Alaska Insight is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by viewers just like you.

Thank you.

The story of Saint Lawrence Island whaler Chris Apossingok first harvest was celebrated by his community as a rite of passage for a young hunter and for the food it provided to gamble residents.

It's a way to share the catch.

You make me feel very proud to be a striking hunter.

But the local celebration was met with a vicious backlash from anti-whaling activists across the world.

We'll discuss how the family responded to the vitriol and moved forward.

Right now on Alaska, INSIGHT.

Good evening.

Alaska Native communities along the northern Arctic coast have harvested bowhead whales as a protein mainstay for thousands of years.

The Indigenous harvest is managed for sustainability and feeds entire communities in regions where grocery prices are, by urban standards, astronomical.

Beyond the physical sustenance and food security, whaling is deeply embedded in the culture.

Arctic whaling communities celebrate the harvest and honor the whale that provided for them.

But we'll hear tonight of a young whaler from Gamble on St Lawrence Island, whose community celebration and pride in the harvest ran headlong into online vitriol.

Anti-whaling activists from all over the world sent vicious, threatening messages denouncing the Hunter and the hunt.

We'll learn how the family and community coped with the backlash.

Their experience was captured in a documentary called One with the Whale.

But before we get to that discussion, here are some of the top stories of the week from Alaska Public Media's collaborative statewide news Net A 12 year old boy is the last person who remains missing in the fatal landslide near Wrangell after Alaska state troopers say volunteers found a man's body Thursday, bringing the disaster's official death toll to five.

Troopers announced Friday that 65 year old Otto Florschutzs body was recovered Thursday afternoon by Wrangell search and rescue volunteers.

He was the husband of Christina Florschutzs, a local teacher's aide and the sole survivor of the landslide.

Two Mat-Su High school students are suing the Matanuska-Susitna borough school district, saying the district violated their civil rights after they and other students spoke out against recent district and school board decisions.

The Northern Justice Project, a civil rights law firm, is representing career Tech High School senior Ben Kolendo and Wasilla High School senior Quinlen Shackle in the suit, which alleges that students constitutional rights to free speech and assembly were violated when the school board allegedly directed school administrators to question students about their testimony.

Opposing school board policy changes in September.

This is the second lawsuit in two weeks filed against the district claiming violation of First Amendment rights.

The Northern Justice Project is representing the plaintiffs in both suits.

Mat-su School district spokeswoman Jillian Morrissey said Thursday the district had not yet been served with the lawsuit and declined to comment.

Russian Orthodox missionary and scholar Archpriest Michael James Oleksa has died at the age of 76 in Anchorage following a stroke.

His death was confirmed by the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Sitka and Alaska on Wednesday.

Oleksa served as a priest in more than a dozen Alaska native villages across the state over his more than 50 years in Alaska.

Most recently, Alexa played a key role in the process of nominating Olga Michael of Queens Look to become the first female Orthodox saint in North America, as well as the first ever.

Yupik saint.

Oleksa is survived by his wife and children.

You can find the full version of these and many more stories on our Web site, Alaska Public dot org, or by downloading the Alaska Public Media app on your phone.

Now on to our discussion for this evening.

A documentary called One with the Whale follows Chris Apassingok and his family as the St Lawrence Island community of Gamble grappled with the online backlash after Chris, the youngest whaler in local memory, harvested his first whale.

We'll watch an excerpt from the documentary and then talk with Chris, his father, and one of the documentary filmmakers.

a striker on his dad's boat.

They got the whale in and it was all over Facebook.

Immediately.

Iger is the youngest person to get a whale, and everyone was really excited.

Adulthood is very different in our culture, whereas in the Western culture you are considered to be an adult at the age of 18 and now you pick away.

It's when you become a provider, taking care of your people, living with wisdom, fixing things, making things.

You don't become an adult by age.

It's the way you live your life.

The moment Chris harvested his bowhead whale, he became a man.

He became one with the whale.

Its the Yupik way to share the catch make me feel very proud to be a striker and a hunter.

It was a huge deal.

A news agency in Anchorage posted an article about him.

Then all of a sudden, controversy just blew up.

The family of a 16 year old from Gamble says he's been sent hundreds of hate messages from followers of a well known environmentalist.

Paul Watson.

I'm not sure I want to read this out loud.

Watson uses words I would not use in public Joining me tonight to discuss how Chris and his family's story is being told is Chris's father, Daniel Apassingok as well as one of the film's co-directors, Jim Wickens.

Thanks so much for being here, both of you.

Thank you.

Great to have you in the studio.

Thank you.

So, Jim, just to start with you, the documentary gives us a really unflinching look at the family as they go through a lot of struggle, but also a lot of triumph.

What first drew you to this story?

The story began for me and Pete, the co-director, a thousand miles offshore in the Pacific Ocean.

We were shooting a show for Animal Planet looking at wildlife crime in the Pacific Ocean.

And we were on the hunt for shark fin as people cutting the fins of sharks.

And we were on patrol with a police boat and we found the people cutting the fins off the sharks.

