Photo essay: Alaska villagers stay put on their island despite climate threat


By AGENCY

Helen Kakoona, 28, with skinned seals in front of her home in Shishmaref, Alaska, on Oct 3, against the setting sun. ‘No other place feels like home but here,’ she says. Photo: AP

“Home sweet home.” That’s how Helen Kakoona calls her Alaska Native village of Shishmaref when asked what it means to live on a remote barrier island near the Arctic Circle.

Her home and the traditional lifestyle kept for thousands of years is in peril, vulnerable to the effects of climate change with rising sea levels, erosion and the loss of protective sea ice.

So much has been lost over time that residents have voted twice to relocate. But Shishmaref remains in the same place. The relocation is too costly.

In this Inupiat village of 600, residents live mostly off subsistence hunting of seals, fishing and berry-picking. Some fear that if they move, they’d lose that traditional way of life that they’ve carried on from their ancestors.

On a recent day, hunters boarded boats at sunrise in the village’s lagoon and returned in the evening hauling spotted seals. Kakoona and her mother helped skin the seals with an ulu or women’s knife and prepared to cure them in a weeks-long process.

“No other place feels like home but here,” said Kakoona, 28. She tried to settle down in different towns, but she ended up returning to Shishmaref to stay with her mother, Mary Kakoona, 63.

“I know we gotta move sometime,” Mary said, about a relocation that at times seems inevitable. “Water is rising and this island is getting smaller.”

Shishmaref is located on an island that is a quarter mile (0.4km) wide and about three miles (4.8km) long. It is one of dozens of Alaska villages that are under threat from climate change.

“We’ve been here all of our lives,” said Ned Ahgupuk, a Shishmaref resident, who on a recent day strolled on a beach at sunset with his girlfriend and their one-year-old son. Climate change, is “kind of” a concern, he said, but he won’t leave the island. “Everyone,” he said, “is like a big family caring for each other.”

Sadie McGill and husband Tracy McGill feel the same. On a chilly fall day, they played with puppies bred to be sled dogs in front of the home where she was born and raised.

After living abroad, she recently returned to the village to take care of her ageing mother. The effects of climate change worry her and she’d be willing to relocate but she’d prefer to remain home.

“It’s really sad to see our native land go and disappear into the ocean,” she said. “I want to stay here where we were raised and born – and (where) we know how to survive.” – AP


Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel for breaking news alerts and key updates!
   

Next In Living

Why this autistic US teen is passionate about high school football
Mona Lisa brings Southern Italian-inspired flavours to KL's Chinatown
What is Korean Hanwoo beef, and why is it gaining attention in Malaysia?
US women's amputee soccer team proves disability is no barrier to greatness
Waste heat from London sewers eyed to warm British parliament
Career: Gaps on your resume aren't a deal breaker
US theatre company designs comedy show for adults with autism
German groundskeepers use traditional method to handle climate change
How you sit in the car's passenger seat can save your life
Plastic pollution on beaches can now be spotted from space

Others Also Read