Welcome to Our Cultural Landscape, Sealaska Heritage’s fifth culturally responsive education conference. This event provides educators and administrators with a deep understanding of culturally responsive education and equips them to transform their classrooms, pedagogy, and curriculum to fully support all students’ success—especially those who have been historically underserved, disenfranchised, and marginalized by colonized systems.

Educators, administrators, university faculty, and community members are all welcome and encouraged to attend. Attendees will find engaging and informative sessions to support their thinking around culturally-responsive and sustaining pedagogies for K-12 and university settings, critical theory, place-based education, and possibilities for indigenizing curriculum and building safe social environments for all learners.

The conference is scheduled Aug. 11-13, and will be offered in person in Juneau, Alaska, with featured elements available virtually. The theme of this year’s event is Haa Ḵusteeyí Yatsáakw (“Our Way of Life Persists”).

Keynotes

Sealaska Heritage Institute enlists renowned, nationally-known educators to give keynote addresses at its education conferences for teachers and administrators in Southeast Alaska as part of a larger effort to promote culturally responsive pedagogy in schools.

Dr. Dolly Garza was born in Ketchikan, Alaska, and is Kaigani Haida. Dolly moved to Skidegate, Haida Gwaii, 10 years ago after retiring as a professor at the University of Alaska. She is now a full-time artist and is well-known for her weaving. Dolly has a Ph.D. in marine policy and is the author of Common Edible Seaweeds of the Gulf of Alaska.

She continues to teach seaweed identification and sustainable harvesting workshops.

Dr. Matthew Wappett is a researcher, a writer, and an educator in stress management, leadership, and inclusion. He is the executive director of the Institute for Disability Research, Policy & Practice at Utah State University.

His teaching and research on the effects of stress on learning and behavior help individuals and organizations understand how to become more resilient and inclusive.