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Aywaa.org was created to inform, engage, and inspire those willing to deepen their awareness of how Indigenous peoples in the North are strengthening healthy relationships with one another and with all living things that inhabit the waters, lands, and air. It is a storyhouse that shares the narrative of Alaska’s Indigenous peoples who express themselves and make decisions based in cultural responsibility, reciprocity, and respect for all living relationships.


A special thank you to all of the photographers who generously shared their images to help us create the Aywaa Storyhouse. We appreciate you.

 

Brian Adams (Iñupiaq)
Howdice Brown III (Iñupiaq)
Mori Busk (Iñupiaq)
Nalikutaar, Jacqueline Cleveland (Yup’ik)
Bethany Goodrich
Anna Hoover (Unangax and Norwegian)
Nathaniel Wilder

Our Staff

Cathy Tagnak Noland

Email Address: cathy@alaskaventure.org

Cathy Tagnak Noland

(Iñupiaq)

Cathy Tagnak Noland is a writer, playwright and advocate for the narrative sovereignty of Indigenous people. She was born in Anchorage, AK and is Iñupiaq, French, German and English. Cathy holds a BA from The Evergreen State College in Native American Studies; a BFA with honors from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Creative Writing; and an MFA from The University of British Columbia in Creative Writing and Theatre, where she was an Aboriginal Graduate Fellow. In addition to writing, Cathy has worked extensively in Native education and language efforts as a grassroots organizer, film and television producer, a non-profit director, and coordinator of Iñupiaq education in Alaska’s northernmost school district. In her work, Cathy seeks to build relationships and movements grounded in the values, collaboration and decolonization of Alaska Native people. As Aywaa Storyhouse Project Manager, Cathy brings a rich background in aligning art, entertainment and academic institutions with Alaska Native values to the Alaska Venture Fund team.

Email Address: jonella@alaskaventure.org

Ququngaq, Jonella Larson

(Yupik)

Ququngaq, Jonella serves as Partner/Program Director to the Alaska Venture Fund and the Alaska Network Officer for the Chorus Foundation. She has been actively engaged in Alaska’s nonprofit and tribal government sectors the past ten years focused on improving organizational capacity with leadership. Jonella was born and raised in Nome with strong family ties to Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island. She and her children are tribal citizens of the Native Village of Savoonga. Her love of Yupik art, culture, and ideology led her to the University of Alaska Fairbanks where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Alaska Native and Rural Development with an emphasis in cultural documentation and community planning and to Harvard University where she earned her Master in Liberal Arts in museum studies. She is committed to working with leadership on issues and impacts related to climate change, sustainable communities, and cultural expression.

In her role at AVF, she looks forward to building and strengthening relationships with those who care for Alaska’s peoples and their relationships to place. Her goal is to focus on issues of systemic change with a focus on sustainability and that are based on values. As a lifelong Alaskan, Jonella recognizes and shares an appreciation for the complex challenges that we face as Alaskans and is committed to using her experience and knowledge to help leaders meet the needs of their communities. Jonella enjoys looking for driftwood on the beach to carve, the smell of tundra, and spending quality time with family.

Meet the Aywaa Advisors:

The Aywaa Advisors are thought leaders who recognize the importance of elevating and sharing the cultural narrative of Alaska’s Indigenous peoples and increasing philanthropic attention to existing and emergent opportunities that enhance genuine partnerships and collaborative efforts throughout Alaska.

Khaih Zhuu, Charlene Stern

(Gwich'in)

Khaih Zhuu, Charlene Stern is originally from Arctic Village and an enrolled member of the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government. She holds a bachelor’s degree in American Cultural Studies from Western Washington University, a master’s degree in Community and Regional Planning from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in Indigenous Studies from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). She currently serves on the Fairbanks Native Association Board of Directors and as Vice-President of Tanana Chiefs Conference. Dr. Stern is employed as the Interim Vice-Chancellor for Rural, Community and Native Education at UAF.

La Quen Naay, Liz Medicine Crow

(Haida/Tlingit)

La quen náay, Haida/Tlingit, is from Ḵéex̱ʼ Kwáan (Kake), Alaska. She is an enrolled Tribal Citizen of the Organized Village of Kake. On her Haida side she is Eagle, Tíits G’itanée, Hummingbird. On her Tlingit side she is Raven Kaach.ádi, Fresh Water-marked Sockeye Salmon, of the Kutís Hít House. Her maternal grandparents were Mona & Thomas Jackson, Sr. of Haida Gwaii/Hydaburg and Kake, respectively. Her paternal grandparents were Lillian and Charles Cheney of Washington. Her parents are Della and William Cheney of Kake. La quen náay’s heart is always at home in the village with her family and people. Integrating Native knowledge and values into organizations, governance mechanisms, and everyday life is a primary passion and responsibility she has pursued through her education and career.

La quen náay received her BA (BFA Equivalency) from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, and her law degree from Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, graduating with a Juris Doctorate and a Certificate in Indian Law. Since coming to First Alaskans Institute, La quen náay has served as the Director of the Alaska Native Policy Center, Vice-President, and now serves as the President/CEO, providing a direct path for service to our Native peoples.

