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Wellbriety
Kooteeyaa
A Wellbriety Totem Pole for Sitka, Alaska A Wellbriety Kooteeyaa is coming to the community of Sitka in southeast Alaska. Kooteeyaa means totem pole in the Tlingit language and totem poles are part of the cultural heritage of many coastal Alaska Native tribes. The Wellbriety Kooteeyaa to be carved over the next year will stand for sobriety, addictions recovery and healing from the many illnesses that Tlingits and others in southeast Alaska suffer from. The project to create the Wellbriety Kooteeyaa in Sitka will involve the entire wellness community and be an opportunity for Wellbriety to become visible among local people. Roberta Sue Kitka, a Tlingit and an addictions counselor at the South East Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), is the guiding force behind the traditional totem pole that will be a commitment to healing the multigenerational hurt in this region of Alaska. It’s her job to lead the fund raising necessary to engage the traditional carver who will construct two poles. It was also her responsibility to represent the community in presenting the story of the Wellbriety Kooteeyaa to the carver. (please see the story in this article) “When I met with the Elders about this they said, ‘What is your story? What you need to do is have a story so that the carver can create a design from that story,’” she said.
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