Sealaska Corporation

The Wooch Yax Project will support a comprehensive reorganization and inventory of the Sealaska Heritage Institute's (SHI) collections. The project will include photography of 400 art and ethnographic objects; an update of SHI's electronic records to reflect location, condition, photographs and audio files; a standardized lexicon (English and indigenous); and access to this information for researchers, visiting scholars, and the general public through an online search engine. A collaboration with SHI's Council of Traditional Scholars and culture bearers will document indigenous names/traditional classifications, knowledge, and uses for the art and ethnographic objects in its collection. And it will result in the creation of ten videos corresponding to this indigenous knowledge. The objective of the Wooch Yax Project is to upgrade SHI collection's database to improve collections management as well as facilitate and expand public access and discovery of its art and ethnographic objects.