About the Conference
The Alaska Tribal Child Welfare & Tribal Justice Conference will be held September 9-11, 2024 in Anchorage at the Marriott Anchorage Downtown. This years theme is “Strengthening Our Roots, Honoring Our Children: Implementing Culturally Responsive Practices for Tribal Justice and Tribal Child Welfare.”
This conference is open to Tribal ICWA workers and Tribal representatives across the state. The three-day conference will focus on implementation of the ICWA in Child Need of Aid cases and enhance attendee’s knowledge of and response to allegations of child abuse and neglect.
Agenda
2024 Alaska Tribal Child Welfare & Tribal Justice Conference Agenda
Keynote: Honorable Chief Judge Abby Abinanti
Born in San Francisco and raised in Humboldt County, the Honorable Chief Judge Abby Abinanti, affectionately known as “Judge Abby” in Indian Country, is a citizen of the Yurok Tribe. She is also the first Native American woman admitted to the State Bar of California and the first California Tribal citizen to serve as a judicial officer of the state. After serving as a San Francisco Superior Court Judge in the Unified Family Court, Judge Abby dedicated her expertise to building the Yurok Tribal Court into one of the most advanced tribal justice systems in the U.S.
Departing from the traditional adversarial model, she created a restorative justice system that replaced individual rights with the Yurok Tribe’s values of collective responsibility to and for the community as a whole. Judge Abby’s vision transformed a system that perpetuated a cycle of poverty and punishment into an expression of who the Yurok people were before they were given the name Yurok. She helped to reclaim their identities as fishermen, basket weavers, storytellers, dancers, healers, medicine people – the ‘O’loolekweesh ‘o’l.
Her contributions to tribal justice perfectly embody the theme of our conference, “Strengthening Our Roots, Honoring Our Children: Implementing Culturally Responsive Practices for Tribal Justice and Tribal Child Welfare.” We are honored to have Judge Abby share her wisdom and expertise as our keynote speaker at the 2024 Tribal Child Welfare and Tribal Justice Conference.