About the S.W.A.N - Solid Waste Alaska Network

Why a Swan?
Why the Puffin?
Why the Colors?
Why the Website?
About the Artist
Acknowledgements

Why a Swan?

When we started this project, we asked a lot of people about their ideas. We wanted to build a website from a Native view and to use Native values and traditions. Many non-Native people don’t realize that there are many Native cultures and each of us has traditions, values, and histories that are different. But all of us share a love of our unique lands and our subsistence lifestyles. We also share thinking of the good things about a situation, not the bad. We decided we did not want a trash can for a symbol.

So we chose the swan. The white swan is known as the “Thanksgiving Bird” by many of us. It is so big, it can feed many people at a feast. So it stands for a time of full bounty and good hunting. The swan is known to stay only in clean, pure waters. So it represents the environment that we are protecting and cleaning up when we take care of our solid wastes. The swan is a strong bird and can be found all over Alaska, even migrating through our beloved Southeast lands. So it represents the unity of all of our Native cultures and the strength we have as Native peoples.

This swan is in front of the low Alaska Sun – the power of Spring that comes each year to provide us berries and birds, and caribou and moose, and seals and salmon. The lines of the swan trace the Alaska landscape of snowed mountains, then tundra and rivers flowing to the sea.

Why the Puffin?

When we looked for a design to use as a guide symbol, we decided to use the “eye of awareness”. This represents wisdom in many Native and American Indian cultures. When we tried decorating the eye, we realized it looked like a puffin head! And we decided to use that design because we like the idea of showing wisdom in a light and humorous way. A sense of humor is another thing that we share-- and our wise elders have the best senses of humor we know.

Why the Colors?

You can see that we use a lot of tundra yellow and rust red. These are colors that our cultures have used in their artwork from the beginning. The turquoise that we use was a harder to color to make from materials we had from our land. So we used it wisely and sparingly. That is the way that we can use the technologies and materials that come to us from other cultures and places. We can make the decision to use these things in a way that helps us. But if we use this material without thought, the artwork can be harmed. That is why we use the turquoise color in our website in a thoughtful manner.

Why the Website?

We did a health study a couple of years ago to find out what solid waste was like in our Native Villages. What we found saddened us at first. There are many health risks from solid waste disposal in our Villages.

We saw many problems that our communities are facing. These problems are the most difficult solid waste problems to deal with in the United States and even in many, many other countries. We face extreme weather and sometimes impossible transportation logistics. As recognized Tribes, we face the challenge of running our Villages as sovereign nations, while dealing with the State on many issues and problems. We must continue to keep our traditional values and lifestyles, while using computers and other technology to carry out jobs with schedules that clash with doing subsistence the way we want or need to. The money for fencing, equipment, and operation is scarce. And the funding that we do get comes often does not work well with how we traditionally make decisions and take actions.

But we also saw a lot of hope. Our communities have thrived for 10,000’s of years in lands that others think are too difficult to live in. We know how to solve problems in our lands and communities like no one else does. When we started asking and looking around, we met many communities that are meeting their solid waste challenges and that want to share what they did.

There are not many information materials that have been made to fit our situation. So we saw a need to develop these materials and make a website to share them. You will find in our website very practical advice and information that you can use for Alaska Native Village situations. Wherever we can, we give you stories of Villages that have had successes in the things that you are interested in.

Also, some people are uncomfortable dealing with the State or Federal government. We feel there is a need to have a Native–based information source that people can trust. This way people can choose to not work with the State or federal government, and still have all of the information they need.

Another reason for developing a website, instead of a book, is that we believe our communities and young people will benefit from using computers to share information. Our website is funded by an EPA program that is trying to take science to communities and giving the opportunity for communities to share their ideas and experiences. Being able to use the computer to learn about ways to help our lands and peoples is a way that we can use the “turquoise” new technology to continue our communities and value systems for the next 10,000’s of years.

We hope that in the months and years to come, that you will continue to come back to our website and to share your ideas. We will be developing our message posting system, interactive on-line applications and tutorials, and on-line certifications in the future. You will always be welcome here.

About the Artist

Moses Wassille designed the artwork on this website.

Moses Wassille
DBA UpikArt
P.O. Box 211224
Anchorage, AK 99521-1224
Phone: (907) 333-3069
Cell: (907) 529-1510
Email: eskimoe@alaska.net

About Moses
Moses was born in a sod house at Nunapitchuk in Southwest Alaska in 1946. His mother is Lucy Jacob, a traditional Yupik Dancer and subsistence trained woman, and his father was Wassilie B. Evan, subsistence Hunter & Fisherman and leader from Napaskiak.

As a young boy, Moses spent his grade school years at the Moravian Children's Home in Kwethluk, where he learned about Western subsistence and way of life with schooling. He graduated from Mt. Edgecumbe boarding school in 1967, where he started painting portraits using charcoal on Sitka pulp mill paper. He also attended the Institute of Alaska Native Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico to study painting and the University of Alaska Fairbanks under Ron Senungetuck to study carving and the University of Alaska Anchorage for Human Services.

Moses paints with pastel, acrylic and oil and also was trained by Paul Tiulana to produce King Island style drums, driftwood carvings and masks, and self-taught ivory jewelry. Moses also creates artwork from natural Alaskan and contemporary materials, is a documentary film-maker and photographer, and teaches cultural sensitivity and education classes for public and private organizations.

Some of Moe’s latest works include commercial and professional digital designs and photography with Alaska themes for business as well as for public publication and promotion. QUYANA (Thanks)!

For Moe’s resume, click here on the mask:

Acknowledgements

This website has been 4 years in the making with Zender Environmental and we are indebted to everyone who has helped bring this project to fruition. In particular, we would like to thank Cathy Needham, Frank Andrews, and Carrie Sykes who were instrumental to getting the website started and visualized the possibility of this project many years earlier. We would like to thank the Bureau of Indian Affairs for funding the original database project. We would like to thank our families and Elders for raising us and teaching us. And most of all, we would like to thank all of the Villages that filled out surveys and all of the Villages that provided information for the solid waste fact sheets and Tutorials developed for the website.