Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d make it out to the island. I spent three years studying the Bering Strait region while I worked to complete my Master’s at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. St. Lawrence Island was smack dab in the middle of every map I ever studied.
A trip to the island got within my grasp when I started my volunteer year here at KNOM, but it still seemed like an unattainable goal. I was in awe when I learned my fellow newsie Laura was going to Gambell to interview Wallace Ungwiluk about his high school basketball career. Months later, Maddie also traveled to Gambell for a Story49 on a storytelling workshop that took place there in October. The cherry on top was Mitch’s trip to the island’s other community, Savoonga, where he traveled to cover Operation Santa Claus for his program, Dearest Alaska.
Even after all that, the goal of getting out to St. Lawrence Island still seemed far-fetched. But time is a funny thing. It felt non-existent before Iditarod, when the sun still set early and the wind never let up.
After the frenzy of the Last Great Race was over, it seemed sunny and warm all the time. It also seemed like we were nearing the end. With that in mind, I got to thinking about all the things I wanted to do before I said goodbye to Western Alaska.
So, at a meeting just four days I ago, I said with gusto, “I want to go to St. Lawrence Island.” The bowhead on the south side of the island must have heard me, because that same day it sacrificed itself to the community of Savoonga, making it their second whale of the season.
A day later I was on a plane bound for the island that had almost become a fallacy in my mind.
Before I departed, I reached out to a friend in town who connected me with a family in Savoonga. They were the first door I knocked on after arriving and they were quick to let me in and take me under their wing during my visit. They gave me a tour of their hometown, introduced me to other families, and made me feel entirely at home.
I got to hear whaling stories from some of the community’s first whalers, interview a couple of fabulous and inspiring Health Aides at the clinic, build paper airplanes with a mob of excited kiddos, and eat my fair share of fresh whale. It was like a dream, but it wasn’t, and that’s what made my time on the island so special.
