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Amid proposed budget cuts, the first annual Bronx Aging Advocacy Day was held on May 1 on the steps of Bronx Borough Hall as elected officials, advocates, community organizations and seniors gathered to help fight for the protection of equitable services for the elderly population.

Mayor Eric Adams’ proposed City budget for fiscal year 2024 was set to see reduced city funding for many programs that provide essential services to the elderly, including cuts to older adult centers and home-delivered meals. The City Council’s budget response called for increased funding for these programs, however, along with calls to provide holiday and weekend meals for seniors. The deadline to implement the City’s budget is July 1.

“We are standing here today to advocate for a budget that does not cut our services, but adds to our services,” said Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson. “Sadly, we are seeing proposed cuts. We are seeing $7 million cuts in older adult centers, $5 million cuts in cuts for home delivered meals, and the elimination of $1 million of a one-time reimbursement for home-delivered meals just in this adopted budget alone.”

Gibson called on Adams and City Hall officials to “stand with our seniors” in maintaining funds for these programs. Among the changes Gibson said she wished to see in a revised budget were better pay for human service workers.  “We are also calling for pay parity for human service workers who have been in the trenches,” said the borough president. “Human service workers are valuable parts of our infrastructure, and they don’t get the pay that they deserve.”

Gibson also noted that many older adults struggle with a gap in their digital knowledge and that the pandemic left that portion of the population disconnected from families and friends. “During the pandemic many of us were disconnected,” she said. “We did not have the digital equity and the tech access to reach out. The programs we are talking about have proven successful; they make a difference.”

Meanwhile, District 16 City Councilwoman Althea Stevens, who represents the neighborhoods of Claremont, Concourse, Concourse Village, Highbridge, Morris Heights, Mount Eden, and Morrisania, was also in attendance. Stevens spoke on her prevailing wage bill, which she said would establish prevailing wage requirements for city-contracted human service workers.

“That’s something that’s not talked about,” Stevens said. “How are we ensuring that you’re able to age with dignity and that you are getting the things that you deserve?”

Several older adults in attendance were later given the opportunity to share their personal experiences of using City services and raised concerns about how potential cuts would alter their respective lifestyles.

In reference to the various services which she said are so appreciated by Bronx seniors, Bernadine Harding of the Lafayette Morrison NORC Center, said, “They have a wonderful arts and crafts programs for us. It gives me something to do during the day and that’s very helpful for senior citizens’ mental health.” She added, “And the lunch is out of this world!”

The New York Academy of Medicine Center for Healthy Aging (NYAM) conducts research programs and policy initiatives to ensure that everyone has access to good health care. NYAM recently launched the “Aging Well in the Bronx survey” in an effort to use the findings to make The Bronx a better place to grow older.

The director of NYAM’s Center for Healthy Aging, Elana Keiffer, said they’ve conducted similar surveys in both Brooklyn and Manhattan and have used the data collected to help make recommendations to improve the quality of life for seniors.

NYAM has also created an interactive map to help senior citizens locate human resource services and support in every borough. Meanwhile, residents can click here to complete the survey online. It is available in several languages including Spanish, Bengali, Italian, Russian, and Chinese.

May is officially known as Older Americans Month, with this year’s theme being “Aging Unbound.” U.S. Census data from 2022 estimated that 14 percent of The Bronx’s population are 65 years and older.

Norwood News has contacted both the mayor’s office and NYC Department of Ageing for comment on the proposed cuts to senior services. Gregory Rose, deputy director for press and public information for the department, responded, saying, ““This administration is committed to older New Yorkers, ensuring we are a model age-inclusive city. While this has been a tough budget process for everyone, [we were] able to secure 4 percent in savings by realizing unspent resources from a variety of programs we offer. This will allow us to continue key services to help residents in every borough age in place.”

A similar response from received from the mayor’s office from Jonah Allon, deputy press secretary for the Office of the Mayor, who said, “Uplifting and supporting our city’s growing older adult population is a key priority for this administration. In the Executive Budget, nearly every agency had to achieve savings in response to fiscal and economic conditions, including a projected $4.3 billion in migrant costs by next year, the need to fund labor contracts with the city’s workforce, and slowing growth in tax revenue.”

Allon added, “All of the savings the Department for the Aging achieved in this round were due to underspending and do not affect services at the department. Our goal is to ensure we can serve as many older adults as possible, primarily those who need these services the most.”