But rather than the kind of criminals we've been led to believe, they were, they were fathers and sons risking their lives miles from home to try and survive.

And as they were being led away in handcuffs, we were saying, go, you know, what are you doing here?

And they said, look, we have no fish left.

We need to do this to survive.

And we spoke with the producers back in L.A. and in New York, and we said, this is crazy.

You know, the story needs to go on.

These are not the bad guys.

Right?

And we were told no, this is a black and white issue.

You you're the good guys.

These are the bad guys.

And that was it.

And they had no consideration for the culture or indigenous life was 100%.

And Pete and I realized in that moment and I've been an environmental investigator for, well over a decade.

Right.

And in that one moment, it was like a switch flipped.

And I realized that I was participating and basically creating a false narrative, a false truce over what's really going on far and away on the kind of edge of environmental discussions.

And Pete and I were very upset about this, and we spent many weeks afterwards thinking, what can we do?

What story can we find to help shine a mirror to light up this kind of the false narratives that are being created?

I mean, these kind of racist polarizations around wildlife issues and hunting.

And then we came across the story of Ira, of Chris, Apassingok, Daniel Sun.

And it was just so compelling and so powerful that we felt we we felt the need to reach out.

And that's how we got in contact.

Well, Daniel, I'm so happy to have you here.

It would have been great to have Chris, but I know that he's a quite quiet young man, so it's great to have you in the studio with us.

What was your first thought when filmmakers approached you about this documentary idea?

Well, my first thought was, you know, I didn't really know what the intentions were in the first place.

And it was a little interesting to see what would unfold from all this.

And, you know, I had to talk with my family first, about to see if we can do this or not.

And, you know, here we are today.

Yeah.

And how much did you discuss what would be presented in the documentary?

Because, as I said, it's pretty unflinching.

It really looks at all that you went through the struggles and the triumphs.

How did you talk about such a delicate story and agree to what would be shown and what it was?

You know, there were things that we had to go through.

You know, between the family and we had to discuss what their approach was and what their intentions were.

And, you know, it was a little nerve wracking.

And but, you know, it's something that we needed to show.

And, you know, my son, my wife and I, you know, my family, you know, it was hurt.

So he needs to be shown up there and to be heard.

I mean, I'm so amazed when I think about all that you went through as a family and then to have strangers approach and say, we want to do a story about this.

I talk about when that the happiness and pride of Chris harpooning a whale at 16, the youngest person to do so.

How that turned to shock at the reaction from outsiders.

Had you ever seen anything similar to this in the past?

You know, there have been a few that have done this before us, but I don't think it was in this magnitude.

And with social media and that's where we are today.

And so it can be both good and bad can be both good and bad.

Chris We see Chris go through some understandable emotional pain after the vitriol that was aimed at your family after he successfully hunted.

He in the documentary sort of shuts down to his family, his girlfriend, the experiments with marijuana.

The anxiety is really palpable.

And then you're out in the boat and he harpoons the walrus.

And it seemed like that was a turning point.

Can you talk about that, both of you?

It seemed like that was the first time I saw him smile in quite a while.

Up to that point, he did not look at all happy.

And that seemed like maybe there was a turning point for him.

That.

Is that what happened?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, he was upset for a while.

No, You know, even as of today, he still feels as though.

But, you know, like my father always told us is that, you know, you've got to keep striving and keep moving forward and accepting things to what they are and being with nothing, stopping.

Chris is one of those.

When we were when we first met Chris and Daniel and we were going out hunting.

It's nerve wracking going out boating as as these guys call it.

Yes.

I mean, felt that watching you're on a tiny boat, you're in freezing waters with a lot of ice or not ice.

The first time around because because of climate change and no ice at all, no game.

We were going 40, 50, 60 miles offshore, no protection.

I mean, the risk levels are off the charts.

And for Daniel and Chris and his community, this is every single day.

This is the norm.

Risking their lives to put food on the plate to the community.

And it's incredible for myself as an outsider.

It was terrifying.

And yet what we see with Chris and Pete and I would laugh about this my partner, Pete, is that Chris is most at peace when he's out hunting.

That's his calm space.

Wouldn't you say, Daniel?

Yes.

You know, so when Chris is at home and, you know, he he would be kind of uncomfortable and kind of kind of be eager to go out and, you know, with all the little things that happen at home and, you know, that it's kind of nerve wracking being at home more than being out in the boat.

He's more comfortable out there, out in the boat now hunting.

And, you know, keep him at peace out there.

He can transform from being at home and being out in the boat.

Yeah, I think he's more comfortable hunting and he's certainly up to the challenge of all that is presented in that environment.

The premiere of this documentary happened the night before the start of the annual Offend Convention, and the reaction was amazing, very emotional, supportive.

One man stood up and sing a song to honor your family.

Many thank you for highlighting the importance of subsistence after the death threats and horrible comments that flooded in on social media.

Did the reception at AFN sort of help heal some of that pain?

Yes, definitely did.

You know, with a lot of support all over Alaska and not just within the family.

You know, it was coming from a lot of people here in Alaska.

You know, it showed a support and a it's heartwarming to see that.

