Nome museum documents pandemic with oral history project
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every aspect of life in the region, and every institution is grappling with its role in this historic event. For Amy Phillips-Chan, director of the Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum in Nome, that meant figuring out how to record this moment for future generations.
She started thinking about the museum’s role as soon as Nome started discussing lockdowns in early March 2020. She recalled a tense, emotional meeting in City Hall that many pegged as the moment they realized how serious the pandemic would be.
“It brought up a lot of painful recollections of the 1918 influenza, which even if it wasn’t in personal memory, it’s held collectively by the community. They remember stories that their parents and grandparents have told them about it,” Phillips Chan said. “And I think one of the things about the 1918 influenza is that there aren’t a lot of personal narratives or individual stories that were recorded, particularly from the perspective of Alaska Native community members whom it had the largest negative impact on.”
Summer at the museum was spent in limbo, as Phillips-Chan was simultaneously helping the city write public service announcements and trying to figure out when the museum could open again.
By September, when it became clear that lockdowns were going to last a long time, she turned to think about how the museum could preserve the living history of the pandemic and avoid the blind spots that are so conspicuous looking back on 1918.
Over the course of the fall, she ran the museum’s first oral history program. A wide cross section of community members sat down for hour-long interviews to say whatever they wanted to say about the pandemic.
“We partnered with our community members and offered them a voice to share their own personal experiences and thoughts on it, without any limitations on what they wanted to share,” she said.
While participants were asked some guiding questions, the main goal was to gather as many different thoughts and perspectives as possible so that future generations of Nomeites would have a complete picture of how the pandemic affected the community.
“We worked with community members themselves to tell the history of their community together, rather than from one authoritative voice,” Phillips-Chan said.
After the interviews, interviewees were given the chance to review edited transcripts and offer supplemental photos. She said she wanted to “make sure that community members feel that whatever is being put out there, it’s their words, their thoughts. That’s a really big part of making it a collaborative project, which is super important.”
The experiences shared in the oral histories echoed some of Phillips Chan’s own. Many participants thought back to early March and how quickly the world seemed to turn upside down.
“I’ll never forget,” said participant Tiffany Martinson. “It was my daughter Ellie’s senior year and we were in Anchorage for the regional basketball tournament. She was of course excited. But then things changed in an instant. Anchorage started shutting down and of course we were out of town. I was starting to feel this need to get home.”
“We’d all heard about the coronavirus but didn’t quite understand what the effects were going to be,” said Kristine McRae, another participant. “The City Council held a meeting, and I remember halfway through thinking: ‘I’m sitting behind these two guys who are just coughing, and there’s no escape.’”
Anxiety was high when the pandemic first hit, as people sheltered in place and the severity of the virus was still unclear.
“I thought everything was going to end,” said Ethan Ahkvaluk. “Everything’s going to shut down. We’re going to have food shortages. Everyone’s going to be staying home and no one’s going to be able to go out.”
Carol Seppilu said “I think we all thought it was going to hit us immediately. We were going to see like a hundred to a thousand cases right then and there. I was expecting the hospital to be overloaded with patients being sick and dying, and I had thought that I would have to work on the hospital side. I was worried about it, but that didn’t happen. We actually didn’t see our first case for a while.”
As the summer went on, case numbers ticked upwards, but the lifethreatening crisis that struck more urban areas never came to Nome. Many people found ways to live with the COVID related restrictions and were particularly thankful to be in a place with such close personal connections and outdoor opportunities.
“Around the summertime, I actually got a little bit more used to it,” said Ava Earthman, who had just graduated high school. “I was allowed to hang out with friends, with social distancing and masks and gloves, and it got to be almost normal because Nome hadn’t been hit too hard by then, and because it was somewhere we could spend a lot more time outside.”
“We are fortunate in Alaska and in rural places like Nome because we are able to jump in our cars and be at our cabin or be on the beach,” said Josephine Bourdon. “Alaska Natives in particular are used to being out on the land. We’re already self-social distancing because we are never close to one another when we hunt or fish.”
Still though, many participants expressed frustration and anxiety towards the ever-present virus that showed no signs of dissipating. Then in mid-November, right as the first round of oral history interviews was wrapping up, Nome saw its first major outbreak.
“And I think that really changed local community members’ perspective on the pandemic and their experiences. It became something at home, something with a daily presence, and there was a re-heightening awareness of safety and precautions and what people should or should not be doing,” Phillips-Chan said.
After the first round of interviews was finished, she commissioned a second round of 10 interviews during the winter and spring with new participants. “Some community members have had the virus, so they have some unique insights,” she said. “And there are some community members whose children were at home due to the pandemic.”
That second round is almost finished by now, but there are still a few slots left to be filled. Phillips-Chan hopes to combine the oral histories with a COVID-19 art initiative she’s been sponsoring, asking local artists in Nome and the wider region to submit pieces to the museum inspired by the pandemic.
While the future remains uncertain, she said she hopes the museum can reopen to the public this fall, and by this winter she hopes to have an in-person special exhibition on the pandemic, featuring local COVID inspired art as well as text and audio from the oral history interviews.
She also hopes to compile the art and interviews into a short book, which can feature longer interview excerpts than an in-person exhibit. All the recordings and written transcripts will also be available in the museum archives and accessible to the public for future generations.
Although the second round of interviews is almost finished, Phillips Chan encouraged any community member interested in sharing their perspective to contact her via email at achan@nomealaska.org or over the phone at 907-443-6631.