Across Prince William Sound and Southcentral Alaska, Diane is helping keep culture alive with things people can make, hold, wear, prepare, and pass on.

Through culture camps, workshops, school programs, community gatherings, and mentorships, Diane’s work centers on hands-on cultural arts: skin sewing, beading, fur pouches, ornamental mittens, drums, earrings, food preparation, and other tangible practices that connect people to heritage, place, and one another.⁠⁠

In Diane’s words, “Language is a verb; crafts are a noun.” Her teaching focuses on those “nouns” -the visible pieces of culture that carry memory, skill, identity, and relationship. A stitched pouch, a beaded fish skin piece, a pair of mukluks, or a prepared traditional food can become more than an object. It becomes a way of learning, remembering, and sharing.

Diane’s cultural arts work reaches many kinds of learners. She has led and supported projects with elementary and homeschool students, college apprentices, community members, Tribal gatherings, museums, parks and recreation programs, and regional retreats. Recent activities have included fur pouch making at Prince William Sound Community College, sea otter pouch making in Tatitlek, and drum making with youth in Chignik.

These workshops do more than teach a single craft. They create space for intergenerational learning, cultural pride, and community connection. They help younger people build relationships with Elders, mentors, materials, stories, and traditional practices. They also support broader Alaska South Coast Partnership goals around cultural continuity, community wellbeing, subsistence knowledge, and locally led resilience.⁠⁠⁠⁠

Diane is also exploring a way to build a “knowledge basket” — a living collection of teachings, photos, methods, stories, and cultural context that can help document her work and extend its reach. The goal is not simply to archive information, but to carry teachings forward in a thoughtful way so they can continue serving communities and future generations.⁠⁠

For the Alaska South Coast Partnership, Diane’s work is a powerful reminder that culture is not only preserved in documents or spoken about in meetings. Culture lives in practice -in the hands, in the materials, in the foods, in the stories shared while making, and in the relationships built along the way.

Through each camp, class, and gathering, Diane is helping pass culture forward one tangible teaching at a time.