Join us to share stories, poetry, food and cooking together, a presentation of the community project When the Wind Was a River, March 28, 2026 from 3-7pm at the Community Rec Hall.
When the Wind Was a River is a multidisciplinary cultural revitalization and wellness project designed to strengthen intergenerational relationships within the Unangun community on Saint Paul Island. The project braids together four elemental practices—fire, food, photography, and poetry—to nurture cultural continuity and communal well-being.
Just as rivers flow across landscapes, shaping its contours and sustaining its people, the wind carries stories, knowledge, and memory across tundra and sea. This project draws inspiration from that movement, creating shared spaces where young people and elders can come together, share stories, develop creative skills, and reaffirm their cultural identity.
Through hands-on workshops, collaborative making, and a culminating public gathering, the project fosters connection: connection to place, to memory, and to each other. It supports youth empowerment, cultural preservation, artistic exploration, and emotional resilience.
The initiative is developed under Rural Territory, a hybrid studio of creation and research that works at the crossroads of design, food, and anthropology, seeking to build cultural resilience by weaving together artistic practice, local traditions, and community participation.
When The Wind Was A River is supported, in part, by grants to the City of Saint Paul by the Alaska State Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Alts, Creative West, Martston Foundation, and Rural Cap Foundation.
