Native Food Contest, Celebration 2024 | Sealaska Heritage

Good afternoon, everyone. Um, we are switching gears a little bit and we're getting into our native food testing and competition. Um, welcome. I hope you're not hungry because this is going to make you even hungrier. Um, today we're going to be talking about some of the native foods that we've judged so far.

We got together as a team, and I'll let my team introduce themselves here in a couple minutes. And we've already judged the seal oil and dry fish, and today we're in front of you to judge the seaweed. And so we're excited to be here. Hi everyone, my name's Desiree Jackson. I'm the new Vice President of Administration and Outreach at Sea Alaska.

My family is Sagwe D. And we live here in Juneau. It's a pleasure to be here. I've been up on stage before as far as Native food. And in my previous role as a registered dietitian who specializes in traditional Alaska Native food, for me, I've always believed and known that our foods are the best foods for us. And it's really been my belief that our foods should be the first foods for our children as well.

And so that they grow up with a taste for our traditional foods. Enough about me. I'm going to ask that my fellow judges come up and introduce themselves before we get into our live seaweed tasting and judging.

That's fine. Good afternoon. My name is Barbara Kedienti Nelson. I was born and reared here in Juneau, but my ancestral homelands are in Angoon. I'm married to Norval Nelson.

My husband Norval and I are commercial fishers, so we know a little bit about our native foods. Our native foods really come to us, particularly the seaweed, from our friends in Hoonah and thereabouts. Just a special shout out to Vernon Hill, who he and his wife Jeannie would always send us a care package of seaweed and other goodies. My children, our 4 adult children, grew up on the back of our fishing vessels, many of those that have visited your communities from as far north as Yakutat and all the way down through Prince of Wales. And our grandchildren also fish there.

I retired after 30 years of fishing to finish my degree and to work in the Juneau School District to create bridges of equity in the school system. I'm a DIA council member and also a board member of Sealaska and a trustee of Sealaska Alaska Heritage Institute. And I don't know about you, but this brown bear is hungry, so I'm going to be able to taste the foods here pretty quickly. And thank you for being here. Hopefully— I see there are those that are coming out and giving you a little bit of taste, but we get the bear's lair of it.

Gunaashdizh.

Hello, my name is Braylin. I also want to introduce myself in Tlingit. Najiis Tlaa yuukhattoo esaaak yeekhtaa khatsetii dak deentaaanaaayaa khat. Haukhe dak kaweekha naakaheedi. Khunakaawu.

Uishkitaan yadii kakaaagwaan taan dashkhaan. Hello, my name is Braylin. It's also Najiis Tlaa. I am Raven Ductane Ton from the Freshwater Sakai House. My family comes from Hoonah and Tenakee.

I'm the child of the Wooshkiton and the grandchild of the Kaagwaanton. That's about all of the qualifications I have for judging a Native food contest.

I am so grateful to all of my relatives and their relatives for being so generous with sharing this precious food. I love seaweed. Oh my God. I think it's the fastest I've ever responded to an email when I was— asked if I can do this.

My mouth has been watering since we saw the plates up there. So I also want to say atelengunishtish to Al and Pauline Duncan. I've had the beautiful opportunity to do subsistence with them, and they are so good at bringing in their grandchildren, all of their relatives, and teaching them, taking them out on the boat, and It's been a beautiful experience to be going out there with them. So, atxengunaxtix to Al and Pauline. Thank you for teaching me about seaweed, and thank you for feeding me so, so much of it.

I'm so excited. Gunaxtix.

Okay. And a harvester just told me last night that the tides are really good right now. They're big, and the sun is out. Actually a really great time to be harvesting seaweed if you haven't done that already. I've had the pleasure of harvesting with my husband and our family in K'ik'wan, and learning that process with my children is so important so that they know where our, our foods come from and how to process them.

Wanted to take a minute and just tell you a little bit about how we went about judging the other foods. And so each of us judges got a score sheet and we were able to score in 4 categories. We gave each category a 1 through 10. And so like for the seal oil, we judged it on freshness, on color, on taste, uh, And you know, with the dry fish, we looked at texture. And so we used various metrics to compile our scores and come up with winners.

And so with the seal oil and dry fish, those winners were announced and they were able to go over to our information booth and they won a prize. And so we're happy for them. But today is really about focusing on our seaweed. And we have 3 folks who entered their seaweed in for, for to be tasted and judged today. And so we're going to get to that right now.

And as we do, I'm going to ask if we do have any of the folks who entered their seaweed in to be judged that they come up and they introduce themselves. We also have the SHI staff here who's going to be passing out samples of the seaweed for everybody in the audience to taste as well. So for those of you at home, I'm sorry. I know you want to taste too. I hope you have some in your cupboards.

