Connection between Art, Storytelling, Sacred Knowledge, and
Community Identity
Traditional arts of the Pacific Northwest Coast have enjoying a rebirth, revitalizing tribal cultures along the way. For 30 years Lee Brooks, founder of the Arctic Raven Gallery, has collaborated with Native artists from the Coast Salish, Kwakwaka’wakw, Kwaguilth, and Makah nations as well as the more northern Haida, Tlingit and Tsimshian, and in the far north, the Inuit, Inupiat and Yup’ik. Lee’s mission is to support the artists and cultures by making available native art from the source. And educator at heart, Lee will share a slide show as a preview of the museum exhibit he is curating, of four distinct styles of Coast Salish art. He will decode the motifs unique to each culture, that, used again and again in highly inventive ways, hint at their deeper meaning.
Justin Youso, part of the Arctic Raven Team, is an artist and graduate of the Cornish School of Fine Arts. His lineage extends to the Lummi, Clallam, and Pyramid Lake Paiyutes. He has much to share on how native artists are reclaiming their heritage through these traditional arts, after years of suppression. Theirs is a story of strength, hope, beauty, continuity, and community.
Lee says, “The arctic raven, logo of our gallery, is the only bird which remains in the far north throughout the winter and thus has become a symbol for the resilience of the northern Native cultures.” Find the Arctic Raven Gallery in “the heart of the Salish Sea,” Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, Washington and at https://arcticravengalleryfridayharbor.com/