Elder Voices: Irene Aukongak

This week’s episode of “Elder Voices” from the KNOM archive features a 2011 interview with Irene Aukongak of Golovin, Alaska.

Elder Voices: Ora Gologergen

Ora Gologergen was born in Gambell in 1916. Hear tales of her childhood from stories she shared during her 2008 interview in Savoonga.

Elder Voices: Norbert Kakaruk

In 1938, Norbert Kakaruk was born in a sod house in Mary’s Igloo. His January 2008 interview details his life and experiences growing up in western Alaska without his eyesight.

Elder Voices: Irene Katchatag

On this week’s episode of Elder Voices, we visit with Unalakleet’s Irene Katchatag, through her interview with KNOM from April 2002.

Elder Voices: Steven Agloinga

Steven Agloinga was born in White Mountain in 1926. Steven shares his story in a rebroadcast of Elder Voices from a 2004 interview with KNOM. Join KNOM every Wednesday at 11am and again at 6pm, for a rebroadcast of the beloved series Elder Voices.

Elder Voices: Harriet Penayah, Part Three

This series features Yupik Elder Harriet Penayah. Listen to the previous episode here. Harriet Penayah stays active in her community. The 80 year-old elder teaches children native drumming and dance. She also recently opened up her home to her community’s youth. Savoonga has no teen center. After the “hang-out place” closed down, Harriet saw teens […]

Elder Voices: Harriet Penayah, Part Two

This series features Yupik elder Harriet Penayah. Listen to the first episode here. For most of her life, Harriet Penayah worked as a health aide in Savoonga. She tended to the wounded and sick within her community, stitching up cuts, transfusing blood, and even delivering twins. There were no doctors in Savoonga. No nurses. But Harriet says […]

Elder Voices: Harriet Penayah, Part One

This episode is the first of a three-part series featuring Yupik elder Harriet Penayah. When Harriet Penayah was growing up in Savoonga in the 1930s, the Alaska native village looked much the same as it does today. “No igloos,” she says, “no sod houses.” Just wooden-frame homes clustered above the black sandy beach. But, she says, […]

Elder Voices: Winton Weyapuk Jr.

At 62, Winton Weyapuk Jr. is a young elder. But he is a wealth of information about the Inupiaq language and marine mammal subsistence in his native village of Wales. Winton’s passion for preserving Inupiaq and the subsistence lifestyle started as a boy, learning how to navigate sea ice in an umiak skinboat with his father, and […]