Emily Pastore Galgano ’18MS moved to Juneau, Alaska for the role of Archives and Collections Director at Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI). In honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Galgano shares what she has learned from the Indigenous culture she helps to preserve.
After completing the Archives Management program at Simmons School of Library and Information Science, Emily Pastore Galgano was ready for an adventure.
“I had worked in libraries as an undergrad,” she says. “A librarian told me that once you settle down, it’s harder to make those big life changes. I said I would go anywhere. It was the perfect time [for a move]. When I saw the position at Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), it felt like the universe was calling my bluff.” Galgano applied for the position in the archive, if on a whim, and surprised even herself by making the move. “I had said I was looking for an adventure. How could I not move to Alaska? I figured, if not now, when?”
We preserve and document the history and culture of Native peoples, and promote cross-cultural understanding.
SHI is the nonprofit arm of Sealaska Corporation, a for-profit Alaska Native Corporation which was created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 in a settlement of aboriginal land claims. There are thirteen such corporations in Alaska, representing different Native tribes; Sealaska is owned by more than 25,000 Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian shareholders. “The mission of SHI is to perpetuate the Tlingit culture in Alaska, and the culture of all Alaska Natives,” says Galgano. “At the archive, we preserve and document the history and culture of Native peoples, and promote cross-cultural understanding.”
Documenting a living culture
The archive houses manuscripts, photographs, and the largest collection of Tlingit language documents in the world. They also have collections of art, archeological artifacts, and ethnography, and feature small, rotating gallery exhibits every year. “The archive and art/ethnographic material are not strictly historical,” says Galgano. “We are documenting a living culture. The Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples are still here in Southeast Alaska, and the historical and contemporary materials in the collection [reflect that].”
Galgano came to SHI with some previous experience working with Indigenous cultures, after working at Harvard’s Peabody Museum during her time at Simmons. When she moved to Juneau four and a half years ago, the archive offered plenty of resources to get her up to speed on the local tribes. “I learned a lot from reference requests,” she recalls, finding that requests from visitors and researchers often sparked her own interest and filled in gaps in understanding.
The SHI art department offers classes in traditional, Indigenous arts and crafts techniques, including basket-weaving, sewing animal skins, and stitching your own pair of moccasins. Original textiles and objects are also preserved in the archive. “Teachers and students often come to the archives and collections to see examples of weavings, Tlingit robes, or basket-weaving,” says Galgano. “You can find pretty pictures on our online database, but artists want to see the back [of the object], the underside. They can request the items, just like they would a document.” SHI offers remote reference services, but Galgano prefers to share the objects in person.
Developing workshops, festivals and other projects
SHI has a council of traditional scholars to advise the organization and initiate programs. One example of this is a workshop that the Council of Traditional Scholars held on cultural memorial ceremonies. These types of workshops are important for preserving the culture, especially due to the impact of mandatory boarding school attendance until the end of the 1970s. Native students were sent away from their homes to board with non-Native families and attend predominantly White schools, in an effort to assimilate them into White culture. The art classes also preserve and pass on those traditional techniques.
SHI also hosts one of the largest Indigenous dance festivals in Alaska, Celebration, which takes place in Juneau every other summer. Galgano just finished a three-year project to digitize all of the Celebration footage from the inaugural event in 1982, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. “All of the Tlingit people come to dance and sing in tribes from across the U.S.,” says Galgano. “It’s an amazing community that comes together every other year. It’s open to the public, so everyone can see this huge collaboration of these cultures.” Given that the earliest recordings were on betacam and betamax, Galgano knew that digitization would be a huge project. “But I knew it was important,” she says. “The earlier footage was shot on two cameras, but we edited it together. People can look up dances and see their family members, and see what dances and songs were performed.” The recordings are a rich record, not just of performances but of the regalia worn (such as the increase in use of sea otter fur after the reintroduction of sea otters to Alaska) and particular harmonies that weren’t retained elsewhere.
Currently, Galgano is working on another audio/visual project, this one funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). “In the early 2000s, there was a Tlingit Macbeth,” Galgano explains. “[The play] was translated into Tlingit and performed at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. We got a grant to edit the footage. The plan is to curate a juried film festival to highlight Indigenous filmmakers.” The newly edited footage will premiere at the film festival.
