Community Map

Drawing a community map conjured up many things for me. I struggled with what community I should portray. Being a student studying horticulture, the first community that I thought of was ecological plant community. Being a human, I wondered if I should show a global community, the neighborhood where I live now, the community where I was born and raised, where I grew up (at college), or where I felt the most like I was a part of a community. I ended up choosing somewhat of a combination, an intentional community that I lived in for over a year in Sitka, AK.

I attempted to capture the important things in the Sitka community, focusing on my nuclear intentional community, as well as our greater community, including cultural, historical, structural, recreational and natural elements. This may not be an aerial view or an exact cartographic schematic, but this sketch more accurately depicts my ideas of community than a charter of streets and exact building locales. Illustration by Bri Crowley, 2006.

I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to live and work in Sitka because it is unbelievably rich in experiences, especially for an outsider from the lower 48, like me. The natural history of Sitka is profoundly interesting. I have never lived anywhere with such apparent biodiversity. The temperate Tongass rainforest ecology is dominated by Western Hemlock and Sitka Spruce (the state tree of Alaska), and has healthy shrub and herbaceous layers. Sitka is located on Baranof, an island located in the fire ring off the coast of the south eastern portion of Alaska. It has multiple habitats from mountains to muskegs and streams to coastal tidal pools, supporting wide varieties of plant and animal life, which I tried to represent in the community map because I believe these things all make up community. Tongass photo credit to Ron Niebrugge.

The cultural history of Sitka is equally fascinating. The original inhabitants are the Tlingit people of southeast Alaska and approximately 25 – 30% of the population of Sitka are of Tlingit ancestry. For a brief time, Sitka was the capital of the Russian-held territory of Alaska, until the United States bought Alaska from Russia in 1867. And, of course, people from the United States and Canada pioneered their way up to Sitka, changing the cultural dynamic again. There are significant populations of Filipinos and Latinos in Sitka as well (around 5 - 6%, combined). The amazing thing about Sitka is that it retains and celebrates many of these cultural differences. There are other towns in Southeast Alaska that are not so forgiving to historical and cultural change. Racism can be a major problem in some other communities.

Some of the important cultural aspects that I included in my community map are the Sheet'ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi house, or “Sitka Community House”, Totem Park, St. Michael’s the Russian Orthodox cathedral, the Pioneer Home, and some of the local hot spots – The White E thrift shop, Old Harbor Books, Kettleson Memorial Library, and the Mojo Café. Believe me, there were many things I did not have room to show on this map, but this is a good representative spattering. Photo of St. Michael's goes to the Sitka Convention Bureau Web site.

My intentional community was made up of four others and me who were in Sitka for a year of service. We all lived together, but worked at various organizations throughout the town. Community living, when done intentionally is not easy. In my intentional community we attempted to make decisions based on consensus, which is nothing like a majority vote. Majority voting in many ways is easy, but can discount voices. We had to struggle through many conflicts, and try to come to a point where everyone in the community could agree on the choice, even if it had to be amended multiple times. I think that living in community was rewarding, but it was also frustrating, emotionally charged, and incredibly difficult. Everyone was from a different background, though there were definitely similarities, it wasn’t like we all were friends who hand-picked the people we were going to live with. To live with intent is to live with purpose.

Photo of John Bell, in traditional Tligit garments, photo credit to in areas like Fairbanks and Anchorage, where temperatures reach 40 below and are dark at points for 24 hours a day in the winter. It is a fallacy to think that all of Alaska is dark and freezing.

In the summer, spirits are high because there are 17 - 20 hours of daylight every day; people are busy shuffling tourists around, or busy trying to avoid tourists, fishing, kayaking, camping, picnicking, etc. However, during the winter when fishing season dies down, tourism slows to a halt, and it seems to be dark or cloudy all the time, things start to get rough. It probably rained 70% of the time, and in the winter did get very dark (at the worst point, we had about 3.5 hours of daylight.) So if you can imagine the way you feel on a drizzly dreary day here in Philadelphia, imagine how you would feel if it was raining 7 out of 10 days. You probably would tend to get depressed. Well, it isn't too much different in Sitka. People get depressed. But, in Sitka, the community has adapted, and winter is when community really kicks in. If anonymity is what you are looking for in a community, you won't find too much of it in Sitka. There are cultural programs, contra dances, concerts, educational seminars, musical jam sessions, film screenings, and all sorts of other events that bring the community together. People are very proactive when it comes to community health, whether you have been a part of the community for a week or for your entire life. This doesn't always annihilate depression or violence or substance abuse, but it certainly tempers it, which I think is a great tribute to community.

Photo of totem pole credited to the Sitka Convention Bureau Web site. This is also a good link to learn more about Sitka, AK. Illustration by Bri Crowley 2006.