So turning back to you, Jim, the the the passing of family is in some ways reflective of many people's lives, struggling with financial constraints, emotional turmoil, trying to cope at times through substance use.

But they also represent a connection to a place and culture that most Americans know little or nothing about.

How did you think about chronicling this dual existence?

Yes, I mean, that's that's the heart and soul of the film, you know?

Absolutely right.

This duality between tradition and modernity.

And so many of us have teenage children today living on phones, on devices, and they're struggling to make sense of the world in this hyper real world of tablets and phones and instant stimulation on tablets and phones.

So imagine that your Chris or other kids living in remote areas of Alaska with ancient traditional practices of subsistence hunting was balancing that with Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook and all those pressures.

And it's I don't know, it's I remember the first time we went out hunting.

We were 50 miles offshore and Daniel stops and turns to us and he says, Jim, welcome to Tomorrow.

I said, What do you mean?

And he goes, We've crossed the dateline.

And I say, What?

So we've traveled into into tomorrow to bring food to yesterday using ancient practices.

I mean, the mind boggles.

But that sums up the story.

And for us, what was so powerful in having the privilege to spend time with Daniel and Chris and Chase and the family is how you see almost an elastic band being stretched almost to breaking point with modernity and tradition in two worlds.

And yet, as you see in the film, despite all those pressures, the strength of the culture and the love of the family rising up above that to succeed and to to to build the next generation of hunters and to preserve and strengthen that culture.

And we tried so hard to stay true to that.

And it was an honor and privilege to watch that unfold.

Spending time with them.

Daniel, the anti-whaling activist Paul Watson really built the outrage fire against the hunt.

He also went after the McArthur people in Washington State in the nineties when they got their whaling rights back.

What would you want him to understand about these rights?

To live as your people always have?

You know, all the people in the world, you know, they they have to do something to survive in their own region.

And, you know, for somebody like Paul Watson and his followers, you know, even even they they they may have their world.

You know, it's something that I don't know how to put into words, but there needs to be an understanding of everything first before anything happens with anything at all.

Basically, you know, and, you know, this is our livelihood and everybody everybody in the world has their own something to follow.

And all we were doing were was that we were just following the footsteps that our ancestors gave us.

After all that your family has been through in this regard.

The joy of his success, then, this horrific attack, then a documentary that really shows the whole story and the triumphs that your family, your very strong family has achieved.

How are you feeling about all of it now?

No, right now.

I'm hoping that everybody learns from this.

And not just our family, not just the village and not just Alaska.

You know, it's getting to a point where basically the world now, you know, I hope everybody learns from it.

And doesn't just happen overnight.

Yeah, it takes a long time to change hearts and minds, as we know.

Jim, what do you want people to take away from the film and how do you hope that it ripples out from here?

Well, you know, it feels today more than ever.

Every single issue is black or white, this or that.

There's no space for the kind of the kind of shades of gray, the complicated realities that make us human.

And it feels like in this fury that these raging debates that we see destroying so much of the world that no one has had time to just listen and and and the patience and the respect to listen to points of view that we might feel uncomfortable with and potentially change our point of view about things.

When we made the film.

The film is like it's like an invitation to a conversation, an invitation to begin to understand another world and to understand respect and the enormous sacred traditions of indigenous lifeways and the incredible connections and wisdom that people like Daniel and Chris and his community have in Alaska for the marine environment and the understanding of the ecology and the ecosystem.

We need to listen to that.

And it's high time that conservationists around the world who are busy attacking people like Chris online take a moment to listen, understand and begin to respect and support environmental defenders like Daniel, who are protecting our environment.

Follow up there, Daniel.

Well, you know, I hope everybody learns from all this.

And, you know, it's hard to explain for me and my my point of view.

And it's just something that we have been doing for generations.

And the impact, of course, is, you know, it's I hope it goes beyond.

Has the harassment stopped or has that ended?

Not really.

But there's you know, it's not as big as it was before.

But, you know, there's a few people out there that still comment a little bit here and there.

And, you know, it's normal, I guess we got the brunt of it with Paul Watson and, you know, doesn't really stop.

But, you know, it kind of dwindled down a little bit.

A lot more.

Well, thank you so much, both of you, for being here.

This time goes by too fast, but I really appreciate your time this evening.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The right to live using the same traditions and cultural food gathering practices that your ancestors did is at risk for many indigenous families.

Climate change.

And at times the emotional reaction from strangers can create disruption and anxiety and can influence policy that can further restrict long standing methods that enable people to stay in their homelands.

And staying in those communities isn't easy.

It's hard work, but it helps maintain strong connections to culture, language and innovative ways to adapt and thrive into the future.

As climate change advances, the lessons from these longstanding ways of surviving could help provide ideas for all of us to better prepare for the future.

That's it for this edition of Alaska INSIGHT.

Visit our website, Alaska Public dot org for breaking news and reports from our partner stations across the state.

While you're there, sign up for our free daily Digest so you won't miss any of Alaska's top stories of the day.

Thanks for joining us this evening.

I'm Lori Townsend.

Good night.