When people first hear our story they often focus on the multi-generational male lineage that weaves the dynamic story of Wild Alaskan together. But since March is Women’s History Month, this week I invite us to honor the force of the feminine.
While it’s true that my husband Arron (our founder/CEO) as a young boy worked his full first fishing season on a commercial fishing boat with his father, it was with his mother — a multi-faceted dynamo in her own right — with whom the toddler Arron first ever caught a fish long before he was old enough to actually go out to sea with his dad.
Originally from Washington state where she volunteered for the Washington Mountain Rescue Association, Arron’s mom moved to Alaska in the seventies to climb Denali. And if ascending to the top of the highest mountain peak in North America wasn’t fascinating enough, over the years she also became: a mushroom forager/connoisseur, maverick clam digger, self-taught baker of exquisite homemade breads, expert pickler of wild salmon, and a world-class classical flutist who would not only lure moose to their window sill with the magical sounds she produced, but also taught herself how to speak Russian and Slovak, founded an international music festival in Alaska, and played to sold out audiences in some of the greatest music halls of Europe and Asia. In sum, you could say that my mother-in-law’s whole life has been one monumental mic drop.
Arron’s paternal grandma — after whom the family’s first commercial salmon fishing boat was named — was also no ordinary gal. She left the East Coast and hopped off a float plane in Alaska in 1938 to join her sweetheart, Arron’s grandfather, where she raised five kids in a native Yup'ik village that, to this day, you still cannot drive to — you have to take a boat or airplane! She was such a big proponent of education that she not only mended books, but also resurrected the local library when the family moved to Chugiak, Alaska in 1963. While they lived in the Alaskan bush, Grandpa Kallenberg would often travel via his dog sled team, with Grandma Kallenberg following the tracks on her snowshoes.
And that’s just Arron’s nuclear family. Women in general have played an integral role in the Alaskan fisheries for decades, much of which has been left out of recorded statistics. In fact, a recent study claims that when it comes to these fisheries, “women perform many other jobs that are vital to fishing success and step in where needed to adapt to changing fishing and family situations. This includes shoreside employment, working on family boats, direct marketing, and engaging in the political process.” According to Marysia Szymkowiak, the scientist who conducted the Alaska Fisheries Science Center study, “they're key in contributing to family adaptability and in turn to community resilience.”
Women are the anchor points of so many communities, and without them, we would not be able to do what we do as part of the Alaskan seafood industry. So, let’s take a moment — no, a lifetime! — to proudly polish their crowns.
Live wild!
Monica
Pictured above (clockwise from top left): Arron’s grandma perched on a treetop; Arron’s mom on one of her masterful ascents; mom picking around on some ice during one of her climbs; grandma happy as a clam on the back of a motorcycle.
