I’ve known Owen since he moved to Hoonah from his hometown of Kake, Alaska. After meeting him, he became known to me as a community member who was often out doing subsistence gathering activities and sharing his bounty with many families.
In 2010, the day after Thanksgiving, we officially started working together on the Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve Tribal House, now known as Xunaa Shuká Hít. Our working relationship continued into 2018, when the project was completed.
When we started this journey, I felt Owen could bring a strong, cultural foundation to the project that many other community members didn’t have. I had no expectation that this was going to be an 8-year team project, it turned out to be very rewarding to all of us involved.
During our many days of carving, we were able to share with each other, community members and many visitors to the project, stories of our Tlingit lives, culture, and experiences. There were many laughs as well as some challenges that required working together for solutions, which always made us stronger. Owen’s problem-solving ability helped us work through many of the unforeseen issues we encountered.
I enjoyed seeing Owen grow as a carver and an artist. He gained skills and understanding in Northwest Coast Native form-line design, carving and tool making. We took several educational trips to learn more about the art where we spent time together outside of working hours. This led to more camaraderie within the carving team and thus, was valuable.
