By Alecx Abbott
Roger Fernandes, a well-known storyteller, visual artist and educator from the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, started the presentation by leading the audience in a welcome song, keeping the beat with his drum.
This November marked the twenty fourth National American Indian Heritage month. In conjunction with Heritage month, the Peninsula College Longhouse celebrated with the public viewing premiere of the documentary “House of Learning: The Spirit of the Peninsula College Longhouse.”
“It’s just a really beautiful thing that it exists here,” Kristi Gansworth, Coordinator of Multicultural and Inclusion services at PC, said. “It’s very exciting and very inspirational.”
The idea for the Longhouse was suggested by Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, to former college President, Thomas Keegan.
“It was Ron’s suggestion that really planted that seed in my head,” Keegan said in the documentary, “and from there we worked to build the longhouse that we have today.”
Viewers gathered at the premiere of “House of Learning: The Spirit of the Peninsula College Longhouse,” where special guests were welcomed. The celebration was held Friday, Nov. 7 in the Little Theater. Roger Fernandes was in attendance, along with Jamestown Elder, published and well renowned storyteller, Elaine Grinnell.
The documentary detailed the effect of the longhouse in the community. Several speakers–including Allen, Keegan and Grinnell– spoke in the documentary about how moving their participation was in the creation and celebration of the longhouse.
“We’re so happy that we have this. This is a part of us, for everyone to enjoy,” Grinnell said. “I don’t care who you are, come in.”
The Longhouse is in partnership with six tribes of the Olympic Peninsula; Quileute, Hoh, Port Gamble S’Klallam, Jamestown S’Klallam, Lower Elwha Klallam and Makah. “It’s a place where we can learn,” Luke Robins, PC president said. “Where the tribes can come and find a safe place to celebrate, to learn about each other, to do the work of nation building, and it’s a place where we can celebrate not only our uniqueness, and our unique cultures, but also our common and profound humanity and our togetherness and our understanding of how our differences come together to make us better than the sum of our parts.”
The first of its kind in the nation, The Longhouse opened October 2007. “I think diversity and inclusion are so important to so many students.” Gansworth said. “There’s such a variety of students, too. In addition to other international students and other groups and maybe people who don’t even identify with a group. I think having a place for everyone to be included is really important.”
The Longhouse is currently a temporary host to a collection of Northwest Coastal Native artifacts and photos by Fannie Taylor, Mora postmistress. The collection is on loan from Olympic National Park until December.
