Mission Series: Haa Aaní Alliance x Trickster Company

Our environment is circular and our watersheds begin in the mountains. As skiers and boarders, we share a responsibility to ensure that everything downstream from us thrives as we enjoy our ability to slay pow. 

Weston is beyond stoked to partner up with Tlingit artist Crystal Worl of Trickster Company and form the Haa Aaní Alliance with our fellow brands - Zeal Optics, Smartwool, Pret, and MountainFLOW Eco-Wax to create the visual storytelling of The Salmon Way of Life (Xâat Kusteeyí).

This collaboration has resulted in a unique collection of goggles, skis, snowboards, socks and accessories featuring Worl's artwork. The artwork honors her heritage and a portion of proceeds benefits three non-profit organizations: Yukon Salmon, Wild Salmon Center and the North Atlantic Salmon Fund.

The Story

For the Tlingit of Southeast Alaska, culture revolves around the land and its resources. The Tlingit believe that when they take care of the land and its inhabitants, the land in turn takes care of them. This concept is often summarized with the Tlingit phrase Haa Aaní, which means “Our Land”.

Crystal Worl, the Tlingit artist whose art inspires this collection has been harvesting salmon sustainably with her grandmother on the Kuskokwim River for as long as she can remember. Just as her ancestors did before her. But the past three years she hasn't been allowed to, because the number of salmon is too low.

“The way the world is collecting salmon is not sustainable. We won’t have salmon in the future.” - Crystal Worl

It’s a crisis for the native people of Alaska who live by Xáat Kusteeyí or "The Salmon Way of Life" in English. The forests and waterways that shelter salmon runs provide an abundance for the Tlingit and Alaskan people, and are a resource to be respected. For the Tlingit people specifically, animals are viewed as members of the same social universe as the people beside them. These relationships to nature are reflected in art, dance, stories and crests. Xáat Kusteeyí, as an extension of Haa Aaní, focuses on utilizing salmon respectfully and sustainably. By protecting the salmon and its habitat, the salmon provide people with sustenance, community, and kinship in return. Crystal and her people’s endurance comes from the land on which they hunt, fish and live a subsistent life. This way of life is something to be preserved and shared.

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The Process

The Haa Aaní Alliance Collection

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About the Artist

Crystal Kaakeeyáa Rose Demientieff Worl is Athabascan, Filipino, and Tlingit from Raven moiety, Sockeye Clan, from the Raven House. She is Deg Hit’an Athabascan from Fairbanks Alaska.

Crystal is a talented multidisciplinary artist based in Juneau, Alaska. She draws inspiration from her cultural roots and the natural world around her. Her work often explores themes of identity, connection to land, and the interplay between traditional and modern ways of life. In addition to creating art, Worl is also an advocate for Indigenous rights and works to promote cultural awareness and understanding through her art.

Today Crystal lives in Juneau, Alaska, working as a co-owner and co-designer of Trickster Company with her brother Rico Worl.

Crystal's Site

The Haa Aaní Alliance

The Haa Aani Alliance was formed by five purpose driven mountain brands that understand that while we may live and play in the headwaters of magnificent watersheds, that everything is downstream from us. If we all take stewardship of our ecosystems and our impacts on them, we can keep these life-giving arteries feeding our ways of life for generations to come.

PROTECTING SALMON BREEDING GROUNDS

The unifying goal of this project is to protect free-flowing rivers and salmon spawning grounds that are critical for both humans and ecosystem preservation and in keeping with the spirit of Haa Aaní and the Salmon Way of Life, Xáat Kusteeyí. We have partnered with three non-profits that solely focus on these issues: Yukon Salmon, Wild Salmon Center and the North Atlantic Salmon Fund.

Partner Non-Profits

  • Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association

    The Yukon River is home to the longest salmon migration in the world. These salmon provide key dietary and cultural support for over forty-two rural Alaskan villages. For many families, the commercial salmon harvest provides the only means of income, and salmon provides a primary source of food for humans and the sled dogs that are integral to their subsistence way of life. YRDFA was created in 1990 to conserve these salmon runs by giving a voice to the people who have managed the resource for thousands of years.

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  • Wild Salmon Center

    For over 30 years, Wild Salmon Center (WSC) has worked with local communities to protect the Pacific Rim’s best remaining wild salmon and steelhead watersheds—places called strongholds. When wild salmon runs are healthy and strong, we can rest assured our rivers, forests, and wildlife are healthy as well. As threats from climate change and development accelerate across the North Pacific, WSC remains grounded in its mission: to sustain wild salmon and the human communities they support. WSC accomplishes our work by stopping threats from large-scale development, mining, and logging; using science to inform land and water use policies, improving wild fish management, and restoring streams and rivers for wild fish.

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  • North Atlantic Salmon Fund

    The North Atlantic Salmon Fund (NASF) is a leader in Atlantic salmon conservation, bringing together an international network of volunteer-led affiliates across the North Atlantic, from Norway to the United States. From fighting the expansion of open net pen salmon farming, to closing unsustainable in-river fisheries and protecting sensitive habitat, NASF continues to fight for Atlantic salmon on numerous fronts.

    Learn More 
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