Fall 2022 brought exciting change to the Oregon Folklife Network. We launched our newly updated Culture Keepers Roster full of new features that readers like you requested. A cohort of new graduate students originating from four different countries joined OFN’s newly hired Program Coordinator, adding staff language fluency in Spanish, Arabic, French, and Ukrainian. We delivered our inaugural Future of Traditions newsletter to over 200 culture bearers across the state, communicating funding opportunities to those we serve. Add in that I attended my first in-person professional conferences since Oregon’s COVID shutdown, and the sum is a joyful revelry in collective work.

Amid this uplifting feeling, however, there is also pervasive distress in Oregon’s cultural communities and our global society. Though traditional arts may appear a quiet and quaint sidebar, sustaining traditional practices is actually a critical element in addressing some of our greatest problems. Cultural practices from leather tooling and basketry to storytelling and dance invest our time, energy, and commitment in our humanity; they connect us with our heritage lands, languages, and foods, and reinforce the beliefs and values of our people, whoever we are.

Practicing tradition is seldom easy, efficient, or profitable, yet it is far more than honoring the past. It is activism for the future. Being rooted in tradition is a tremendous act of resistance—a commitment to moving forward against forces of change. My deep thanks to Oregon’s culture keepers, many of whom we have yet to meet, for your stamina and endurance as you hold steadfast to your ways and teach the rest of us why culture matters. By working collectively to support traditional arts, we will preserve the richness of the past, steward the vibrancy of our future, and better the world we share today.