FOSTERING JOY and RESILIENCE A Gathering in Support of Alaska Native Educators, Students, and Youth Advocates ColumbiaProjectGRADKenai.orgGIRDWOOD,ALASKAAlyeskaResortandKahiltnaBallroomsAugust1-3,2022
I am grateful to be here today, on the beloved and unceded lands of the Dena’ina people, descendants of Mount Susitna, the Sleeping Lady. I also extend my gratitude to the Suqpiaq people for allowing and welcoming our Project GRAD staff to connect with them and their children on the cherished lands of their ancestors. I respect and honor their homelands, history, and experiences, and humbly move forward as we forge a healthy future in light of the past.
Thank you to all for joining us as we gather to learn more about how we may best support our Alaska Native students, families, teachers, staff, and communities. It has been a challenging couple of years, yet through these many months, we have witnessed an astounding ability to adapt and craft fresh ways to persevere among these many challenges. And we continue on.
I am confident that over these next three days, we will rejuvenate, and find hope and vision in the eyes of the youth who are here among us, as well as their peers who are not. In the spirit of Fostering Joy and Resilience, we have chosen speakers and youth leaders who embody just these qualities. I hope you take away many nuggets of inspiration from their stories and messages. My hope is that you may creatively begin a fresh year of learning and connection.
Kindly, Jane Jane Beck, Executive Director
Camai! Welcome.
ProjectGRAD Kenai Peninsula (907) 235-1062 PO Box 1725 | Homer, Alaska 99603 ProjectGRADKenai.org FROM THE DIRECTOR PGKP Conference Organizers: Jane Beck and Celeste Novak PGKP Youth Supporters: Kenny Daher, Chris Etzwiler, Kenneth Schneider, Selina Mach, Natali Jones, and Rylee Middleton
Please know that Project GRAD cares! We are here not only over these few days, but through the next school year and beyond. Let’s stay connected, Together As One.
I know that we will find joy to share and laughter to lift.
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Dr. Michael Yellow Bird
Neurodecolonization, Mindfulness, and the Medicine Wheel: An Indigenous Model of Traditional Wellness
Minding the Indigenous Mind: Tales of Liberation, Brain Waves, Mirror Neurons, and Healing
10:30 — 10:45 BREAK
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS MONDAY August 1, 2022 8:00 — 8:45 REGISTRATION Registration, coffee, tea, continental breakfast 8:45 — 9:15 WELCOME 9:15 — 10:30 KEYNOTEAudience:Youth & Adult Educators
In this keynote presentation, Dr. Yellow Bird will share short stories from one of his forthcoming books that discusses neuroscience in everyday life of his family and community. The stories are meant to inspire, provoke, and restore hope.
Dr. Michael Yellow Bird
To be whole is to be healthy. Mental health concerns are at an all-time high because many people are experiencing isolation, depression, and anxiety. This is an awesome opportunity for us to improve our unique resources to grow our students’ emotional well-being. Joy and resilience are positive necessities that help mitigate the impact of trauma and isolation. There are specific skills we use to build high-trust environments that by themselves promote resilience. Teachers will leave with key strategies and conversation models that do just that.
10:45 — 12:15 SESSION 1 Audience: Adult Educators
Youth Leaders: Johon Atkinson, Gene Tagaban, Doug Koester, Naya Indira
10:45 — All Day YOUTH Audience:STRANDYouthmeet in the Kahiltna Ballroom
2:45 — 3:00 BREAK 3:00 — 4:00 SESSION 3 Audience: Youth & Adult Educators
Box lunches provided From Trauma to Strength: A Mohawk Woman’s Journey Waneek Horn-Miller
The Trust Rope Youth Leaders
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Fireside Chat Waneek Horn-Miller
12:30 — 1:30 LUNCH Audience:KEYNOTEYouth&Adult
Waneek will open this informal session with a few more words about her personal journey and how her culture, family, and school experience helped her create a fulfilling life of joy. Participants can engage with Waneek for a personalized and meaningful session.