SHOPP Violence Intervention and Prevention (VIP) Elder Justice Program is presenting a series of Understanding Elder Abuse workshops through June 28. See attached flier above for more information.

If you are an older New Yorker feeling lonely or isolated, NYC Aging can connect you with a friendly volunteer to talk with over the phone or video chat as part of its Friendly Voices Program for Seniors. Call (212)-Ageing-NYC (212) 244 -6469 and ask about the Friendly Voices Program.

Meanwhile, for New Yorkers 60 years old and over, a Seniors Fitness program offers free twice weekly pickleball, tennis, yoga, and fitness walking classes across all five boroughs since April 2023. Participants of all levels are welcome to come out, have fun, and socialize. Visit https://cityparksfoundation.org/ or call (212) 360-1399 for more information.

On Tuesday, May 23 at 5 p.m., Montefiore Rehab Specialists are hosting a “Walk with a Doc”event at Williamsbridge Oval Recreation Center at 3225 Reservoir Oval East, Bronx, 10467, where specialists from the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine will gather with local residents and walk for one hour. They will cover around 2-3 miles, and participants are encouraged to go at their own pace. New research shows that walking 8,000 steps once or twice a week may help you live longer.

Other benefits include lower risk of heart disease and improved brain health. Walk with a Doc is a free exercise event that has been taking place since 2015. It allows the community to come together to exercise, connect and practice wellness, along with medical professionals. Montefiore specialists also participant in the physical activity and answer health and wellness questions from the group. More information is available here.

BronxWorks and Twin Parks West Older Adult Center, 355 East 183^rd Street, Bronx, NY 10458, invites residents to come join some fun classes Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. See attached flier below for details.

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story. 

The post First Annual Bronx Aging Advocacy Day Held appeared first on Norwood News.

Making fruit wine is surprisingly simple, and while the winemaking recipes may change slightly depending on the type of fruit you choose, the general process is pretty much always the same.  These simple fruit wines are known as “country wines” and have been made in the countryside for generations (no fancy winery required).

Homemade fruit wine. Clockwise from top left: Elderberry wine, gooseberry wine, blackberry wine and cherry wine

Making country wine is as simple as following a recipe, and if you can do that, then you’re already almost there.

Grape wine is complicated, but believe it or not, fruit wine is not. Grape wine relies on the grapes being absolutely perfect, balanced, and complete to make it work, and it’s more an agricultural phenomenon than fermentation alchemy.

Fruit wines don’t have that pretense, and they allow you a lot more flexibility as the winemaker to craft beautiful homemade wines (even if you’re not growing the fruit).

Other fruits (besides grapes) don’t have the right balance of sugar, acid, tannin, and nutrients all on their own, so there’s no expectation that the fruit would do all the work. Instead, the winemaker adds things to balance the wine and ensure successful fermentation.

In the end, the fruit adds amazing flavor and color, but the “recipe” determines the success of the wine (rather than how the fruit was grown). That’s not to say you shouldn’t use the absolute best quality fruit possible; it just means the process is much more forgiving and repeatable at home since you’re adding ingredients besides just juice.

Homemade raspberry wine

Steps in Winemaking

I’ll cover all of this in more detail shortly, but as a starting point, these are the basic steps in winemaking:

1. Prepare the Fruit
2. Sterilize the Juice (Optional)
3. Add Yeast
4. Primary Fermentation (7 to 14 days)
5. Racking (Move to a Clean container)
6. Secondary Fermentation (4 weeks to 6 months)
7. Tasting and Adjusting
8. Tertiary Fermentation (optional)
9. Bottling
10. Bottle Conditioning (2 weeks to several years)

Elderberry Wine

Equipment for Winemaking

If you’re an experienced winemaker, you already have all this equipment on hand.  If this is your first batch of homemade wine, you’ll need the following equipment:

If you’d like to find substitutions so you don’t have to buy equipment, there are likely things already on had at your home that can work in a pinch.  I’d suggest reading my guide to winemaking equipment to understand what each piece is for, and what you can use instead.

Apple Wine with Water Lock

Ingredients for Winemaking

The quantity of each ingredient will vary based on the type of fruit and your recipe, but just about every recipe has the same basic ingredients. That’s because all country winemaking recipes are trying to create a balanced fruit wine with enough residual sweetness to be tasty, enough acidity to add a bright flavor, and enough tannin to give a good body and mouthfeel.

