This story will be updated following the awards presentation.
Rosita Worl, president of Sealaska Heritage Institute, is being presented with a 2023 National Humanities Medal by President Joe Biden in a ceremony at the White House at 1:30 p.m. Monday.
The award from from the National Endowment for the Humanities “honors an individual or organization whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the human experience, broadened citizen engagement with history and literature or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to cultural resources,” according to a press release issued by SHI on Monday before the ceremony.
“I am honored to receive this award, but I owe a debt of gratitude to my mother, Bessie Quinto, who instilled in me that I have a responsibility to work for our people,” Worl said in a prepared statement. “She devoted her whole life as a union organizer to secure economic equity for our people, among many other things.”
She has served as the president of SHI since 1998, and been active in numerous other activities including as an anthropologist conducting research in Alaska and the Arctic, according to SHI.
Worl is among 10 recipients receiving such an award for 2023 award. Among the others are Anthony Bourdain (posthumous), LeVar Burton, Roz Chast, Nicolás Kanellos, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Mellon Foundation, Dawn Porter and Aaron Sorkin.
The ceremony can be watched live at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hweFDtOPfc.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