Educators
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
1:30 — 1:45 BREAK 1:45 — 2:45 SESSION 2 Audience: Adult Educators
In her keynote address, Waneek Horn-Miller will share her personal journey as an Indigenous female Olympic athlete, living through trauma and gaining strength from her Mohawk culture. Waneek will inspire her audience to live fully and purposefully, even through the most difficult times. She will remind us that the seven generations who came before inform those of us who are here today and that how we live our lives today will impact the seven generations yet to come.
Teachers will be guided through a series of conversations and activities that create trust in this collaborative and interactive session. We will cover theories behind how and why we should generate psychological safety, a necessary factor that nurtures trust, through a series of two concurrent sessions. These engagement experiences are easily transferable to personal instructional practices.
Finding Joy & Resilience Amidst Constraint
10:15 — 10:30 BREAK 10:30 — All Day YOUTH STRAND continues with Youth Leaders
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS TUESDAY August 2, 2022 8:00 — 8:45 CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST 8:45 — 9:00 WELCOME 9:00 — 10:15 KEYNOTEAudience:Youth & Adult Educators
Myron Dueck
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This optimistic keynote will explore the work of Barden and Morgan – authors of ‘A Beautiful Constraint’ as we unpack what is meant by a ‘constraint’ and examine the various ways we react to limitations. If COVID has reinforced anything, it’s that we’re weary of our inability to do things the way ‘we’ve always done them’. Here we may want to take a page from a rocker - Mick Jagger – who epitomizes ‘creativity loves constraint.’ Apparently, the small stages of the Rolling Stones’ early days are to thank for his unique dancing style. So as the ground has moved significantly beneath our feet, let’s be mindful that limits can be forces for good. We’ll consider how we can leverage constraints to drive educational innovation, problem-solving, and change. Come prepared to question the type of thinking and path dependency that might just be preventing us from seeing the plethora of solutions available.
BREAK 12:15
Surprising Silver Linings
Alaska’s History: Tragedy & Triumph
12:00
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS 10:30 — 12:00 SESSION 4 Audience: Adult Educators
Rev. Dr. Michael Oleksa
BREAK FOSTERING JOY and RESILIENCE4
Educators
1:15
Transformational forces are at play in the global education arenanot least on account of COVID. Unlike the pandemic of 1919, our readily accessible digital technology (the most significant change agent since the printing press) has allowed education to reach across the street, into our homes, and around the world. From virtually anywhere, we can connect, communicate, and learn. Some teachers (re)discovered the power of inquiry and community when we were no longer able to conduct our classrooms in ways familiar and trusted. Education has certainly mutated as of late, and thankfully there may be no going back. — 12:15 — 1:15 LUNCH
Perhaps David Bowie sang it best, ‘Times may change me, but I can’t change time.’ We’ve been through some pretty significant changes in our collective past, and clearly, 2020 to 2022 are years like no other in that department.
Audience:KEYNOTEYouth&Adult
Alaska’s history is filled with great tragedies and injustices, often followed by unexpected renewal and celebration. In this lunchtime address, Rev. Dr. Michael Oleksa will take us back to some of the earliest examples of those tragedies and triumphs, the little-known saga of suggesting speakers in the late 1700 and early 1800s. — 1:30
Myron Dueck
Audience: Adult Educators
— 2:30 BREAK 2:30 — 3:45 SESSION 6
3:45 — 4:00 BREAK 4:00 — 5:00 SESSION 7
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SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Audience: Youth & Adult Educators
1:30 – 2:15 SESSION
In his follow-up session, Father Michael will provide more details and unveil more amazing contributions made by Alaska Native people in the late Russian colonial period and the early American 2:15era.
Being Heard, Seen, and Safe Bill Noomah
Creating an environment where each student feels heard, seen, and safe is essential to learning. You’ll learn techniques to get your students to tell stories, take photographs that show the subject’s personality, and feel more secure at home and in school by taking ownership of emergency preparedness. Bring a camera or cellphone that can take pictures. This will be a highly interactive session with activities selected from twelve recently developed, innovative, and culturally-connected units written for our small, rural schools.