But for those of you in the audience, let's get some extra nutrients in today and try some of our seaweed, which is high in fiber and wonderful magnesium and other great nutrients for our bodies. So I'm going to encourage you to taste those with us. You're going to be watching us live judge up here. And we'll hopefully get some folks up here to introduce themselves and talk about their seaweed and how they harvest it. So let's go ahead and see if we've got anybody here.

Ah-hee-hee-ee-ah, ah-hee-hee-ee-ah, goonah-cheesh-ay-ay-ah, at-bu-ha. Ah-hee-hee-ee-ah, ah-hee-hee-ee-ah, goonah-cheesh-ay-ay-ah, at-bu-ha. Ah-hee-hee-ee-ah, ah-hee-hee-ee-ah. So if I could get Christina Weber up, Mike Allard, and Sally Joseph to the stage. We'd sure love to hear from you.

Hi, my name is Mike Allard. I live in Pelican.

I just do a lot of harvesting and seaweed and dry fish and other stuff. It's a— it's always a fun time to go out and pick your seaweed and enjoy yourself because like they said, it's good weather coming up and lots of lots of sunshine. So it's just a time to get out and reflect on our tradition and enjoy ourselves. Thank you.

Thank you for your submission, Mike. We appreciate hearing from you. We'll be judging and And letting the winner know soon. Thank you. Sally, do we have Sally here?

I thought I saw her.

Okay. Well, maybe they're hiding, but that's all right. No need to be here to win. We're going to get into judging. We'll have some music on for the next couple minutes, and we'll be right back with you.

Gunas chish ayaya at bukha ah-hee heeyah! Ah-hey hey ey yuh? Gunas chish ayayyaat bukhaa—. Aheh hi yi ya?! Hehi yiiyaaa!!

Gunnaz cheesh aiyyaati bookhaar—ahee hii iiyah?? Hiii-yee-hi-iiaaaaa!? Gunnaach sheesh aaayah yayaat buhkhar-ahei hei iyaha—heehiiiiiyahu!!! Gunnatz shissh aaaiah yawwatt buuk haar? Ahe hiya!

Ahe hiya! Gunas chish ayaya atbukha—. Ah hey hee-yah? Ah hay-hee-ee-yaa?! Gunas chish ayaya atbukha—.

Ahay hee-eeyaaa? Guna shish ayaya atbukha—. Ah-hahee hee eeya? Ahe hiya kunaat chish ayaya at bukha! Ah hey hee-ee-yah ah hay-hee-eeyah?

Kunaat chish ayaya at bukha! Ahay hee-ee-yah ah-hay hee-ee-yah? Kunaat chish ayaya at bukha!

Ah hey hee-ee-yah— Ahe hiya gunaachish ayaya adbhukha! Ah hee-hee-ee-yah— ah hey-hi-eey-yah? Gunaaachish ayayaa adhbukhā! Ah hay-heehee-yah—ahey-hee-hee-yah?! Gunaaaachish ayayaa adhbukhā!

Ah hey-hee-hee-yah—ahey-hee-hee-yah?! Gunal chish ayaya at bukha ahay hiya—. Ahhayhi ya! Gunnar Chisch Ayaya At Bukhah? Aheeyiiyah...

Gunalchisht-Ayayah-At-Buk-Ha?! "Ah-hay-hee-yaa." Goonahl-Chich-aYaiYa-at-buKHaH!? Uh hey heeya uh hay hiii yaaa gunaal-chiSh aiAyA—at BuKhAH??

Ahe hiya kunaas chish ayaya atbukha! Ah hey hee-ee-yah ah hay-hee-eeyah? Kunaas chish ayaya atbukha! Ahay hee-ee-yah ah-hay hee-ee-yah? Kunaas chish ayaya atbukha!

Ahay hee-ee-yah— Gunal chish ayaya at bukha ah-hee heeyah! Ah-hey hey ey yuh? Gunal chish ayayahat bukhuah— Aheee hi yiya?! Hehi ya!? Hey huh yeahyaa!!

I am here to serve you Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth... In Urdu: "Aye haiyya!" Kunaal cheesh aayaiyat bokhaan hahee hii iiyah!!! Hahei hei iyaaaam kunaanlchees aiyaiyasaat bunkhuuhaar; Gunaaz chiis aaayeeyaath boohaar... And now we pray for all those who have been affected by COVID19 or other health issues today that they will be healed from their sickness quickly than ever before through your Ah-hee hee ee-ah! Ah-hee hee ee-ah!

Goonahl cheesh ayayaa at bukhaa. Ah-hee hee ee-ah! Ah-hee hee ee-ah! Goonahl cheesh ayayaa at bukhaa. I'm going to try to bring the mic far—.

Wow, that was really, really tasty. Did everybody get to try some? Yeah, okay. So not everybody, sorry about that. But we do have some leftover up here that we're willing to share with you.

Oh, Barbara's hiding hers.

