A woman of two worlds, Mary TallMountain captured the pain of separation and the healing power of homecoming in her poetry and prose.
On Saturday, her words will again find their way home, as the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center hosts a public reading celebrating her life and work.
“Coming Home: The Alaskan Poetry of Mary TallMountain” is a compilation of TallMountain’s work. The reading of her poetry, essays and stories starts at 2:30 p.m. at the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center, 101 Dunkel St. The reading will last approximately one hour, and admission is free.
The program is produced by Sharon McConnell and directed by Allan Hayton. It is sponsored by Denakkanaaga, Tanana Chiefs Conference and the Nulato Tribal Council.
Anne Hanley, former Alaska Writer Laureate, discovered TallMountain’s writing while working on an anthology of Alaska literature. Hanley described TallMountain as “a role model and an inspiration,” citing her resilience, gentleness, and sense of humor as sources of motivation.
TallMountain, a Koyukon Athabascan woman, kept a diary throughout her life and maintained correspondence with people from the various places she lived. Hanley wrote the script for the reading based on TallMountain’s essays, poems, diaries, and letters.
“Her life is wrapped around her poems,” Hanley said.
The reading is structured like an interview about TallMountain’s life, featuring a narrator and multiple readers. In Fairbanks, Allan Hayton will serve as the narrator, Kathleen Meckel will read TallMountain’s work, and Yatibaey Evans, Marjorie Merry and Reanna Moses will join as readers.
The piece follows TallMountain’s journey from her birth near Nulato to her eventual return to Alaska decades later. As a child, TallMountain was adopted by a doctor after her mother contracted tuberculosis and was forced to leave her home in Nulato at the age of six. She suffered abuse and struggled with addiction. Many years later, she found herself in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, where she became a lay member of the Secular Franciscan Order, an activist, and a writer.
“She continued to have a hard life but just embraced it,” Hanley said.
TallMountain returned to Alaska in her fifties after hearing about an opportunity to work as a writer in schools. “She was able to come to Alaska and rediscover her roots and get involved with her language,” Hanley said.
Hanley called TallMountain “a person between two worlds,” a theme she believes resonates universally.
The reading highlights themes of reconnecting with one’s roots and living between two worlds.
“I think the things that got Mary through the difficult parts of her life were her writing and her Native culture. She really lost so much when she had to leave, but she was determined to get back to Alaska, and she did,” Hanley said.
TallMountain didn’t relearn many of her Alaska Native customs and language until later in life, but “she just sopped it right up,” Hanley said.
Hanley said she hopes the event encourages attendees to reflect on their own life stories.
“They have a story, and their story is just as interesting and exciting as Mary’s,” she said. She hopes the reading inspires others to explore their own narratives.
Hanley also received a grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum to videotape the performance and post the script online so other groups can stage their own readings and learn about TallMountain. Although the funding is “permanently on hold,” Hanley said she is optimistic that community fundraising efforts will continue the project.
Contact Haley Lehman at 907-459-7575 or by email at hlehman@newsminer.com.