Audience: Adult Educators
Adult educators, participating youth, and youth leaders will come together in celebration of the student theme, “Together As One”. Youth leaders will share their music, drumming, and dance in their traditional regalia, bringing life to the understanding that together, we are strong, and together we thrive.
Celebration: Together as One Gene Tagaban & Johon Atkinson
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Our Villages’ Future: Saving the Planet Rev. Dr. Michael Oleksa
When Myron Dueck reluctantly took on a high school Leadership class in the fall of 2021, he set about canceling events, preparing students for disappointment…bracing for the worst. In fact, he argued that in light of COVID, canceling the class seemed more appropriate than planning events that no one was allowed to attend. Then a remarkable thing happened. Students harnessed the power of ‘We Can If’ (Barden & Morgan, 2015), and rather than striving for survival, they transformed leadership beneath the uncompromising weight of restriction. Using a remarkable simple and actionable thought process, we can all discover solutions to current and pending problems. This conference closing is designed to compel, challenge, inspire and plan.
Now is time to consider all that we heard over the last couple of days and make plans for our next steps. How can we take the insights and information from this experience and use them to guide our work in the most innovative way? What can we use on Day 1, when our fellow teachers and excited students walk through our doors in anticipation of a new school year? How can we build in excitement and nurture curiosity? How can Project GRAD coaches and counselors support these efforts to create the most culturally-relevant, inspiring, and fun learning climate at your school? These are the questions we will ponder to close out our time together.
10:00 — 10:15 BREAK 10:15 — 11:15 SESSION 8
Audience: Open to All Final Reflection: So What? Now What?! Jane Beck
Adopting a Solutions-based Mindset, Guided by Our Students
Transforming “Can’t” into “Can”’
Myron Dueck
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS WEDNESDAY August 3, 2022 8:00 — 8:45 CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST 8:45 — 10:00 Audience:KEYNOTEOpen to All
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Dean and Professor of the Faculty of Social Work
Michael Yellow Bird, MTA CMT-P, MSW, Ph.D
Michael Yellow Bird, IMTA CMT-P, MSW, Ph.D, is Dean and Professor of the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba. Dr. Yellow Bird is a member of the International Mindfulness Teachers Association and is a certified mindfulness teacher – professional. His research focuses on the effects of colonization and methods of decolonization, healthy Indigenous aging, Arikara ethnobotany and traditional agriculture, Indigenous mindfulness and neurodecolonization, and the cultural significance of Rez dogs.
OUR PRESENTERS
He is currently the principal investigator of a project entitled, “Online Training for Foster Parents that will promote reconciliation through Mindful Decolonization and Cultural Safety” in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, which is co-funded by the Provincial General Child and Family Health Authority and the Metis Health Authority.
Myron incorporates his practitioner and leadership experience as he shares his stories, tools and first-hand experiences with educators around the world. Recently his presentations have diverged to include global education trends and change.
During his 23 years of teaching and administration, Myron has developed grading, assessment and reporting systems with his classes in which students have greater opportunity to show what they understand, adapt to feedback and play a significant role in the reporting of their learning.
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Myron Dueck Educational Consultant
Waneek Horn Miller
Few people can claim to have a story even close to as incredible as that of Waneek Horn-Miller. While protesting the infamous Oka Crisis, teenage Mohawk Waneek—from Kahnawake Mohawk Territory—was stabbed in the heart by a Canadian soldier: and almost died. She fought for recovery and emerged with a mission—and PTSD—to fight for what’s right and be a leader not only for her community, but for the global community. Waneek became a champion swimmer, representing Canada at the Olympics, and taking home the gold at the 1999 PanAm Games. And now she channels this spirit of perseverance and resilience into advocacy: once again turning trials into triumphs, Waneek is one of the most vibrant and powerful Indigenous advocates today. In her inspiring keynotes, Waneek traces her incredible path and shows how fighting for justice—even in the face of intimidating odds—can unlock your full potential.
