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The Kalifornsky Project

To Restore His Voice: Peter Kalifornsky, the first writer of his oral language, comes to the iPad

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The Kalifornsky Project

The Kalifornsky Project

The Kalifornsky Project

The Kalifornsky Project

The Kalifornsky Project

To Restore His Voice: Peter Kalifornsky, the first writer of his oral language, comes to the iPad

To Restore His Voice: Peter Kalifornsky, the first writer of his oral language, comes to the iPad

To Restore His Voice: Peter Kalifornsky, the first writer of his oral language, comes to the iPad

To Restore His Voice: Peter Kalifornsky, the first writer of his oral language, comes to the iPad

Katherine McNamara
Katherine McNamara
Katherine McNamara
Katherine McNamara
2 Campaigns |
Charlottesville, United States
$5,370 USD 48 backers
35% of $15,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
Highlights
Mountain Filled 2 Projects Mountain Filled 2 Projects

The Dena'ina author Peter Kalifornsky portrayed his forebears, the Old Dena’ina, as innovative, "a people who wished to be the first to learn new things and to hand these on to their neighbors." In that spirit, we at the Kalifornsky Project are handing on something new—and very old:  From the First Beginning, When the Animals Were Talking, the work and thought of Peter Kalifornsky. We are restoring Peter Kalifornsky's legacy, in his words and in his voice. We are publishing all of it on the iPad.


                                          


I am Katherine McNamara, of Artist's Proof Editions, where I am producing From the First Beginning, When the Animals Were Talking, the work and thought of Peter Kalifornsky, the first writer of his oral language. Through the Kalifornsky Project I and my co-workers are restoring—in his words, and in his voice—Peter Kalifornsky's  literary and intellectual legacy, in the beautiful work of indigenous language and cultural regeneration. We've begun publishing it on the iPad. Volume 1 is now on iBooks.  Volumes 2, 3, and 4, and their journey back to Alaska will be funded by this Indiegogo campaign.


Across Turnagain Arm,  the Kenai Peninsula


Peter Kalifornsky: the author and his back-story

Peter Kalifornsky (1911-1993) was the first writer and nearly last native speaker of his dialect of Dena’ina, an Alaskan Athabaskan language. For his Dena'ina texts he was praised as a literary stylist. He was also an intellectual, who, with his theory of writing and meaning, preserved his native language, adapting the writing system he was given to the intrinsic patterns of his tongue. He was the author of traditional stories, essays, songs, word lists, commentaries. But he wanted to tell us more: the “back story,” he called it, a way of knowing the world, the visible and the invisible, which is rich, profound, demanding. Yet, he knew he would never write it, in either Dena'ina or English. He asked for a secretary.


A scanned page (detail) of Peter Kalifornsky's manuscript, typed by himself on an IBM Selectric. (archive Katherine McNamara)


I was a poet and traveling scholar in the Alaskan Interior. I became his secretary. For five years, I listened and wrote and asked questions as he told his "back story"—the cultural, spiritual, and historical knowledge of the old people who told him their stories, saying, This one will be our reserve

Peter Kalifornsky described the inner workings of his oral language. He explained to me how the act of writing, itself, taught him aspects he had never considered.

 "I wrote that story, yes, in my native language. It’s written; and all I was fighting for was to preserve my native language. But what we’re getting into—how to read the background—gets complicated. From the beginning, the stories were put forward for a people to study, the nations and what-not.”

                                                      

                                                         Peter Kalifornsky at work


From the First Beginning . . . to a new technology

 Now, through Artist’s Proof Editions, the imprint of Archipelago Publishers, the non-profit company I direct, I am producing From the First Beginning, When the Animals Were Talking, in four volumes of interactive iBooks of the work Peter Kalifornsky entrusted to me, with audio, video, texts, and images. These multimedia iBooks will return long-hidden knowledge to people engaged in the renewal of their cultures and languages. And they offer that knowledge, too, as Kalifornsky sang, to you who come from far away. We've demonstrated in Alaska that our approach can be of good use. Volume 1 is on iBooks.  Volumes 2, 3, and 4, and their journey back to Alaska will be funded by this Indiegogo campaign.

              

This is the cover of Volume 1, the first of four projected interactive iBooks. It is available on the iBooks Store. All proceeds support the Kalifornsky Project.