The fruit brings some of these things, and the actual amount of each ingredient depends on the type of fruit. Pineapples (in pineapple wine) and lemons (in lemon wine) are obviously a lot more acidic than other fruits, so the acid added in the recipe will be adjusted accordingly.

Some fruits, like blackcurrants, already have natural tannins, so you don’t have to add any.  It’s all about balancing what’s already in the fruits to create a high-quality fruit wine.

Here are the basic ingredients for country wine:

• Fruit (or Fruit Juice) ~ The base of your winemaking recipe.
• Sugar ~ Most fruit (besides wine grapes) isn’t sweet enough to make wine on its own without added sugar.

If you’d like to understand what each ingredient is for, and how you can substitute common household things for the harder-to-find ingredients, I’d suggest reading my guide to winemaking ingredients.

How to Make Fruit Wine

I covered the basic steps at the very beginning, but now I’ll explain each step.  Be sure to carefully read your winemaking recipe, as the instructions can vary depending on your recipe.

Prepare the Fruit

This can mean a variety of things, depending on the type of fruit. 

Some are mashed, others frozen to break up their cells, and still, others peeled and pureed.  Some are just washed added whole without much fuss. 

Either way, the goal is to get their juice and flavors to come out into the wine, without extracting too much in the way of pectin, and usually, without cooking them at all (as that drives off some of their volatile flavor compounds).

Straining Raspberry Juice for Raspberry Wine

Sterilize the Juice (optional)

These days, most people opt to chemically sterilize the fruit with Camden tablets. This kills off any yeast on the fruit, and means you’re only fermenting with added yeast from a packet.

It’s a more dependable method, since package yeast is more dependable and consistent than wild yeast.

That said, packaged yeast is also a lot more vigorous and tolerant of high alcohol levels than wild yeast.

We don’t sterilize our juice because the cultivated yeast quickly outcompetes the wild yeast on the fruit in a matter of days, and then any that are left die out completely as alcohol levels rise.

If you do sterilize the juice, you’ll have to wait 24 hours for the sulfites to evaporate before adding yeast so that you don’t kill your own yeast too.

Add Yeast

Yeast is added right before fermentation, and it’s rehydrated in a bit of plain water first. 

Dried yeast can “shock” if it goes directly into your sugary wine mixture.  Be sure that the wine mixture is at room temperature before adding the yeast, and that you’ve waited the appropriate amount of time after adding camden tablets (if using).

The mixture should start vigorously bubbling within 24 to 72 hours.

Cherry Wine Fermenting in primary

Primary Fermentation

For the first 7 to 14 days, the wine is in what’s known as primary fermentation.

The yeast are working fast and rapidly multiplying, it’s often vigorous and creates a lot of sediment at the bottom of the fermenter.

There’s little alcohol at this point, so primary fermentation is often done in an open bucket that’s just covered with a towel.  An airlock isn’t strictly required at this point.

Racking

After the initial vigorous fermentation is complete in “primary,” the wine is “racked” into a clean container.

This is done with a siphon to avoid stirring up the sediment or “lees” at the bottom of the primary fermenter. If wine is left on the lees, it can develop off flavors.

Using a Siphon to Rack Wine

Secondary Fermentation

Once the wine is racked into secondary, it’s sealed with an airlock. That’s a one-way valve that prevents oxygen from getting in, but allows the CO2 produced during fermentation to escape.

This prevents the alcohol that’s produced from turning into vinegar.

Secondary usually lasts about a month, but can last much longer depending on the recipe.

The wine should be kept at a cool room temperature, and in a dark place without direct sunlight.  Ideally, a basement or back closet that’s about 65 to 68 F (18 to 20 C).

Tasting and Adjusting

After secondary, it’s time to taste the wine and adjust as needed.

At this point, it’ll taste very “rough” as it hasn’t bottle aged at all, but it should give you a rough idea of the final flavors to expect.

If it’s very dry, this is where you’d add some sugar or honey, or if it’s too sweet, you can consider adding some acidity to balance (or pitching in a more vigorous yeast strain to eat up more of the sugars).

You can add more tannin or really anything that might be needed.

Or, if it’s good, just go right to bottling.

Tertiary Fermentation (optional)

If you have made adjustments, you’ll need to rack the wine into another fermenter for another couple of weeks to allow things to settle out before bottling.

Bottling

To bottle, use a brewing siphon to move the wine into wine bottles and seal them with corks.