Acclimating to life in Alaska
“When I first moved here, I was surprised by how many people traveled to Juneau to visit SHI and the Alaska State Museum,” recalls Galgano. “We see a lot of Native and non-Native scholars and researchers, and folks who are just in town to visit family, they want to see the resources here, too.”
Though people live there year-round, Galgano describes Juneau as a seasonal town. “Summer is the cruise ship season,” she says. “While we don’t have the midnight sun, it’s close — sunrise at 3 or 4 am and sunset at 11 pm” Not having spent much time on the west coast, Galgano had only experienced autumn in New England, with cool weather and colorful foliage. “We’re in the rainforest here, mostly coniferous trees, no leaf-changing, and very rainy.” Juneau is near the Tongass National Forest, one of the largest rainforests in North America, and the weather is more temperate than in New England, thanks to proximity to the Pacific Ocean. That said, things slow down in winter, without cruise ships filled with tourists. “It becomes a local’s town,” says Galgano.
The Indigenous culture is represented throughout Juneau. “There are totem poles everywhere, and the Tlingit language is used in the names of schools and buildings,” says Galgano. “Beyond the archives, [SHI] has a large education department working on getting Indigenous language and culture into the schools and integrating it into the curriculum for all students. It helps Indigenous students to have representation at their school.” SHI sponsors Baby Raven Reads, an early literacy program for Indigenous children up to age five, which also provides children’s books that reflect the lifestyles of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian tribes.
Many Alaska Natives prioritize subsistence. “Right now there is a lot of discussion about climate change, given the changes [detected] in black seaweed.” SHI is involved in the scientific inquiry, determining how this could impact subsistence living and the broader community. “Climate change also affects salmon, which isn’t just an Indigenous resource. A lot of people in Alaska rely on salmon runs.” In Southeast Alaska, receding glaciers make the impact of climate change difficult to ignore. The archives and collections at SHI are a great resource related to subsistence, traditional foodways, and climate. Many of the resources document the historical legal battles related to subsistence.
Finding Simmons coursework relevant to her current role
Reflecting on her time at Simmons, the archives courses she took with Professor Emerita Jeannette Bastian prepared Galgano for her current role. “I’ve gone back to use some of those resources, especially when I first started here,” she says. “It’s super relevant to what I do now. I work with records of a community, with people looking for [information about] their families. Genealogy is important to this community. They can identify family members speaking in recordings.”
That said, the job has come with some surprises. “It’s similar to a lot of other small institutions in that you wear a lot of hats,” she says. “I manage one full-time staff member, independent contractors, interns, and volunteers. It’s a small department, and we work with a little bit of everything. I didn’t think I would work with objects as much as I do, and I’m lucky to do that.” Her director’s role includes reference requests, info sessions, [visiting] school groups, research processing, grant writing, digitizing, preservation, and — to her surprise — Integrated Pest Management (IPM). “Some larger museums have entire pest management departments,” she notes, “but we have to check environmental controls, keep track of what insects are coming in, and look for mold. I always make sure my interns get a day of doing IPM!”
Pest management aside, Galgano is thankful for the breadth of opportunities her role in the archive allows. “While my role as the director of the Archives and Collections department at SHI is to help preserve these Indigenous cultures, I am still learning something new every day and I feel so fortunate that I can work in this institution that provides so many different cultural opportunities.”
Galgano encourages graduates to be open to possibilities when looking for a job. “Be open to the idea of moving, even if you don’t think it’s where you will end up. I thought I would live here for a couple years and then head back to a big city,” she says. “Instead, I recently got married and we bought a house in Juneau. This is our home now. I think being here I’ve gone back to valuing more of a nature-driven life. I’ve gotten into foraging — friends have shown me the good berry spots and [how to find] edible mushrooms. My lifestyle has changed significantly, and is supported by the change in environment. It was my best decision to move out here.”
For more information about Native Alaskan tribes, visit Sealaska Heritage Institution or browse the online database to learn more about the collection (here are tips for using the database). You can access the 1982 Celebration footage (each Celebration year has its own playlist), as well as a finding aid for exploring all of the footage.