Tlingit beader brings Kahtushtu clan robe story to Juneau lecture

Tl'aagunk Renee Culp, Sealaska Heritage Institute's demonstrating artist in residence, will present a free public lecture Tuesday in Juneau on a beadwork clan robe that documents a Chookaneidí ancestor's battle with a giant octopus, a piece that will become at.óow, sacred Tlingit clan property.

Culp presents noon to 1 p.m. June 30 in Shuká Hít Clan House on the first level of SHI's building at 105 Heritage Way. The lecture will also stream live on SHI's YouTube channel, opening the event to Southeast Alaska residents who cannot make the trip. For more information, contact SHI Communications and Publications Deputy Director Kathy Dye at 907-321-4636 or [email protected].

The robe Culp is working on depicts the story of Kahtushtu, a Chookaneidí ancestor who strapped daggers to his wrists and went to battle with a giant octopus that had terrorized his people. Kahtushtu was never seen again. Against red felt, white and silver beads trace the outline of the creature's tentacles. When finished, the robe will become at.óow, the Tlingit term for sacred clan property, literally translated as "that which was paid for," usually with the life of a clan ancestor.

"Our pieces aren't just works of art. They're historical documents," Culp said, carefully beading the outline of a tentacle. "Our art becomes part of the family. At.óow has a soul, and it's connected to our people in that way. So to say that it's art...it definitely is, but it's so much more than that."

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have noted that Tlingit beadwork has never been comprehensively analyzed in existing scholarship, often treated as craft or ethnographic artifact rather than as historical record and fine art. Culp said one piece takes her anywhere from three to nine months to create and uses tens of thousands of beads.

Culp came to beading late, by her own telling. Her grandmother tried to teach her at age seven. "I was too young to be sitting and doing something so patient," Culp said. "It wasn't a good fit for me at the time. The lessons she taught me about beading and being an artist came after she was with the ancestors."

SHI will host a second lecture the following day. Anthropologist Arnauld Chandivert of Paul-Valéry University in Montpellier, France, presents "An 'Archipelago of Connections' and a Living Heritage" noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, July 1, also in Shuká Hít Clan House. Chandivert's talk draws on his research into traditional foods as a living heritage connecting communities in Southeast Alaska, including Hoonah and Juneau, to the places and histories that shaped them. That lecture will also be livestreamed on SHI's YouTube channel.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a tribal nonprofit founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. Both events are free and require no registration.