Some people opt to sterilize their wines with potassium sorbate at bottling, which prevents additional fermentation in the bottle.

I do not sterilize, I just make sure the secondary is long enough that the yeast has died off, and I’ll rack into tertiary if necessary to get any last activity out of the yeast.

Bottle Conditioning

Once in the bottle, the wine will need to “bottle condition” for a minimum of 2 weeks before drinking (ideally, much longer, more like 2 months, or upwards of a year for some varieties).

After that, it’s time to enjoy your wine!

Homemade Gooseberry Wine

Winemaking Tutorials

This was a basic overview of how to make fruit wine at home.  If you’d like to take a look at any of the parts in greater depth, I’d suggest you read the other articles in this series.

I also have instructions for making hard cider, pear cider (perry), and homemade beer, if you’re into other types of homemade drinks.

Fruit Winemaking Recipes

Here are a few fruit wine recipes to get you started.  All of them follow this same basic process, and the only real difference is the choice of fruit and yeast, as well as the amount of acid, sugar, etc in the recipe.  It’s quantities that differ, not steps.

Flower and Vegetable Wines

While fruit wines are certainly more common, the process is also the same for flower and vegetable wines.  Here are a few more recipes to keep your carboy bubbling:

Flower Wines

Vegetable Wines

Mead Recipes

These are also technically “wines,” but they’re called mead when made with honey.  The process is nearly the same, but honey takes longer for the yeast to consume so you’ll need to be patient during these ferments.  Otherwise, the process is pretty much the same.

This content was originally published here.

In the latest stumble for plans to build a massive $2.8 billion dam in Southern Santa Clara County near Pacheco Pass, a judge has ruled that the Santa Clara Valley Water District violated state environmental laws over the dam’s preliminary geological work.

The ruling could lead to further delays in the proposal to construct the largest new dam in the Bay Area since Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County was built in 1998.

The district, based in San Jose, wants to build a 320-foot-high earthen dam on the North Fork of Pacheco Creek in the rugged canyons about 2 miles north of Highway 152 near the border of Henry W. Coe State Park.

The idea is to take water the district now stores nearby in the massive San Luis Reservoir and pipe it to a new Pacheco reservoir, filling it during wet years.

But the project has faced major hurdles and may never be built. It has tripled in cost since 2018 due to unstable geology found in the area. It has seen its construction plans delayed by at least three years, with the district now proposing a 2027 groundbreaking, instead of 2024 announced five years ago. The water district also has yet to find any other Bay Area water agencies who are willing to commit money to the project. And it is facing growing political opposition over the price tag and feasibility.

The latest hurdle came Thursday when Santa Clara County Judge Theodore C. Zayner sided with opponents of the dam and ruled that the water district violated the California Environmental Quality Act by trying to bypass a review of how a geological study would impact the environment.

The geological work in question requires contractors to spend eight to 17 months drilling 226 borings and digging 57 test pits, up to 20 feet deep on various properties, including several on private ranches that would be flooded by the dam. Trucks, trailers, heavy equipment and helicopters would need to make hundreds of trips over the landscape, the lawsuit from the Stop Pacheco Dam Project Coalition noted.

Water district officials said the work, intended to generate information needed to design the dam, would not have significant impacts on the environment.

The judge disagreed.

The work, he wrote, “cannot reasonably be construed as minor alterations.” He ordered the water district to comply with the law, known as CEQA.

“It’s an excellent ruling,” said Osha Meserve, a Sacramento attorney representing the dam opponents, whose coalition includes the Sierra Club and the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. “Now full review will be required. It shows a lack of diligence and honesty on the part of the district to be forthright with how their activities affect the environment.”

Meserve noted that the areas where crews would be digging, building drilling pads, cutting trees and flying helicopters are frequented by golden eagles and hawks and are habitat for endangered species such as the California red-legged frog.

District officials said Monday that they are still studying the ruling and haven’t decided yet whether to appeal. The agency already has spent $63 million on the project.

Some work began last September on the 226 geotechnical borings, said Ryan McCarter, acting deputy operating officer of the water district.

“Less than 10% of the work got started and completed last year,” McCarter said. “We were just about to restart the geotechnical work. Likely it will get paused.”

The district could be required to conduct biological studies of the areas to be drilled. Until the drilling is done to get a better understanding of the area’s complex geology, the design work can’t be finished. Currently the project is only 30% designed.

