At the edge of the world, AP reports on resilient, defiant Alaska Native islanders facing climate change
Boats used for seal hunting are moored on the lagoon side of Shishmaref, Alaska, an Inupiat village of about 600 people near the Bering Strait, just a few miles from the Arctic Circle, Oct. 1, 2022. Rising sea levels, flooding, increased erosion and loss of protective sea ice and land have led residents of this island community to vote twice to relocate. But more than six years after the last vote, Shishmaref remains in the same place because the relocation is too costly, the places chosen are not optimal, and perhaps most importantly, there are no places like Shishmaref.(AP Photo / Jae C. Hong)
By Luis Henao, Jessie Wardarski and Jae C. Hong
More than 600 Inupiat Natives live in the village of Shishmaref, just a few miles from the Arctic Circle, watching climate change slowly shrink their small Alaskan island home. In early October, reporter Luis Andres Henao and video journalist Jessie Wardarski, both of AP’s Religion team, and Los Angeles photographer Jae Hong, visited the village to document how the warming world inexorably threatens their way of life.
The project was part of an ongoing AP series exploring the lives of people around the world who may be displaced by rising seas, drought, searing temperatures or other effects of climate change.
Through advance,long-distance outreach,and tactful overtures after their arrival, the journalists earned the trust of residents and civic leaders who have sometimes been wary of visitors. The ultimate result: a moving tribute to the villagers’ resilience and community spirit. The visuals included hunters setting out in their boats at dawn,schoolchildren learning early words in their elders’ Inupiat language,a pastor bottle-feeding his infant child,and drone video dramatically depicting the island’s precarious setting.
Climate team photo editor Alyssa Goodman showcased Hong’s photos and Wardarski’s video, embedding the visuals with Henao’s text — edited by Religion team leaders David Crary and Holly Meyer — to produce a striking and engaging presentation. Henao also contributed text to a separate photo gallery highlighting Hong’s distinctive environmental portraits of islanders. And a must-see, Wardarski gave thousands of Instagram users a behind-the-scenes look at in-the-field journalism,shooting and editing a captivating Instagram reel, refined with feedback from the digital team’s Alex Connor and featuring Henao’s voice-over.
Rich Stasenko, 81, watches news of hurricane-ravaged Florida at home in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 5, 2022. The people of Shishmaref “are resourceful, they are resilient,” said Stasenko, who arrived to Shishmaref to teach at the local school in the mid-’70s and never left. “I don’t see victims here.” – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
The Rev. Anna Silco, a co-pastor of the Shishmaref Lutheran Church with her husband, Aaron, interacts with children while showing them mustard seeds during a Sunday service in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 2, 2022. The tight-knit, resilient community continues to maintain their traditions and celebrate birthdays, baptisms and graduations centered around their homes, the local school and one of the world’s northernmost Lutheran churches. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
The Rev. Aaron Silco, center, who is a co-pastor of the Shishmaref Lutheran Church with his wife, Anna, gives Communion to church members during a Sunday service in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 2, 2022. They live next to the church and cemetery with their 2-month-old son, Aidan. “There’s still life happening despite all of the weight and the burden that climate change can cast upon this community,” Silco says. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Janet Kiyutelluk, 57, wipes her tears while singing a hymn as her granddaughter, Lacey Barr, 3, watches during a Sunday service at the Shishmaref Lutheran Church in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 2, 2022. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
The Rev. Aaron Silco, center, who is a co-pastor of the Shishmaref Lutheran Church with his wife, Anna, left, feeds their 2-month-old son Aidan, while preparing for a Sunday service in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 2, 2022. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Seal hunting boats are visible in the distance as the Rev. Aaron Silco, co-pastor of the Shishmaref Lutheran Church with his wife, Anna, walks to the church to lead a Sunday service in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 2, 2022. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Ned Ahgupuk and girlfriend Kelsi Rock pose for a photo with their 1-year-old son Steve Rock-Ahgupuk while strolling along the Arctic Ocean in Shishmaref, Alaska, Sept. 30, 2022. “We’ve been here all our lives,” said Ahgupuk. He said climate change is a concern but he won’t leave the island. “Everyone is like a big family caring for each other.” – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Small waves crash into reinforced seawalls at Shishmaref, Alaska, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. Shishmaref sits on the small island of Sarichef — just a quarter mile wide and about 3 miles long. Only about half of it is habitable, but hundreds of feet of shore have been lost in past decades. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Patrick Iyatunguk, a 31-year-old seal hunter, builds a boat outside his home in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 5, 2022. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