We've just sent our scores back to be tallied. And so while we wait, I was hoping to chat with Barbara and with Braylon. I know both of these ladies, they wear various hats in the community, but most recently I've gotten to travel with them a lot with my new role at Sealaska. And of course, Barbara's on our Sealaska board. And maybe you did or didn't know this, Braylon is also our youth advisor on the Sea Alaska Board.

She's doing a great job representing the youth at the board level, and she's there at each and every one of our board meetings and at most of our events, letting us know the youth perspective. So I want to say thank you for that, Braylon. And I also want to invite you up to tell your favorite seaweed story.

Well, my favorite seaweed story might be right now. I'm going to try to talk out of a little purse of my lips because I think my teeth show seaweed in them. But I was thinking of the question and seaweed, and when I was dancing with Angoon Kwan, they said that their elders would tell them Dance like the seaweed, all in motion with the tide coming and going. You're all in the same tidal action. And so that's what I was thinking about, the seaweed.

With regard to our foods, our traditional foods, even my father used to say that food should be respected like medicine. They're good for us. They're good for our soul. But they also bring us together as a people. And so when I see seaweed, I think of those that have labored so long and hard to bring these, send these care packages to me and my husband and our children, and how we appreciate all that they've gone through to go harvest these and to go out in the boats.

Because we know that when our people are connected to the waters, when they're connected to the land, that they learn how to take care of it and respect it, but they also get to know who they are because there's no better teacher than our waters, than our land, and in the sharing of it. I know when my family goes out hunting, we only have one freezer, and many others who don't do as we do, which is to give what we've caught, have many other freezers, but ours is— our catch is given away to our elders first and those that our neighbors and are asking for it as well. But back to the seaweed, it also brings me up to other things that in growing up here in Occoquan and Toccoquan territory, we used to go harvest gumboot out at the Shrine of St. Therese. My aunt Phyllis and her husband used to take us, Al Clark, out the shrine and we'd get out and we'd climb the rocks and we'd peel off the gumboot. And then when the herring would come in, we would go down where the area is where now you have the ferry terminal there, and we would go for the herring that were pooling up in the ponds there and also the spawn that they left.

And other areas like in Taku, we would go and watch the dog salmon returning home. And so as I was tasting this, and I'll just end with this, when I was tasting the seaweed, I was thinking, you know, our salmon are smelling on their way home. They're smelling the area. They're being pulled and brought home by the smell of the trees. And as I was tasting these three samples, I know that they're unique to our salmon that are coming this way.

You can just feel it. They're coming home. So again, thank you to those that took the time to send in their samples for this competition. They were all a 10 to me, I'm just gonna say. But also for those that feed us that no longer can harvest in this area because of the strong impacts that we are faced with in this area.

So gunalchéesh and keep on keeping on. You make our people strong.

Oh my gosh, how are we supposed to judge seaweed? What the heck? Um, every bite I took, I was like, wow, there's a good flavor here. Oh, the texture is really good. Had to take another bite.

I didn't realize they were waiting on me, and I ate up all of my samples. I couldn't help myself. This was so good. Gunalchéesh for sharing. And I think we have our winners now, so I'll hand it over to Desiree.

Thank you. Okay. And just briefly, my favorite seaweed story is actually happened this weekend in Heidelberg. We were there for a memorial service and for a naming, and while there, someone passed me a bowl of seaweed and, you know, I took a little piece. Yeah, I'm going to eat this.

And it was so amazing. And then I grabbed a handful and I kept eating it. It was— I've never had it before. And all of a sudden someone said, who brought the fried seaweed? And I had never had fried seaweed before, just, just fried on its own.

Has anybody ever had that before? Anybody in the crowd here? Oh my gosh, if you haven't yet, do yourselves a favor. It's better than any chip you've ever had in your life. And I'll tell you what, I ate so much I had a stomachache for the next 3 days.

But that's okay. It was well worth it. I loved it. And I can't wait to get home and fry some of my own seaweed. Um, before we announce the winners, I just want to say we really feel everyone is a winner who harvests and subsists and lives off of our traditional foods on these lands.

So everybody who submitted a sample, it was amazing. You're all winners. We really appreciate your contribution to the conversation around traditional foods and helping us create a traditional— a taste for traditional foods for our people moving forward. And with that, I would like to ask our two judges with me, Barbara and Braylon, to come up and help me announce. So we'll start with third place.

Um, Braylon, did you want to do the honors?

And third place will go to Mike, Mike Allard. Congratulations, Mike.

I'll go ahead and read second place. Sally Joseph, congratulations, you have gotten second place for our seaweed competition.

Drum roll. First place goes to Christina Weber. Congratulations. And again, they're all three winners.

Yeah. Christina Weber, congratulations again. And as a reminder, please see us at the information booth for your prize. And you're all winners in our eyes. With that, we're going to conclude the Native Food Competition.

And thank you to SHI for hosting this event and for asking us to be judges. Gunasheesh.