“My takeaway from this retreat was that learning about the Makah Tribe was really interesting. I wrote a paper about fishing rights and tribal sovereignty, and being able to have the opportunity to learn from the people who are living that life was so insightful.”
– Melissa Lee, AGE UP Participant
In July, we headed Northwest to Neah Bay for this year’s summer internship retreat! We decided to change it up for this year’s program — usually, we would have weekly program throughout the summer, but we transitioned this year’s summer internship into a 5-day overnight retreat. Before going on our longest retreat in AGE UP history, we had a ‘meet-and-greet’, giving our youth and some of our staff members the opportunity to get to know each other through playing some team games, learning about the Neah Bay community, and getting insight on our retreat location.
MONDAY
After a long, 5-hour journey to our destination, we settled down in Neah Bay! We spent some time getting to know each other alongside getting to know some youth out in the Neah Bay community by having a field day where a lot of live ball, frisbee, and basketball was happening. Afterward, we went back to our home for the week where June Williams, a Makah elder, shared some stories with us and enlightened us on some history about Neah Bay. Also, some of our youth helped our host, Ben, fry up some freshly-caught fish for our first dinner of retreat!
TUESDAY
We started Tuesday off with a rose weaving class where a community member taught us how to weave cedar bark into keepsake roses, which was a very exciting activity for our youth because they got to learn about the importance of weaving in Makah culture by getting hands-on experience.
Not only did we learn hands-on, we also got to explore the Makah Cultural Museum where we learned about the history of the Makah Tribe, such as the tools they would use to hunt, the boats and longhouses they built, and so much more. We also got to learn more about Neah Bay’s history through a personalized town tour given to us by Ben! As we drove through the town, Ben showed us the ins and outs of Neah Bay – showing us things like the tsunami route, the new Neah Bay school being built, and one of the local beaches.
Afterward, we headed to the fields to play some frisbee where we got to teach some youth in their community how to throw, catch bids – just the whole gist of how fun frisbee is!
WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday, one of our interns, Aileen, led a workshop about culture, which helped us all reflect on our cultural upbringings and our personal connections to our cultures. We delved into what culture means to us as a community, but also what culture means to us personally within our families and backgrounds.
After the workshop, we headed out and did a very competitive and exhilarating scavenger hunt all around the town, shout-out to Ben for making such a fun activity for us! The scavenger hunt helped us explore and learn about everyone’s day-to-day lives out in Neah Bay, from tasks like “ride in a canoe”, to “take a picture knee deep in the ocean with Canada in the background”, it was a very fun and interactive learning experience for the adults and youth! A lot of the tasks helped us venture out and do things we wouldn’t have the chances to do, like having our youth hold a fish (see above)! The scavenger hunt was a really fun way to meet people in the community also, with tasks like “listen to a fishing story” or “take a picture with an elder”, we were able to get to know Neah Bay’s community members face-to-face.
After the scavenger hunt, we slowed things down and eased into our “feelings circle” for the night. Every retreat, we have a tradition of having a feelings circle. We like to use our retreats as a way for youth to have a safe space to share their feelings openly with each other. We like to assure our youth that our space is somewhere where they can be as vulnerable or as open as they need to be, allowing them to feel safe to share emotions or stories that they have on their minds. We ended the night with some yummy brownies and ice cream, a good way to reward ourselves after talking about feelings!
THURSDAY
Thursday was a jam-packed day! With Thursday being our last full day in Neah Bay, we wanted to make sure we could do as much as possible. We started the day off with a drum-making class where we had a community member teach us how to create mini drum keychains using rawhide, creating a new keepsake for everyone to take home!
Afterward, we went out to a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Neah Bay K-12 campus. From there, we drove up to Cape Flattery where we walked the beautiful Cape Flattery Trail with the most breathtaking view at the end – we highly recommend it!
You’d think after three activities our youth would be tired, welllllll… they weren’t and they were eager to head out to the beach! Although it was overcast and gloomy, everyone was excited to go to the beach, especially after Ben and his family shared that they could teach all of us how to surf! Many of us attempted to surf (keyword: attempted), allowing some of our youth to experience surfing and being in the ocean for the first time!
While surfing and going to the beach is a very big part of the Neah Bay experience, it wouldn’t be complete without one last bonfire! To help end our retreat on a good note, we had one last bonfire where we all huddled together around the fire, right next to the beach – a highlight for many of our youth!
This retreat was definitely one for the books. With this year’s summer internship retreat being the longest retreat in AGE UP history, we were able to explore a new place for many of us, all while making new connections and memories with both familiar faces from the Southend, and new faces from Neah Bay. After being with each other for a week straight, we ended on by sharing our appreciations for each other, the retreat, and the new community of people we were lucky to meet. This retreat would have not been possible if it weren’t for Ben Maxson, our host for the week that helped bridge AGE UP and the Neah Bay community together!
“We, Makah, I think did a very good job showing our culture to you all. I look forward to the day when AGE UP comes back and shares your culture more with us. The first question I was asked around town was, “Will AGE UP come back again?” It makes me think about how I wanna see frisbee to continue to grow in Neah Bay, so can we use AGE UP as the avenue to keep bringing frisbee to us?”
– Ben Maxson, Neah Bay Community Member