Peter Kalifornsky arranged his stories in four parts (or circles, because they go round and "bounce off each other"). These are the four volumes to come to the iPad, along with our conversations, his cassette-taped readings, and scans of his manuscript. He titled them:
  • From the First Beginning, When the Animals Were Talking
  • From the Believing Time, When They Tested for the Truth
  • From the Time of Law and Education
  • From the Time When Things Have Been Happening to the People


Why do we use the iPad?

We are putting the whole archive of From the First Beginning on the iPad. Why? Because so many Alaskans have iPhones and iPads. Because young people can learn the technology of making digital books and go to their elders, who teach them what to remember. Because, everywhere, Native languages are under pressure. Because we work for the expansion of Native ways of knowing. Because, with Peter Kalifornsky’s immense knowledge—his voice, his writings, his conversations—on the iPad, his people can hold his teaching in their own hands.

Think of this: the Old Dena'ina had a theory of the Imagination. They had a theory of metaphor. They knew how the animals talked with the People Who Sit Around the Campfire. They had formal law and education. They knew of the great unknown spiritual Power and they tested the invisible powers for the truth. They told their history of the last thousand years. All of this came down to the mind of their first writer,  an author of literature .—  With your help, I can carry this immense body of thought home to Alaska, and out to the world, where it belongs. 


Some Alaskans have said:





Katherine McNamara and her old friend and surrogate brother, Claude Demientieff, Jr., explain why the iPad is good for passing on old stories and sharing new stories that might be true.


Where will our physical archive go?

Several institutions have expressed interest in collecting the physical materials of the Kalifornsky Project—manuscripts, cassette tapes, annotated books, field notes, digital records—for their archives, including

  • The Smithsonian Institution
  • The American Philosophical Society
  • The Anchorage Museum

But we have a long way to go before the Project is completed. Till then, we are handling these materials carefully and respectfully.


We have work to do.          
To produce this large, intricate digital edition of the materials that Peter Kalifornsky entrusted to me, Artist's Proof Editions requires a larger budget than for the typical printed book. Our long list of tasks to be completed includes
  • Indexing and editing hours of audio files, most of which are in Dena'ina
  • Scanning original typescripts
  • Searching for and preparing visual materials; securing rights, if necessary
  • Maintaining software & hardware
  • Editing and correcting hundreds of pages of texts for digital formatting
  • Designing and producing the digital volumes
  • Returning to Alaska, traveling in-state to towns and villages
You will give us the great gift of time for the serious, intense labor required of us. You will give us the various tools we need to produce beautiful digital books. You will give us the way North, for when we carry Peter Kalifornsky's legacy home.

We want to say chin'an, thank you.              

Artist's Proof Editions is gathering special digital editions and works on paper to give as thank-yous to our supporters. If you'll browse the list to the right, you'll see the catalog of premiums we are making available to friends of the Kalifornsky Project. 

Artist's Proof Editions, as an imprint of Archipelago Publishers, Inc., is a verified nonprofit organization. Your contribution, minus the value of the thank-you premium you select, is tax deductible. If you wish to contribute in lieu of a premium, the full amount of your donation will be tax deductible. In all cases, your donation will be acknowledged.


The impact of our Project

Through the Kalifornsky Project, I hope also to demonstrate one way in which groups or tribal organizations can use this technology to present  themselves as they wish to be seen, their texts and songs recorded and controlled by their own scholars, with the added benefit of bringing together young people with digital skills and elders with much to teach.

While there are many benefits to globalization, there are also drawbacks—and a significant one is the loss of indigenous languages and cultures, and the suppression of the Native or indigenous mind. This phenomenon is not limited to the Native peoples of Alaska, but occurs rapidly around the world. Contemporary multimedia publishing, with its capacity for audio, video, images, and simultaneous translation, is more effective than print alone—because Native people can take the technology into their own hands as they work to recover their endangered cultures. I am talking with Alaskan friends about showing their youth how to make iBooks of their own.

Therefore, for every directed donation of $2,500, Artist's Proof Editions and I will respectfully present an iPad, with the First Beginning iBooks installed, to a recommended Dena'ina school or organization, in honor of the donor. Thank you for letting us carry Peter Kalifornsky's legacy back to his heirs, into their future.


Potential difficulties? We are prepared. 

Difficulties and delays can always occur in the publication of a book; these are magnified by a multi-media work such as The Kalifornsky Project. Such things as damage to hardware, weird software updates, glitches while editing audio files, the intricacies of reformatting texts, and the sheerly unexpected event can cause delays. However, we have learned a great deal from the publication of the first volume—which we continue to update—and are confident of our ability to produce the full work.

