My daughter, Ermelina, and I had a blast making a new Fish Camp Barbie. She created the betsegh hoolaanee (qaspeq), necklace, cuffs and headband. I made the tent, cot, barrette, fish (with real fish skin), and tłaabaas (the way my late grandma taught me). My husband helped with the tent construction.
We donated it to the Alaska Native Heritage Center Garden Party fundraiser.
It’s actually a Disney Pocahontas doll. We were on a tight timeline, and wanted to get a doll with brown skin. That’s the one we found. One of my goals as I share my art, photography, and writing is to make space for sharing Athabascan and Alaska Native culture, people, ways of life and language to be represented in the mainstream. While I know there’s a lot of problematic things with Barbie, creating this is a way to reach a mainstream audience and for Alaska Native people see themselves represented.
I’m so glad we are able to give some representation to our ways of life in Alaska. This is how I grew up – being creative with what we had and making it our own. It was fun to collaborate with my family, and I’m looking forward to the next one! I love seeing creations and designs from other Alaska Native people – some with full on hide dresses and parkas.
Links:
- CBC – Meet the Alaska Native mom and daughter behind fish camp Barbie: https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/fish-camp-barbie-angela-gonzalez-1.6977725
- Chatter Marks Podcast – Life lessons from Fish camp with Angela Gonzalez: https://chattermarks.podbean.com/e/ep-81-life-lessons-from-fish-camp-with-angela-gonzalez/
- Alaska’s News Source – Telling Indigenous stories with pop cultural icon: https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2023/10/21/fish-camp-barbie-indigenizing-pop-culture-icon/ and https://youtu.be/9Fiz75f1ZM0?si=yHCUDnWrkxQStpmN
- Athabascan Woman Blog – Previous Fish Camp Barbie post: https://athabascanwoman.com/?p=962
- Indian Country Today – Barbie goes to fish camp: https://ictnews.org/news/barbie-goes-to-fish-camp
- Anchorage Daily News – Come on, Barbie, let’s go to fish camp: https://www.adn.com/alaska-life/2023/08/04/come-on-barbie-lets-go-to-fish-camp/
- Alaska Public Media – Come on, Barbie, let’s go to fish camp Viral ‘Fish Camp Barbie’ celebrates Alaska Native heritage: https://alaskapublic.org/2023/08/11/viral-fish-camp-barbie-celebrates-alaska-native-heritage/
- KNOM Radio – Viral ‘Fish Camp Barbie’ celebrates Alaska Native heritage: https://knom.org/2023/08/10/viral-fish-camp-barbie-celebrates-alaska-native-heritage/
- PRSA Strategies & Tactics – Mattel Missteps with Cherokee Barbie: https://www.prsa.org/article/mattel-missteps-with-cherokee-barbie