Tom Gillen Sr. playing a Tlingit drum he made. He was at last Friday's drumming and sewing session, organized by a WCA cultural program.
Tlingit elder Emma Frost holds up a headband she's beading, which symbolizes her raven moiety. Frost was working on her art at last Friday's sewing and drumming night at the WCA carving shed.
Thirteen-year-old Boomchain Loucks (Galshāat, "hold together"), left, and 14-year-old Shelton Eklund (Duhūnxw, "older brother") practice Tlingit drumming last Friday.
Friday night drumming at the Wrangell Cooperative Association's carving shed on Front Street brings together Tlingit elders and teens, different generations forming a circle around an overhead projector as instructor Virginia Oliver guided the group through the pronunciation of Tlingit song lyrics.
Oliver's son Tommy Rooney Jr., Luella Knapp and Tom Gillen Sr. were among the adults on drums, accompanied by children that included 14-year-old Keaton (Saak, "hooligan") Gadd, 13-year-old Boomchain (Galshāat, "hold together") Loucks, and 14-year-old Shelton (Duhūnxw, "older brother") Eklund.
"I'm counting on you, Tom, to hold the beat," Oliver said.
Gillen smiled. "Good luck."
Oliver sang. She kept her finger on the lyrics, leading the group in singing, advancing the page as the voices and drums melded together and leapt from one line to the next, and cajoled the boys when she noticed wandering attention and fewer sticks rolling off the drumskins, until the song concluded.
Oliver approved. "Now that's rock and roll."
The group went through a couple more songs. Knapp sang and held hands with her great-granddaughter, 10-year-old Jocelyn Smith, Chukateen in Tlingit, as they swung their linked arms to the beat.
"I heard your sweet voice, Lue," Oliver said to Knapp, who laughed.
Knapp, who was sat right next to Gillen, said his drum was loud.
"But it sounded so good though," he said.
Oliver asked the boys if they had any modern requests. "Christina Aguilera? Pitbull?"
The boys looked back in silence as if to ask, "Who now?"
Oliver said the kids ask her for Jason Derulo, but she doesn't know who that is.
Since there were no requests, Oliver concluded the program with a Tlingit exit song. After some snacks, for those who chose to stay, it was time for sewing and beadwork.
Emma Frost made progress with her headband, even without her glasses, which have gone missing.
Richard Oliver, Virginia's husband, held up rectangular beads carved from the devil's club plant, which holds medicinal and spiritual significance. Initially he carved one down to the core, smooth and nondescript as a dowel. Then Gillen suggested Oliver leave some of the bark on, because that's where the medicine lives, he said.
The drumming and sewing practice is part of the Johnson-O'Malley program, which provides educational opportunities and advocacy for Alaska Native and American Indian students from ages 3 through grade 12, guided by local parent committees, and emphasizes tutorial and cultural enrichment activities, according to the website.
The Wrangell JOM group is practicing for a tribal assembly, which convenes in Juneau in April. The assembly went virtual the past couple of years, but is anticipated to be in-person in 2022.
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