Should our fundraising on Indiegogo fall short of our goal, there are other avenues we might pursue. We will consider:

  • Producing the second volume, while putting the later volumes on hold; or,
  • Directing our resources toward working with local communities; and, 
  • Continuing pursuit other sources of support relevant to this field of work
While we cannot predict every obstacle that might present itself, we will continue putting our skills and resources to their best use for restoring Peter Kalifornsky's legacy. 

Other ways you can join us

Everyone is invited to join us. Please:

  • Email this campaign to your friends who are avid readers, or interested in indigenous languages and cultures, or curious about contemporary multi-media publishing—or who like to learn something new.
  • Host a book party (we'll tell you how we're doing it here),
  • Share this campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and other forums.
  • Like us on Facebook.
  • Subscribe to our newsletter.
  • Wish us well. Wish us Luck.

Thank you.


PS - New to Indiegogo? We'll show you how to pledge.

We have used here another Indiegogo campaign, The Quipu Project, to illustrate the simple steps of pledging towards the Kalifornsky Project. (A reminder: APE/Archipelago Publishers, Inc., is a verified non-profit. Your donation is tax-deductable, minus the value of the premium you choose. Or, you may choose to receive no premium; your donation then is fully  tax-deductable.)




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Choose your Perk

featured

Limited Edition "Crow Story"

$75 USD
A hand-printed printed broadside on archival paper of an excerpt of "Crow Story" in the original Dena'ina and English translation. PLUS, the digital edition of "Love Song," and the gratitude of Artist's Proof Editions for helping to share the cultural legacy of Peter Kalifornsky in his native Alaska and beyond.
Estimated Shipping
January 2016
4 out of 50 of claimed
Ships worldwide.

Kalifornsky's Welcome Song

$10 USD
A beautifully formatted digital edition of Peter Kalifornsky's "Third Dena'ina Love Song", as heard in the video for Kalifornsky Project, which may be printed or enjoyed on your electronic device. Thank you for helping to share this work with Alaska and beyond.
Estimated Shipping
November 2015
0 claimed
Ships worldwide.

9/24 VABC Book Party/Art Show

$25 USD
Come to a book-and-art party, our soft launch, at Virginia Arts of the Book Center, Charlottesville, Va. Come for the art, lively talk, interesting people, and collect your "ticket": a print of Kalifornsky's Welcome Song. (If you can't join us in person, come virtually. Sign in. We'll mail you your "ticket" later.) We'll demonstrate the iBook, and we'll also open an exhibtion of works on paper by an APE author, the artist Lyndia Terre.
Estimated Shipping
September 2015
4 claimed
Ships worldwide.

10/1 Washington DC Book Party

$25 USD
A book party at Casa Phoenix, near U Street NW. Lively talk, interesting people, and collect your "ticket": a print of Kalifornsky's Welcome Song. (If you can't join us in person, come virtually. Sign in. We'll mail you your print later.) I'll demonstrate the iBook and talk about Peter Kalifornsky, his life and legacy. Good company, sweets and savories, refreshments. 7-9 p.m. Casa Phoenix, 1307 Corcoran Street NW Washington DC 20009
Estimated Shipping
October 2015
1 claimed
Ships to United States of America

10/24 Milwaukee Book Party

$25 USD
A benefit book party for the Project at Woodland Pattern Book Center, hosted by Larraine McNamara-McGraw and Will McGraw. We'll demonstrate "From the First Beginning," and thank you with a "ticket" print of Kalifornsky's Welcome Song. Or sign up and attend virtually; we'll send the "ticket" later. Saturday, Oct. 25, 6-8 p.m., Woodland Pattern, 720 East Locust Street.
Estimated Shipping
October 2015
1 claimed
Ships to United States of America

11/1 Woodville Book Party

$25 USD
Our author Mary-Sherman Willis is host at this afternoon book party in the autumn hills of Rappahannock County, Virginia. We'll talk about the Kalifornsky Project, and for your pledge, you'll receive a printed copy of Peter Kalifornsky's welcome song. If you can't attend in person, come 'virtually.' Pledge by signing in, and we'll mail your print, with thanks.
Estimated Shipping
November 2015
0 claimed
Ships to United States of America

Limited Edition Welcome Song

$50 USD
Receive the elegant and moving "Third Dena'ina Love Song" by Peter Kalifornsky as a limited edition printed broadside. PLUS the digital edition of the work as a printable pdf, and our thanks for helping to forward the production of this work.
Estimated Shipping
January 2016
3 out of 60 of claimed
Ships worldwide.