Rev. Dr. Michael Oleksa
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OUR PRESENTERS
Since he was 4 years old, Father Rev. Dr. Michael Oleksa insisted that “when he grew up, his lifetime ambition was to become ‘an Indian’”. He did not care which tribe! His parents, of Ukrainian and German Descent, did their best to persuade him to abandon this ambition, explaining that a person had to be born into a tribe. So, by age 10, Michael abandoned this goal. But in 1970, the Alutiiq village of Old Harbor invited him to Kodiak Island. In 1971, he spent the summer in Hoonah and was adopted by the Kaagwaantaan (wolf) Clan. In 1972, his Yup’ik friends gave him the name Atertayagaq, the Little Drifter. And after only 48 more years, the Tribal Council of Kuiglluq (Kwethluk) legally adopted him! He called his mother to announce, “I finally made it!” Good things are worth waiting for.
Indigenous Activist and Olympic Athlete
Project GRAD Curriculum Developer, teacher, Alaska Statewide Mentor
Bill Noomah enjoyed his 28 years teaching in multi-graded elementary classrooms in Homer, Alaska. He credits fostering personal resilience and being active in the teaching community with the joy and longevity he found in teaching. Hands-on, project-based learning coupled with a strong grounding in literacy and numeracy were hallmarks of Bill’s classroom. Since September 2020, he has been writing twelve units for Project GRAD under an Alaska Native Education grant that reflect his classroom experience and an understanding of both Alaska Cultural and Performance standards. His passion for culturallygrounded teaching began in 1992 when he inaugurated an environmental education camp for children aged 5-16 on St. George and St. Paul Islands in the Pribilofs, with program input from the US Fish and Wildlife and tribal and corporate entities. Bill loves the collegiality fostered through staff development and has led workshops in his building, district, and the state of Alaska on topics ranging from shorebird migration along the Pacific flyway to understanding and commemorating veterans through the use of primary sources available online through the Library of Congress. Later this month Bill will begin supporting and encouraging earlycareer teachers through the Alaska Statewide Mentor Project.
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OUR PRESENTERS
Bill Noomah
WE invite you to celebrate our time together and receive the magical and practical gifts we will offer to empower you for the rest of your story to unfold in a good way. These gifts (if accepted) will be your superpowers that will allow you to overcome obstacles within yourself and in the world.
As Gene Tagaban frequently says, “we are all stories.” Our stories are made up of our ancestors, our families, our communities, our experiences, and our mysterious selves. During our short time together, we will unite and create our group’s narrative, weaving everything together to create a feeling of connection, support, safety, and love. Each one of your stories is necessary for this to occur. How will it all be woven together? We will PLAY games, share our stories, make music, TALK about ourselves and our world, CREATE drums, LISTEN to each other, and share deep wisdom of our Yourancestors.guides on this magical adventure will be Naya, Gene, Johon, and Doug. We are tricksters, storytellers, music makers, jokesters, wisdom keepers, dream weavers, and most importantly, caring, compassionate human beings who are deeply connected and comfortable with each other. We have been weaving our stories together for years.
In gratitude, Johon, Doug, Gene, and Naya Johon, Doug, Gene, and Naya FOSTERING JOY RESILIENCE
Meet the Youth Leaders Joining Project GRAD for the Youth Strand of Fostering Joy & Resilience!
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Greetings from our hearts to yours! It is truly a great honor to be chosen to be your guides during this Fostering Joy and Resilience gathering. Our vision is to connect with you in a good way, a healthy way, a traditional way, a spirit-filled way, and a FUN way. We hope you bring your whole self, which we will accept whole-heartedly.
