Thank you to everyone who joined us for this three-part workshop on culture, climate, and cultivating joy amid chaos with multidisciplinary artist and purposeful educator Aaluk Edwardson. The workshop focused on cultural identity and the lens through which we each see the world.

Participants engaged with the Creative Decolonization process, a unique practice developed by Aaluk. Research, creative engagement, and self-reflective prompts supported participants' evolving understanding of their selves. This workshop was a unique opportunity to explore who we are in this ever-changing world.

Limited to 15 participants. Each session ran two hours and was held on Zoom.

Program

Saturday, October 8 – Climate & Culture
What is culture as we understand it today and what does culture have to do with climate in the past and present according to various cultural understandings?

Saturday, October 15 – Climate-Based Cultural Identity
Explore your own cultural identity, specifically in reference to the land and the sea.

Saturday, October 22 – Cultivating Joy Through Pain
How do we hold joy and pain in the same hand when facing cultural and climate-related challenges?

Bio

Aaluk Edwardson, born and raised on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, is a multidisciplinary artist, purposeful educator, and the founder and director of Creative Decolonization, LLC. Aaluk's work is focused on supporting wellness, cultural exploration, and creative engagement in service to communities and families around the world. She has written poetry for adolescents healing from sexual abuse, culturally diverse plays for children and adults, and for TV. She is working on a novel and two children's storybooks at present. Her first creative love was singing as a very young child. Her second arrived when she was five years old and it was theater. As an adult, Aaluk began and continues to grow her career in education. She's taught elementary, middle, and high school students and currently teaches creative writing and Inuit history for the Iñupiaq Studies department at Iḷisaġvik College. Aaluk founded Creative Decolonization, LLC as a collaborative space to build community-driven creative projects that support cultural and individual wellness. The ATTA Project, the PUIGUITKAAT Project, the Evolving through Disaster Series, and the Sovereignty Stories Project are a few of the projects she's helped to develop in service to culture and community. She leads small group workshops for communities and organizations to support their purposeful exploration into what culture, cultural identity, and wellness are for them. Aaluk hopes this work encourages people to treat one another with respect and kindness with the eventual goal of a world full of such things. Learn more about Aaluk and her work at www.creativedecolonization.org.