Canoe journey to Celebration was about personal healing too

When paddlers from around Southeast departed from Wrangell in canoes toward Juneau, they had not just a physical journey ahead of them, but a journey of personal healing too.

They were heading to Juneau for Celebration, the biennial festival that honors Southeast Alaska Native culture and heritage.

The week-long journey May 29 to June 4 was a time for many of the close to 70 people aboard six canoes to reflect on life and to heal from past traumas.

"We're in this gorgeous bay, with the glacier behind us," Wrangell's Valerie Massie said, describing the scenery. "(The water is) so crystal clear. And I just was noticing the goose barnacles down in the lower intertidal zone are huge and you just don't see that around like where we started from."

As Massie spoke, she looked at the glacier from the beach where they had set up camp. They were near Sumdum Bay, about 45 miles south of Juneau, where they took a well-needed rest day.

Massie had been dedicated to this journey since she found out about it during the early planning stages. She said the opportunity is what kept her in Wrangell during some tough times recently.

"We've finally been able to just pull away for a second and now instead of putting out we can all just take in things for a day," Massie said.

During the downtime, the paddlers got the opportunity to get to know each other better and to sing and dance together.

It was the first time Clifford Williams from Yakutat got to dance. He's 64 years old.

"I want to make myself proud and my community proud. I watch all these young kids dance and I want to do it," he said.

For Williams, getting to dance was a powerful experience. It brought on tears.

Williams went on the canoe journey to celebrate 20 years of sobriety. He has been on canoe journeys 17 or 18 times - almost every year since he stopped drinking. They have been a support for his sobriety.

Williams said he's crashed his vehicles 15 to 20 times throughout his life. On top of that, he's struggled with suicidal tendencies. But during this year's journey, he said he's looking forward to the future.

He plans to get his GED. "I can't spell. I don't know my math. When I quit drinking, I had never changed car engines. Now I have. I've changed five different car engines on my own."

Williams wasn't the only person on the journey healing from past trauma, Alberta Isaacs was there too. The 55-year-old Ketchikan resident said this was her first journey.

"I'm like this whale this morning. I feel like I'm letting all this old stuff in my heart and in my head that always hurt me. I'm letting it all go," Isaacs explained.

She said her mother was a drinker who abused her as a child. "I didn't like being at the house all the time because I got sexually abused or even beat up."

Isaacs eventually found refuge from the abuse at home, and had children of her own. But her daughter, Toreen, passed away 10 years ago from cancer at age 7.

Isaacs said she felt her daughter's presence during the journey.

She said whenever she sees a deer that's not skittish, she feels like her daughter is near. That's what happened in Wrangell during this trip. She said a deer watched her leave when she was getting ready for the canoe adventure.

"It stood there in the road and watched us load up," Isaacs said. "She's making sure I'm OK. She's saying 'you're gonna have a good journey mom.' That's what I felt like my baby was telling me because the deer was just standing there in the road."

Isaacs carried memories of her daughter with her as she paddled: Her paddle had a raven design painted on it, drawn by her daughter. The paddle also had a gray ribbon on it for brain cancer awareness.

She was originally quite nervous about the journey. Isaacs said. "I was kind of scared, because I've never traveled on anything like this by myself. I've always had either my kids or my ex-husband, but I've never done anything like this myself. So that's pretty amazing."

Growth seemed to be a common theme during the paddle to Celebration.

Doug Chilton, one of the founders of One People Canoe Society, remarked on how much the journeys have grown since they started.

One People Canoe Society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to revitalizing Indigenous modes of transportation by canoe. They hosted this year's journey from Wrangell.

Chilton joined the effort from one of the support boats, which were an integral part of the whole adventure. They stored the food and made sure everyone was safe.

"It's not nearly as fun or as exciting as being on the canoe. But you're constantly busy, even though it seems like you're just sitting up there staring. You're constantly watching out for hazards and for possible trouble," Chilton said.

He said organizing canoe journeys is complicated and plans constantly change. "Anytime you have large bodies of people that you're trying to coordinate to do stuff, you have to be able to adjust along the way."

The One People Canoe Society has been doing canoe journeys for almost 20 years.

"When we first started, we had no idea what we were going to do, how we're going to do it, or who was going to be there, if anybody," Chilton said.

But since the first paddle with One People Canoe Society, which began as a canoe team for racing, and their first race was in Washington in 2002, canoe culture has blossomed.

The canoes made a final landing in downtown Juneau where hundreds of people gathered to welcome them.