YOUTH LEADERS
and
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YOUTH LEADERS
Johon joins us from Metlakatla, Alaska to share his Tsimshian and Pawnee roots and experience. He is committed to bringing back traditional language, culture, and values. Much of his work as a certified Behavioral Health Aide (BHA 1) and Chemical Dependency Technician (CDC Tech) allows him to connect with men and youth about their roles and responsibilities as providers and protectors, often engaging them in discussions about societal mindsets surrounding the sharing of emotions. He welcomes vulnerability while gaining strength from ancient wisdom and ways of knowing.
Johon EchoHawk Atkinson Behavioral Health Aide, Chemical Dependency Counselor, Musician, Storyteller
Johon has been working as a youth counselor in the State of Alaska for the past nine years.
Doug Koester Social Engagement Specialist, Juneau, AK Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault
Doug honors all of his ancestors from Northern Europe and the great land of Alaska. He is a lifelong seeker of knowledge and understanding of human beings. He graduated with a BS degree in Environmental Health, joined the Peace Corps, and went to Chad, Africa, for two years. In Nome, AK, he worked for the Norton Sound Native Corporation as an Environmental Health Specialist. In Homer, AK, he worked in behavioral health, violence prevention, and education. He is well-versed in bringing together ancestral knowledge of trauma and resilience with science for brain-body healing. He has a deep passion for sharing the transformative powers and insight of the heart using ancient wisdom and modern science. Presently he thrives in the unceded territory of the Auk’w Kwaan and Taku Kwaan people in Juneau, AK.
For over 30 years, Gene has worked nationally and internationally mentoring, training, speaking, sharing stories, culture and facilitating healing. Gene is a board member and trainer with the Native Wellness Institute, keeping our ancestral wisdoms alive. He is a trainer for Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, facilitating COMPASS: a male engagement and mentorship program to end Violence, Assault, Hurt and Harm.
YOUTH LEADERS
FOSTERING JOY
Many thanks to the people and organizations who so generously support our misson. and
American Indian (Art of Storytelling)
GRATITUDE
Gene Tagaban/Guuy Yaau, Cherokee, Tlingit, Filipino Storyteller, Trainer, Speaker, Mentor NationalStoryTellingRaven.comMuseumofthe
RESILIENCE12
Gene is a cultural facilitation consultant with Mother Nation, an organization providing cultural services, advocacy, mentorship and homeless prevention to Native women and families. He is Seattle Indian Health Board consultant with their Traditional Indian Medicines program. Gene has also been featured at storytelling festivals nationally and internationally and is a specialty instructor and honorary uncle with the Wilderness Awareness School. Gene performs with Khu’eex, a Native Funk band based in Seattle. Gene is always open to share stories, spirit and inspiration with people of all ages. In the words of one participant, “Gene has the ability to make the audience feel safe while holding our hearts in his hands.”
Because of Naya’s various life experiences, she is driven to help others. This has shaped her career path. She has pursued and earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. She has worked in violence prevention and has spent countless hours working alongside and supporting survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and child abuse. For the past few years, Naya has worked with Alaskan boys and men, teaching them about positive masculinity and gender equality, and how to prevent domestic/ sexual violence in Alaska. Additionally, for her master’s program, Naya worked as a Mental Health Clinician Intern for adjudicated youth in Alaska. Her work with youth has fueled her passion for helping children, which has led her to her current position at the Alaska Children’s Trust (ACT), working as the Community Advocate to help Alaska end child abuse and neglect! This event is made possible by the U.S. Department of Education and Project GRAD Kenai Peninsula.
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Naya was born and raised in the Bronx, New York; however, her culture and beliefs have been influenced and shaped by many places. She attended high school and college in Orlando, Florida prior to moving to Alaska. While she has only been in Alaska for a few years, her love for this state and its people has helped it feel like home. Additionally, she is a mom of two: a baby girl and a husky.
YOUTH LEADERS
Naya Indira (she/her) Prevention and Education Specialist
ProjectGRADKenai.org We Impact Generational Change THROUGH ENHANCED EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES
