Joaqlin Estus
ICT

This time of year in Alaska, a lot of Native people are taking all the time they can afford — sometimes several weeks — to camp out and harvest food at fish camp. They’ll smoke, dry or jar salmon, pick berries and gather greens. The gathering, preservation, and sharing of food from nature is needed for families to get through the winter.

Put that reality together with the summer blockbuster film “Barbie,” and “Fish Camp Barbie” came to mind for Angela Łot’oydaatlno Gonzalez, Koyukon Athabascan, and her 20-year-old daughter Ermelina K’ete ts’aayedaalno Gonzalez.

Credit: Angela Łot'oydaatlno Gonzalez (at left) and daughter Ermelina K’ete ts’aayedaalno Gonzalez, Koyukon Athabascan, of Anchorage, worked together to create "Fish Camp Barbie." (Photo by Angela Łot'oydaatlno Gonzalez).

Ermelina made Barbie’s headband of smoked moosehide, her necklace, and cuffs, and sewed a pink quspuk, “a summer parka. Something you could wear for berry picking, and going out, staying protected from mosquitoes and all the gnats and bugs,” Ermelina said. Among other items, the set also includes a tent, table, cot, and a barrette beaded with the words “Fish Camp Barbie.”

Credit: Fish Camp Barbie wears a headband of beaded moosehide made by Ermelina K’ete ts’aayedaalno Gonzalez, Koyukon Athabascan, of Anchorage, (Photo by Angela Łot'oydaatlno Gonzalez)

Ermelina said she grew up playing with a bunch of Barbies, Bratz, and Monster High toys. Also, “I really enjoyed watching all of the Barbie movies growing up and it’s always been like a big part of my life playing with Barbie dolls. Most of my Barbies growing up were mostly just blonde haired dolls…I do know that they are more inclusive now,” Ermelina said.

Over the years, numerous editions of Native American Barbies have been issued including Navajo, Northwest Coast, Hula and “Eskimo” (preferred terms now are Inupiaq, Yup’ik, Inuit, or Siberian Yupik) Barbies. Fish Camp Barbie was made using a Disney Pocahantas Barbie doll. Toymaker Mattel says it is honoring various ethnic and racial groups with such dolls but critics call it commercialized cultural appropriation.

Ermelina’s mother Angela remembers going to fish camp as a child near her home village of Huslia in Interior Alaska. Kids used twigs and willow branches to make toy fish racks. “The leaves were made into fish,” Angela wrote in her blog, Athabascan Woman.

Angela said making Fish Camp Barbie follows in her family’s tradition. “My mom and late Grandmother Lydia were very creative and knew what would keep us entertained (and probably out of their hair while they were working). In camp, you learn to adapt, and also have to use your imagination to solve problems and to play,” Angela said.

Related:
— Slow, late salmon run hurting fishers
— ‘Operation Fish Drop’

Credit: Shown here: a replica of a tent frame and cot, made by Angela and Sarbelio Gonzalez. At fish camps, tent frames are often left standing bare when not in use, ready for a cover to be added to house the family for weeks at a time. July 27, 2023 (Photo by Angela Łot'oydaatlno Gonzalez).

Angela told ICT that making handicrafts continued throughout the year. “My late grandma used to create accessories and little items for our dolls. She used to make grass dolls and she would make parkas, boots, all the regalia for the dolls. So when we were playing with Barbies as children, she would create little things like the little ulu (curved knife), or the tłaabaas, that’s the Denaakk’e name or Koyukon Athabascan name for it,” Angela said. Those were made out of the sides of the spout on salt containers. “We used to be excited when we finished a package of salt, so our Barbies would get new ones,” Angela said.

Credit: Fish Camp Barbie stands at a table with a tłaabaas, or curved knife in her left hand, ready to cut up a salmon made of fish skin and beads. In her blog, "Athabascan Woman," Angela said, "Our late Grandma Lydia created the little tłaabaas out of the sides of the metal part of salt containers." July 27, 2023 (photo by Angela Łot'oydaatlno Gonzalez)

“I think one of the things that I want to portray when creating it (Fish Camp Barbie), is just our ways of life are so unique. I want people, especially young people, to see themselves represented in something like this. It was a lot of fun creating this Barbie doll with a tent and a cot, and it just brought back memories for me from fish camp. So that’s something I really loved about it,” Angela said.

The Gonzalez’s donated the Barbie set to a fundraiser where it was sold at auction for $400.

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