Nalikutaar, Jacqueline Cleveland

(Yup’ik)

Nalikutaar, Jacqueline Cleveland is a subsistence hunter, fisherwoman, and gatherer from Quinhagak and a citizen of the Native Village of Kwinhagak Tribal Government. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Media and Theater Arts and minor in Native American Studies from Montana State University, Bozeman. As a filmmaker and photographer, her work focuses on elevating the languages and cultures of Alaska Native peoples. She serves on the Kuskokwim River Intertribal Fish Commission (one of four in-season managers), the Yukon-Kuskokwim Regional Advisory Council, and the Central Bering Sea Advisory Council. She is also the Co-Chairperson of the Quinhagak Heritage, Inc. which runs the Nunalleq Culture and Archaeology Center. She is currently working with Trim Tab Media on a documentary that features the impacts of climate change on the people and community of Quinhagak.

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A message to our planet and the generations before and after us

We are here.
We see and know you; you see and know us.
We are prepared and ready to share our messages of respect and awareness on your behalf.

Apapi, AlexAnna Salmon (Yup'ik)

“None of us have had to say where our expertise comes from … everyone understands that we are standing on thousands and thousands of years of cultural knowledge about one specific place on this planet and that is so deep. The mutual respect and understanding is already there so you just get to the deeper topics right away. Our approach is very holistic. We can talk about anything from language revitalization, to building an economy, to food security.”

Apapi, AlexAnna, was raised in the Village of Igiugig. A granddaughter of John and Mary Olympic and the second oldest child of Dan and Julia Salmon. In 2008, she graduated from Dartmouth College with a dual Bachelor of Arts degree in Native American Studies and Anthropology. After graduating, she returned to work for the Igiugig Tribal Village Council as President and Program Director. She also serves as a member of the Igiugig Native Corporation board, as well as the Lake and Peninsula Borough Planning Commission, and the subregional health board. She is enrolled in the Department of Alaska Native Studies and Rural Development Master of Arts program at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Geh Gii Ch'adzaa, Rochelle Adams (Gwich'in)

“Building on top of our Indigenous Knowledge, uplifting that and moving toward sustainable practices and deciding what is good for our land, and what is good for our people, and how can we all do this together … We’re a part of something that is so much bigger than ourselves. We are all creating what this is now so it’s hard to say where this is going to take us but we sure know it’s going to be amazing because it comes from a place of love, and our values, and community, and homelands, and traditions.”

Geh Gii Ch’adzaa, Rochelle, is from the Interior Alaskan villages of Beaver and Fort Yukon. Her parents are Angela Peter-Mayo of Fort Yukon and the late Cliff “Tuffy” Adams Jr. of Beaver. Her maternal grandparents are Susan (Lord) and Johnny Peter Sr. Her paternal grandparents are Hannah “Babe” (VanHatten) and Cliff Adams Sr. She was raised living a traditional Athabascan lifestyle with her family following the seasonal cycles of hunting, fishing and trapping off of the Yukon River. These are the values and connections that guide her today and she proudly represents this in all parts of her life and work. She is the mother of three teens, which she is raising with these same values of connectedness, love and respect. Through her many roles and actions, Rochelle has continuously sought to bring her perspective as an Indigenous woman with cultural knowledge, born of the lands and waters, training from the elders with a vision of the future generations to empower Native people everywhere. “It’s important that we as Indigenous people are able to shape the world that we live in to ensure the well being of our people on our own traditional homelands and in our own languages.

Iñuuraq, Kaylene Evans (Iñupiaq)

“When we think about a sustainable future, it is about returning to and a reclamation of our values, rather than just a pivot away from them. It is more coming home to our ideas and beliefs that we know are so sacred and inherent to who we are.”

Iñuraaq, Kaylene, is Iñupiaq from Sitñasuak (Nome), Alaska. She is the daughter of Bobby Evans of Sitñasuak and Kathleen Jaycox of Katyaak and the granddaughter to the late Laura (Sockpick) Evans of Kiġiktaq, Bob Evans of Minnesota, and the late Myrtle Wells of Katyaak. Upon receiving her master of arts in Indigenous Politics from the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa, she returned to Alaska to strengthen her connection to her community, nuna, and traditions. Iñuraaq is a poet, retracing Iñupiat creative traditions. She is passionate about individual and collective healing through the rejection of colonial ideologies and lifestyles, and a return to Indigenous languages, homelands, and values.

Akall'eq, Andrea Burgess (Yup'ik)

“We can mentor the rest of the world as they try to come up with solutions and come up with a model. We have the model. We have the knowledge of what it means to be in relationship to land and place. We lived in balance and so as the the rest of the world desperately looks for hope and sustainable living, transitions, we as Native people can help unlock that and help articulate and show the rest of the world what we can come back to.”

Akall’eq, Andrea, is a community activist from Bethel, Alaska now living and working on the lands of Kānaka ‘ōiwi (Native Hawaiians). She is a Yup’ik Tribal citizen of the Native Village of Kwinhagak. Andrea serves as the President of Native Peoples Action and as a co-founder of Native Peoples Action Community Fund where her role is to advance Indigenous ways of being and knowing in the Just Transition movement. She is Company Owner of With Real People, a consulting and production based firm in Alaska and Hawaii. She is also Global Director of the Conservation in Partnership with Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities program at The Nature Conservancy. Andrea has a bachelor’s degree in government/political science from Georgetown University and spent several years working for Alaskans in Congress on Capitol Hill.