November 2024 Director's Journal

November 2024 Directors Journal

One of the biggest surprises for me when I moved to the coast six years ago to join the team at Sitka was just how many rainbows appear at this time of year. I love how each one invites deep looking and fresh perspective as the new year approaches.

As shifting light and weather patterns cast colors across the sand spit and the waves catch morning rainbows, Sitka’s 2024-2025 residency season begins with a renewed commitment to deepen connections between residents and this coastal place Sitka calls home.

Program Manager Maria Elting shares her enthusiasm for a recent addition to our residency program, one rooted in cultural exchange and historical perspective:

“Our collaborators at the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde have generously organized a new opportunity for Sitka residents to attend group tours of the Chachalu Tribal Museum and Cultural Center during their Sitka stays, transportation included,” Maria explains. “With so much of Sitka’s programming being place-based, and on unceded lands, this is a truly valuable contextual experience.”

Maria hopes this chance to learn about Indigenous histories and contemporary practices firsthand will enrich residents’ creative work, helping them build deeper connections to the community and land during their stays.

Citizen Science Coordinator Nancy Newman also reflects on the importance of rootedness, shaped through her collaboration with the Oregon Shores CoastWatch program:

“Doing regular observation surveys has renewed my connection to the ocean and my sense of wonder,” Nancy shares, explaining how her monthly beach monitoring excursions—conducted in partnership with Ecology and Facilities Manager Jake Simondet—bring Sitka guests and neighbors into the local ecosystem.

“The sand spit is so unique. It gives people a chance to experience all types of beaches: an estuary ecosystem, rocky habitats with tide pools and sea caves, dunes, quickly changing tides and the classic expanse of sand with ocean horizon,” Nancy offers. “I’m grateful, too, for the educational commitment Oregon Shores has to our coastal communities, and, through Sitka, how we are able to provide access to beach monitoring and hands-on science experiences for guests who come here from across the country and around the world, not just those privileged enough to live on the coast.”

A new $30,000 gift in honor of Nancy and Jake’s ecology efforts has just been pledged to help fund their ongoing citizen science outreach efforts, deepening the Sitka community’s ecological relationship with Cascade Head and the Salmon River Spit in personal and lasting ways.

Together, Maria, Nancy and Jake are evolving the ways we invite Sitka residents to root themselves here—ecologically, culturally, historically and contemporarily. Their work embodies and informs Sitka’s vision: building pathways to connection that go beyond artmaking in nature to create direct, meaningful engagement with the land and those who, since time immemorial, steward it.

By casting a light on the inspired work of Sitka colleagues and partners, I invite us all to reflect on our own relationship with ecology, wherever we call home. How might we take an active interest in and learn more about the contemporary Indigenous cultures of the lands we inhabit? How can we make a difference—hands-on and philanthropically—in environmental protection and restoration? My gratitude goes to the Grand Ronde Cultural Resources Department, Oregon Shores CoastWatch, and to Maria, Nancy and Jake for leading Sitka toward experiences that deepen understanding, reciprocity and community.

Alison Dennis, Executive Director