The new reservoir would hold 141,000 acre feet of water, replacing a small reservoir there now that was built in 1939. The new Pacheco reservoir — 23 times bigger — would be built upstream.

The district does not own the ranch lands that would be flooded and may be forced into court battles to take them by eminent domain. It also does not have water rights for the water that would flow from the watershed into the dam. Getting them from state regulators could be a drawn-out process.

Three of the water district’s seven board members, Tony Estremera, Dick Santos and John Varela, have ardently continued to support the plans, despite the growing problems.

“Water is life, the essence of life,” said Varela, a former Morgan Hill mayor, at a district board meeting in March. “Water, food and air. We have to continue the expansion of projects to continue providing water to future generations. That’s called survivability.”

Other board members oppose the project, including Barbara Keegan and Rebecca Eisenberg, a Palo Alto attorney who defeated incumbent Gary Kremen last November. Kremen was a supporter of the new dam.

The other two board members, newly elected Jim Beall, a former state senator; and Nai Hsueh, have raised questions but have not come out in opposition to the plan. Former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo opposed it, saying it was too expensive and would raise water rates, particularly on low-income people, by too much.

The project is supported by labor unions. Opponents have said the district should invest the money in other areas, such as expanding recycled water, stormwater capture and partnerships with more viable projects, such as a $1 billion plan to expand Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County from 160,000 acre feet to 275,000 acre feet. That project has no major opposition and is expected to break ground as soon as next year.

LAND has landed in Brooklyn Bridge Park. A massive 30-foot tall sculpture that spells out the word LAND, the piece evokes the pop artistry of the 1960s while simultaneously making a profound commentary on our relationship to the spaces we inhabit, the people who were here first, and borders we choose to enforce.

The full title of artist Nicholas Galanin’s site-specific work is “In every language there is Land / En cada lengua hay una Tierra.” Named using the two languages imposed by colonial regimes on either side of the border, it opened this week at the Empire Fulton Ferry Lawn in Brooklyn Bridge Park where it will be on view through fall 2023.

Curated by the artistic and executive director of the Public Art Fund, Nicholas Baume, Galanin’s sculpture echoes Robert Indiana’s iconic “LOVE” installation. But by using the same industrial steel that goes into manufacturing the U.S.-Mexico border wall, it invites the viewer to ask questions about freedom of movement and land ownership. And by allowing onlookers to interact — and literally walk inside the sculpture’s layers — Galanin transforms an American symbol of division into a conversation.

“It’s a work about land,” says Galanin. “It’s a work about colonialism and borders and violence.”

It also invokes the indigenous movement to reclaim that land: Land Back is a modern concept seeking to dismantle settler-colonial power structures by placing control of indigenous futures back into indigenous hands. It is a 400-years-in-coming decentralized action by indigenous people to reclaim sovereignty over their histories, cultures, and ancestral territories through self-determination.

“Our nations, cultures, and communities have existed that way for tens of thousands of years. We have cared for this place and cared for water in ways that aren’t necessarily capitalist driven,” says Galanin.

Photo by Josh Pacheco

Brooklyn Magazine sat down with both Galanin and Baume to discuss the origin and intent of the sculpture. This interview has been lightly edited for flow. 

The piece is meant to resemble Robert Indiana’s Love sculpture. How does that pop culture reference intersect with your vision and design?
Galanin: There are a lot of layers to it. It’s a work about land. It’s a work about colonialism and borders and violence. The materials were diverted directly from the ongoing construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, with the anti-climb plates at the top. That material is essential to the conversation here, as is the text form and use of pop imagery, for not only land but those that come from the land and that connection and love, and how unethical it is to restrict it across indigenous nations and indigenous territories.

Why use two colonial languages and not indigenous languages, whether it be Náhuatl, Purépecha, or Diné?
Galanin: It represents those two sides of this national border contributing to language genocide. The title of the work includes two colonial languages, and it’s crucial when we look at these borders and the lands that they cross, to consider the power structures and violence that takes place to remove not only indigenous people but their spirituality, their social care systems that they have in their communities. To remove language. I feel like the work is broad in that sense. It’s not only this border that we’re referencing in this. It’s the U.S.-Canada border, any colonial borders.

That was my next question: Why focus on the Mexico U.S. border and not the Canadian border?
Galanin: I don’t feel like it’s separated. The construction here is referencing the current brutalist construction of the wall. If anything, I think the conversation could be: “Why is that construction happening on one side and not the other side?” And I think we all know why.

