“In the next three years of my tenure as a director, as the planet and its people address our collective mourning and recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, and even as I speak the threat of the heat wave taking more lives, we must prepare for the effects of climate change.  As Sealaska matures and grows its operations as a global, sustainable seafood leader and as a contributor in amassing the knowledge and practices to address the health and sustainability of our oceans and food sources, my thoughts and actions will have a finite focus on the who, what, where, when and how to become 23,000 strong.

“In my profession as an educator there is a saying ‘teach like your hair is on fire,’ and in my family of commercial fishers, it’s ‘fish or cut bait,’ both meaning to work with a sense of care, urgency and productivity.  Get it done.  Our work in sustaining our people, our culture, our communities, our land, the ocean and the planet is a noble endeavor.

“In the next three years in my capacity as a director, with a stronger sense of the collective will of this new board, I will not let the words of our fellow shareholders fall to the ground, which range from wanting an increase of benefits, to shareholder hire, to upholding Tribes’ federally recognized sovereign status, to better communication and partnerships, to inclusion of lineal descendants, and to election reform.

“While Sealaska has been improving how it engages and communicates, there is more to do.  It’s important.  We as a people know words matter—words are of spirit.  Truth matters.  Integrity matters. Trust is what we, as a board, must earn.

“It’s not just what we do, but how we do it.  It’s not just how we say it, it’s what we do. It’s not just we as a corporation, it is us as a people whose lineages connect us to each other and the place we call Haa Aani, Litl’ Tlagaa, Na Yuubm – Our Land.  We are on this path together.”