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For those of you who don't yet know, I am currently in rural Alaska, in St. Michael, a Yup'ik (Eskimo) village of about 350 people near the Bering Strait. I came here one week ago for an artistic residency, to work with the kids in summer school, teaching dance and taiko drumming. Everything was going well, the kids were getting ready to put on a show for the village, and then last night a tragedy occurred. A young boy, 23 years old, drowned in the lake beside our school. I witnessed the desperate search, and felt the collective agony as they pulled his body from the lake. He had been under too long to be able to revive him.
Needless to say, the village is hurting today, and the teacher whom I have become friends with told me that she is worried for the rest of the people in the village. Suicide rates in these rural communities are incredibly high (this village of 350 has suffered 3 suicides already this school year), and after a tragedy such as this one, despair and feelings of hopelessness and isolation put the whole village at risk for a second tragedy, much like the aftershocks that follow an earthquake.
I have struggled these past 24 hours to find my place here as an artist and an outsider, and today I began a project to fold 1000 paper cranes for the village, to assist in the healing, and to offer any idle hands some creative inspiration.
I have also started a Facebook page called "1000 Cranes for Alaska" and linked a crane folding video tutorial to the site, asking visitors to please fold a crane and post a photo of themselves holding it, to both shed light on the issue of suicide prevention in rural Alaska, and to offer the residents of this village of St. Michael some solace, knowing that they are, and indeed we all are, connected to a wider family of support than what can be seen in this beautiful but very remote corner of the tundra.
Most of you know already know the significance of the thousand cranes, said to grant a wish to the folder, offered as gifts for births, weddings, anniversaries, and, thanks to the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who folded cranes in an attempt to stave off her death from leukemia as a result of radiation from Hiroshima, the thousand cranes are also recognized as a symbol for world peace.
I'm writing to you all today as my own personal network of love and inspiration, and hope that you can take a few moments out of your day to fold a crane, snap a photo, and participate in this project with me. If you are experiencing any difficulty in your own life, please take what you need from this opportunity to connect with a greater whole. The links to the tutorial and my facebook page are below, and if you need any help figuring out how to post pictures online, I'd be happy to be useful in assisting you.
Please also share this with your own network of support, your friends, extended family members, and anyone you think might appreciate a chance to share a crane.
Here are the links, (if they don't show up as links, just cut and paste each address into a new browser window)
Crane folding tutorial
Facebook Page "1000 Cranes for Alaska"
Thanks all,
Much love,
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