This 16.5-inch Janwu/Mountain Goat Gaaw/Drum carries a design that has traveled with me for years, from an idea for a hard hat to a painted skateboard and now a hide hand drum.

I’m Fred Fulmer, Tlingit Elder and Cultural Bearer. The idea for this formline design goes back to 2016–2017, when I worked security for Goldbelt Security at the Kensington Gold Mine in Alaska. I wanted to paint it on a hard hat, and I still might follow through with that idea. I also painted this design on a skateboard that sold through Stonington Gallery in Seattle’s Pioneer Square.

This drum’s story connects the pre-season, during-season, and post-season chapters of my third Glacier Bay season in 2026. I began the work at home before returning to Alaska, continued painting in Gustavus/Siteeyi Gheeyi, and finished the painted design back home in October 2026.

During the 2024–2026 Glacier Bay seasons, I worked with ANV Alaska Native Voices Educational Institute as a Tlingit Cultural Interpreter, representing the Xuna/Hoonah Tlingits in our ancestral homeland. This drum is part of my own continuing painting journey through that time.

Now complete, this Gaaw/Drum is ready for a new home, carrying both my Tlingit formline design and the story of the work behind it.

• 16.5-inch hide hand drum
• Janwu/Mountain Goat formline design, hand-painted by Fred Fulmer
• Painted design completed in October 2026

Watch the completed painted design, then see the drum nearing completion.

Read my living drum story for more of the journey, or explore our painted drums.

I Ixsixa'n/Love the process!! Gunalchéesh for being part of this journey.