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As Heard on Morning Line: Women and Subsistence

Koahnic Broadcast Corporation

Today on Morning Line, Frank and Danny visited with Karen Evanoff and Rachel Mason about an event this evening at the Mountain View Library, which focuses on Indigenous Women and Subsistence.  

The two women will be the speakers - Karen has an insider's viewpoint, and Rachel has more of a researcher's viewpoint in this case. 

Details, from a press release are below:

AUG 31

Integrating Voices: Women and Subsistence

Hosted by Tundra Vision: Public History Consultants

"Mountain View Neighborhood Library Women and men of all ages contribute to subsistence harvest, processing, and distribution in Alaska. As in other hunting and gathering societies, men often do most of 

Credit Facebook
A Facebook event post shows Karen Evanoff at fish camp, practicing her subsistence tradition.

the hunting, and women most of the gathering, but men and women also do many tasks together. In some Alaska Native communities, women’s and men’s roles in subsistence are sharply divided, while in others the division of labor is more flexible. Research on subsistence has tended to emphasize levels of harvest, thus highlighting the men’s work but not the women’s work of processing and distributing subsistence foods. Subsistence research has progressed from relying only on harvest surveys to adding studies of social networks of sharing food and labor. We suggest that since subsistence harvests involve the wider community beyond the harvesting household, subsistence research must also integrate broader networks in order to accurately capture subsistence practices.

August is the perfect time to talk about the Fish! Please consider joining us at the Mountain View Library's Community Room to share subsistence stories from two women who engage in and research such significant seasonal activities.

Speakers: Karen Evanoff is Dena’ina Athabascan from Nondalton, which is located between Lake Clark and Lake Iliamna. Karen has a degree in Anthropology and currently works for Lake Clark National Park as the Cultural Anthropologist. Karen believes that Alaska Native people taking ownership of their ancestral knowledge, where it goes and how it is used strengthens the people and paves the way for future generations and also paves the way for researchers, including western scientists, to learn from each other, in return providing a balanced knowledge system.

Rachel Mason is the Senior Cultural Anthropologist for the National Park Service, Alaska Region. She has worked for many years in rural and Alaska Native communities, including conducting research and providing technical assistance to both the state and federal subsistence management programs."

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