Kodiak Alutiiq Dancers honor late elder at Celebration 2026 performances

Kodiak Alutiiq Dancers dedicated their Thursday evening performance at Celebration 2026 to late elder Margaret Roberts, crediting her as instrumental in the group's cultural work.

The group performed traditional pieces, newly written compositions, and songs gifted by other communities at Centennial Hall. Among them was Sakulak, written by Lauren Anderson, which describes how ancestors sent messages to loved ones through birds that would carry words to the ancestral world.

Other performances included Traveling, gifted by Tuna McIntyre to revitalize Kodiak's dance program, and Kabutin, written by Stephen Blanchette about a spirit fought in the war against the Russians. The group also performed a memorial song for elder Helen Simeonoff and closed with their unity song Asle Lu Ugot, inviting audience members to join them on stage.

Margaret Roberts helped the group learn songs from the Kiksadi of Sitka, which the dancers call the Ancestor series.

The Kamehameha Hawaiian Ensemble, a delegation of 14 graduating seniors, performed hula depicting the making of a traditional deep-sea sailing canoe. A speaker told the audience that Alaska-gifted logs in 1990 helped revive deep-sea sailing in the Pacific after hundreds of years.

Mount St. Elias dancers from Yakutat closed the evening. The group has performed for 70 years, with some regalia dancing for more than seven generations. They performed a paddle song honoring those who paddled to Celebration, paid tribute to former dance leader Ramona Anderstrom, and dedicated a performance to Kathy Wassily.

Thursday's performances followed the festival's opening day, which featured canoe arrivals and speeches on cultural resurgence. Groups from Haines, Klukwan, Hawaii, Juneau, and Yakutat performed.