searching for it on Facebook and submitting a request. Live broadcast schedules are posted to the group and updated regularly by admins.

Shady Grove Oliver can be contacted at [email protected]