Institute History
Description
In a land where survival is a full-time job mastered by the indigenous people of Alaska for centuries, why do the Native people now kill themselves and each other?
THE SILENT RAVEN is the story of a young Gwich'in Athabascan boy/man named Ari, who kills his father when he is 10 years old, and finds redemption on the basketball court.
Ari comes from a long line of storytellers, his grandmother tells him. From an early age, it is obvious that Ari is special. He sees things differently, especially on the basketball court. Grandmother says he reminds her of the hero, Vasaaghidzak, who could shift change himself into a Raven, the Creator. However, Ari feels nothing like a hero in his inability to defend his mother against the violence of his alcoholic father.
Inadvertently, Ari is put in the role of protector by his grandmother, his mother, and his younger sister. he longs to stop the cycle of violence and abuse by which he is surrounded. In a moment of despair and frustration, the ten-year old Ari points a rifle at his father's head. Despite the look of terror in his mother's eyes (which will haunt him eternally), he pulls the trigger.
Ari runs into the darkness of the woods. He encounters a Spirit that shows him the power of silence. Ari seeks refuge in this silence by deciding he will not speak again.
Unfortunately, no silence can quench the regret Ari feels for killing his father. Redemption comes on the basketball court and through the awakening of his spirit.
THE SILENT RAVEN is a story of hope for a people who have survived the harshness of Mother Earth and the historical oppression of a dominant Western civilization.