Nicholas, how did you come to acquire the material and what did it cost? What was that negotiation process like?
Baume: Maybe it’s magic. There’s some magic to sourcing this material. Nicholas had the concept, and then a part of what Public Art Fund does is support the artists we’re working with by helping to research materiality, producers, suppliers, and fabricators. We found that there’s only one supplier of this material, and it’s exactly the same supplier that supplies the material to build the border wall. So, this very material that Nicholas made the sculpture with would have potentially become a part of the southern border wall if this sculpture hadn’t been made.

Was it hard to secure the material? Were there politics behind that, or can you not talk about it?
Baume: Oh, no, it wasn’t hard to secure in that it’s not a rare material, but it is in demand for the wall. We did have to make sure that we put the money down and said, “Okay, we need this much of this material” because otherwise, we’d have to wait six months. The material is rare in the sense that it’s a very particular thing. It’s a standard industrial gauge, steel tubing explicitly produced for the construction of that wall.

Photo by Josh Pacheco

What would it look like to you for indigenous people of the north and south to exist and commune uninterrupted?
Galanin: Land Back is one significant conversation that I feel is tied into this. Sovereignty is one aspect of this. Our nations, cultures, and communities have existed that way for tens of thousands of years. We have cared for this place and cared for water in ways that aren’t necessarily capitalist driven — even the term “resource,” you know, we don’t think of things like resources as a way of identifying with the land. I feel like things would look way better for the future of our generations.

I’m on the Artist Council for Sealaska Heritage. We’ve tried to voice the importance of not logging old-growth red cedar because it’s not a sustainable thing that comes back in our lifetime at all, and it’s of cultural significance to our entire community. We have to have access to that for future generations. They did put away some plots of that land for cultural use, but you know, there’s more, there’s so much more.

Are you close to any of the logging resistance in Alaska?
Galanin: Yeah. I’m connected with a lot of the community in Alaska, and it’s not just logging. It’s the commercial fisheries, the pipeline, and the drilling that was just opened up. They impact our communities, first and foremost. And oftentimes, the difficulty with that in the political sphere is that our voting power is so limited because our communities are smaller and isolated. The larger cities have a lot of control and say over our spaces and our homes. It affects us immediately. With the way we live, the way we care and survive and sustain our families.

Why did you choose to install the artwork here? What is your tie to the Brooklyn area?
Galanin: Well, I was invited via public art to our art fund to imagine work and a project. We visited various sites. A lot of my work is site-specific. And one thing I learned through that process is how common and connected everything is to our histories and our futures.

And Brooklyn and New York, specifically, is also deeply rooted in these conversations with immigration, with colonialism, with migration and capitalism. So, this is a great opportunity and space to engage those things in this work, but also this specific site for something this scale and size, which was very intentional to work with the scale and material. The work would be experienced differently if we were placing this in other sites.

Photo by Josh Pacheco

What has been your favorite part of Brooklyn and what do you like to do in your off hours?
Galanin: Off hours?? [Laughs.] Sleep! No. I have some friends here so I’m always grateful to see those folks. My favorite part is always just exploring. Music. I love going to see live music. I love going to see the museums and the spaces and the shows and the collections we have. I live in an isolated community of 8,000 people. So, there’s a lot of experiences and things here that are not available, or are not things that I would see in my home.

You’ve said this piece resists categorization. I was wondering if you could clarify what you meant by that? How might this be categorized from an indigenous perspective?
Galanin: I don’t know if I like categories. My practice resists categorization, and it does so by remaining open, but also by trying not to necessarily be reactive, I suppose. Having multiple entry ways to engage from those that are experiencing the work.

Would this be considered a form of medicine and would you categorize it like that?
Galanin: These materials that had been intended for something restrictive, violent, and divisive. They have been reimagined into a public space where people can gather, share, and speak. For me, that is a healing process. When I do work culturally, like carving a Kootéeyaa or totem pole, I might not say that that object is the healing aspect of it, but the process definitely is because of the specific ways I engage with it.

What specific Sitka values or teachings are evoked in this work?
Galanin: There’s room for engagement and dialogue in this work. We come from communities and places where our access, our visibility, our voice is often actively, purposefully erased. My hope for this work is to provide a place or space for these stories and these messages to be heard, elevated, and told. Especially, for those that might not care to think deeply about these connections and how they’re all tied together.