Book Party Sponsor

$100 USD
To thank them for their good-will and support, we are very pleased to offer our book party sponsors--whether they attend in person, or are "virtual" hosts with their pledge -- the choice of the haunting "Crow Story" broadside, or one of Artist Proof Editions' original works, a broadside of "Caveboy." We are grateful to all of them, in person and on-line.
Estimated Shipping
April 2016
1 out of 60 of claimed
Ships worldwide.

Anticism 2nd Edition

$125 USD
Written and designed by Kevin McFadden; printed with assistance by Katherine McNamara. “Anticism!” is a manifesto cry for more play in poetry. As a literary movement, Anticism speaks to the hidden swings of antic moods: “Its hand is heavy, its soul is light: the specific gravity of a graffito. It is the disposition of the dispossessed; its saint is Hamlet, its church the Congregation of Vapors.” Artist's book miniature as unbound paper sculpture
Estimated Shipping
December 2015
1 out of 10 of claimed
Ships worldwide.

Lyndia Terre Etching

$150 USD
Our thanks to Lyndia Terre for the gift of 12 etchings of her edition of "May Tulips." We are proud to be launching this Indiegogo campaign in tandem with her art show at Virginia Arts of the Book Center, and grateful for her support.
Estimated Shipping
December 2015
2 out of 12 of claimed
Ships worldwide.

Collected Animal Stories iBook

$150 USD
A jewel of the Kalifornsky Project is the collection of animal folktales written by Peter Kalifornsky. A very special digital edition of this collection, formatted as an iBook, including images, sound clips, and other interactive media, is being published as a unique premium for our Indiegogo friends and supporters. Receive the stories serially over the year to come, along with our thanks.
Estimated Shipping
December 2016
2 claimed

Anticism First Edition

$175 USD
Written and designed by Kevin McFadden; printed and bound with assistance from Katherine McNamara. “Anticism!” is a manifesto cry for more play in poetry. As a literary movement, Anticism speaks to the hidden swings of antic moods: “Its hand is heavy, its soul is light: the specific gravity of a graffito. It is the disposition of the dispossessed; its saint is Hamlet, its church the Congregation of Vapors.” Artist's miniature book as folded paper sculpture bound in hand-made ¾ box.
Estimated Shipping
December 2015
0 out of 6 of claimed
Ships worldwide.

"Crow Story" + Animal Stories

$500 USD
Our generous backers will receive both the beautiful "Crow Story" archival hand-printed broadside, and also the interactive iBook of the Collected Animal Stories. Enjoy these Dena'ina sukdu, traditional stories, and accept our gratitude for helping to forward the work of returning Peter Kalifornsky's cultural legacy to Alaska.
Estimated Shipping
December 2016
0 out of 10 of claimed
Ships worldwide.

Kalifornsky Project Producer

$1,000 USD
We are pleased to invite serious supporters to become Producers of the Kalifornksy Project. Producers will receive named credit in volumes 2-4; a private password to a backstage pass website where exclusive updates will be given on the progress of the work; advance copies of all four volumes; and their choice of one art print or broadside.
Estimated Shipping
December 2016
0 out of 10 of claimed
Ships worldwide.

Executive Producer

$1,500 USD
We are very pleased to offer the opportunity for dedicated supporters to become Executive Producers of the Kalifornsky Project. Receive named credit in volumes 2-4; a private password backstage pass for online updates on the progress of the work; advance copies of each of the four volumes; the Collected Animal Stories iBook; and two prints or broadsides of your choice.
Estimated Shipping
December 2016
0 out of 8 of claimed
Ships worldwide.

Full APE Catalog iPad Mini

$2,000 USD
We will be delighted to send our most generous benefactors an iPad Mini with the complete Artist's Proof Editions catalog installed, and a subscription to all four volumes of The Kalifornsky Project. Enjoy the multimedia experience of our books, including beautiful art and photographs, sound files, language translations, video, and more.
Estimated Shipping
December 2016
0 out of 5 of claimed
Ships worldwide.

iPad to Athabaskan School

$2,500 USD
Thank you for making possible the return of Peter Kalifornsky's cultural legacy to his native Alaska. We will be very pleased to donate, in your name, an iPad with the full four volumes of the Kalifornsky Project, as well as the Collected Animal Stories, to an Athabaskan school or organization. Receive named credit as a Benefactor of the project; the private backstage pass; advance copies of each of the volumes and the Collected Animal Stories for yourself, and our deep gratitude.
Estimated Shipping
December 2016
0 out of 5 of claimed
Ships worldwide.
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