Sustaining Community

How We Gather and Why It Matters

The act of sustaining a community takes dedication over years and even generations, often without seeing the full impact of your work.

It takes parents and grandparents teaching younger generations how to gather from the land and sea. It takes a nurse turned restaurant owner dedicating herself to her family, church, and passing on her Filipino culture. It takes a music teacher years of late nights, teaching lessons and showing young kids how their lives can be changed by music. It takes a family grocery store, started by a woman who wanted to provide for her neighbors, which operated for over 100 years. It takes a talented weaver, who first dedicated herself to weaving in her 40s, preserving and perpetuating not only weaving techniques, but providing a bridge between cultures and generations.

Sustaining a community starts with a single individual feeling a sense of belonging and deciding to make the place we live in just a little bit better. Sustaining a community starts with you.

Sections featured in this exhibit:

• We are Shaped by the Land and Sea
• We are Creative
• We are Responsible
• We are Resilient
• Pull up a Chair

Ketchikan Museums Curator of Exhibits, Ryan McHale, gives Abbie Stevenson of KPU a tour of the new feature exhibit at the Tongass Historical Museum.

Click Here to Start the Exhibit.