REQUEST FOR SIGNATURES: Sign the Declaration for Gath & K'iyh
All of Mother Earth is interconnected; Gath (King Salmon) and K'iyh (Birch) have a sacred right to life, to migration without borders, and to relation with their Indigenous caretakers.
The King Salmon of the Yukon River have suffered an alarming decline, and their persistence in the watershed is now imperiled. Holding in prayer the profound grief of Indigenous communities along the Yukon River—who have been unable to practice traditional ways of fishing for King Salmon, passing Indigenous Knowledge to younger generations, and feeding their families traditional food for four years—We demand support for Indigenous Peoples' right to continue practicing their traditional livelihoods.
From May to September 2023, a cohort of climate justice advocates, university students, and concerned Alaskans gathered together on the lands of Lower Tanana Dene in Fairbanks, Alaska to learn about the climate crisis from our King Salmon and Birch relatives in three place-based workshops. The goal was “Listen to Heal”: slow down and navigate their grief for the climate crisis through the arts. Our grassroots cohort asks for your support by signing on to this Declaration for Gath & K'iyh. Read the Declaration Below or by clicking here!
Gath & Kʻiyh: Listen to Heal Trailer
In Alaska, community comes together to create music with Yo-Yo Ma as a critical part of collective healing and radical hope for the future. Gath and K’iyh: Listen to Heal is a poetic visual exploration of a community-led creative arts project aimed at better understanding and restoring our relationship with gath (king salmon) and k’iyh (birch) relatives as we navigate our feelings around climate change in Alaska. Gath and K’iyh are words from the Benhti Kokhut’ana Kenaga’ (Lower Tanana) dialect spoken in the Interior Region of Alaska. Guided by the voice and wisdom of Ahtna Elder Fred John, this film invites viewers to pause, to listen, to sing and dream together and ask how we might be in better relationship to the natural world around us.
Music for Gath & K’iyh
(Salmon & Birch)
What do we do when relatives core to our being, like salmon, no longer return to our homelands? When homes and food storage are destroyed by floods and storms? When the hunting sites our ancestors used for generations are no longer viable? We must grieve. We must walk through our pain so we can heal, and then adapt.
The purpose of the community event "Music for Gath & K'iyh" was to make music and ceremony to honor our relationship with the Salmon, with the Birch, and our Mother Earth. The “Gath & K’iyh: Listen to Heal” workshop participants performed originally composed music with cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The event also included musical offerings by Pattie Gonia and Quinn Christopherson. This unique, participatory space supported the audience and performers in navigating their climate grief and building toward climate action.
*In Benhti Kokhut’ana Kenaga dialect, Gath is King Salmon and K’iyh is Birch
