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Annie Kawagley

Annie Kawagley

Annie Kawagley was a Yup'ik elder from Akiak, Alaska. She grew up in Kwethluk, Alaska and as a young woman worked at the children's home there. She moved to Akiak in 1949 to marry Solomon Kawagley. In addition to caring for her family, she worked as a community health aide and helped her husband who worked in the Native store with his father. Annie was a gifted seamstress, skin sewer, and knitter.
Annie Kawagley appears in the following new Jukebox projects:
Interview Title Abstract Archive #: Oral History Project Date of Interview
Annie Kawagley, Mary Phillip, and Bertha Beaver

Annie Kawagley, Mary Phillip and Bertha Beaver are interviewed on November 18, 2004 by William Schneider, Karen Brewster, Louann Rank, and Shawna Williams along with 7th grade students Minnie Kashatok and Lott Egoak at the Akiak School Library in Akiak, Alaska. In this interview, Annie, Mary and Bertha talk about women's roles in Yup'ik life, the subsistence lifestyle at seasonal camps and preparing fish and other traditional foods, raising a family, following traditional values, and working jobs outside of the home. Specifically, Annie discusses her work at the orphanage in Kwethluk, Alaska and as a health aide in Akiak; Mary shares some of her health aide experiences, delivering babies, and the use of traditional medicine; and Bertha (who joined the interview late) talks about coming to Akiak, marriage, the hardships of raising a large family during times of food shortage and starvation, and traditional rules and knowledge. Annie Kawagley was most comfortable speaking Yup'ik, so she speaks in Yup'ik throughout most of the interview and Mary Phillip translates her comments into English.

 2004-07-20 Akiak Nov 18, 2004