The northern lights appear over Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 2, 2022. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Two hunters prepare their boat for seal hunting as the morning sun peeks through the clouds in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 3, 2022. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Wearing a seal fur hat made by his mother, Andrew Kakoona, 46, sits on an ATV with a hunting rifle secured on his chest as he and relatives get ready for seal hunting in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 4, 2022. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Seal hunter Wilbur Kuzuzuk drags a spotted seal, his only catch of the day, onto the edge of the lagoon in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 4, 2022. They might be at the edge of the world, but elsewhere they would be far from some of the prime spots for subsistence hunting, fishing and berry picking in the tundra that make up most of the local diet. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Mary Kakoona, 63, pauses for a photo while removing fat from seal skin in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 4, 2022. “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.” – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Students attend a bilingual class teaching Inupiaq at the Shishmaref School in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 3, 2022. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Dressed in a white cap and gown, Carmen Turner, 17, a senior at the Shishmaref School, sits for a graduation photo in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 3, 2022. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Children play in Shishmaref, Alaska, Sept. 30, 2022. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Shishmaref School cross country team members, from left, Madalynn Snell, 12, Elmer Elliott, 9, and Kenneth Itchoak, 11, train under coach Amy Eningowuk, who also teaches second grade at the school in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 3, 2022. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Sadie McGill, right, and her husband Tracy hold their puppies as they pose for a photo beside the home where Sadie was born and raised in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 3, 2022. She built her life elsewhere after leaving the village decades ago, but came back recently to take care of her aging mother. “Yes, I missed it,” said Sadie. “People here are really nice. They are really helpful.” – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Bering Air agent Denis Sinnok shuts the door of a Cessna plane at the air strip in Shishmaref, Alaska, after unloading dozens of boxes of frozen waffles and other goods, Oct. 6, 2022. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Molly Snell, center, says grace with her partner, Tyler Weyiouanna, foreground left, and Weyiouanna’s grandfather Clifford as they gather around a dinner table to celebrate Tyler’s 31st birthday in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 1, 2022. “For someone to say that climate change is not real kind of hurts a little bit because we’re seeing it firsthand in Shishmaref,” Snell said. “People who say that it’s not real, they don’t know how we live and what we deal with every day.” – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
With framed family photos hanging on the wall, 80-year-old Clifford Weyiouanna, a respected village elder and former reindeer herder, rests on a sofa in his home in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 1, 2022. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
John Kokeok, 46, hangs a framed photo of his brother Norman back on the wall after an interview with the AP in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 3, 2022. Norman died in 2007 after his snowmobile fell through ice that melted earlier than usual. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Dressed in an Inuit-style parka, Annsoph Nayokpuk, 6, stands for a photo in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 5, 2022. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Alfred Ningeulook, 61, hugs his granddaughter, Glenna, 6, in his home in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 2, 2022. –
The package — the first major look at how Shishmaref is determined to stay put as long as possible since villagers voted some six years ago to relocate — was given prominent online display by major news outlets in the U.S. and abroad,including Spanish and French translations. It also earned play close to home,landing on the front pages of Alaska’s top newspapers,and among the most-read pieces on the websites of the Anchorage Daily News and others.
For this first major collaboration between AP’s Religion and Climate teams — an all-formats project vividly evoking the tenacity of a Native village threatened by climate change — the team of Henao, Wardarski and Hong is AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.
AP reporter Luis Henao, left, and video journalist Jessie Wardarski interview a resident in Shishmaref, Alaska, Oct. 1, 2022. – AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Visit AP.org to request a trial subscription to AP’s video,photo and text services.
