“Occupy The Tundra,” Post-Fame
The shot seen around the world.
A few months ago, Diane McEachern’s “Occupy the Tundra” photo went viral and received national coverage from the LA Times to Salon. A resident of Bethel, Alaska, McEachern was in Anchorage on a recent visit and sat down with The Mudflats at a downtown watering hole.
What is your assessment of the Occupy movement since you and your sign went viral?
It kind of put the vocabulary into the public domain. Politicians are now referring to the 1 percent and 99 percent.
What is it you do in Bethel, Alaska?
I’m a University of Alaska professor in rural human services and social work. I feel I’m part of the Occupy movement every time I walk into the classroom and teach from a social justice and liberation perspective.
How else do you feel your region is connected to the wider progressive movement?
Donlin Gold and Pebble Mine are the Goldman Sachs of the environment. I live in a region that is a vast and spectacular landscape. I have a ringside seat to the incursion by wealthy, well connected corporate power onto this landscape. For thousands of years indigenous people have thrived in very particular and ingenious ways in this place, without giant open pit mines.
What do you think readers in a more urban places should know about Bethel?
The only stories you hear about rural Alaska are the negative ones. People in the villages actually read the commentary under stories in the Anchorage Daily News, and know what many white folks think of them. Which is disheartening. They know how you feel.
Give our readers a peek at a random workday for you.
When I went to a home in the village and sat with a mother at a kitchen table, I would ask “tell me a story of your child as a baby.” And these beautiful, culturally rich stories would come out. That helped me learn to see indigenous people in a whole new way—not just in terms of the headlines one might read in Anchorage.
Looking forward, what do you see as the biggest priorities for your region? What are your most fervent hopes?
I would like dominant institutions to do more soul searching rather than point the finger at indigenous communities in rural Alaska.
McEachern in sunny Bethel, Alaska
“They know how you feel.”
We, know how you feel.
I, know how you feel.
“They know how you feel.”
We, know how you feel.
I, know how you feel….
Sil in Corea: Thank you for your kindness and the work you do. I agree with you. To add a bit of context, I was speaking about my work as an itinerant school social worker and traveling to various Yup’ik villages in western Alaska. Often the only time the school communicated with a family was to report infractions or warnings about truancy (and its still the case). I left that well worn path and wanted a different relationship with the children and their families. And it changed me and my perceptions of education as well as my profession of social work. P.S. I lived for four years in the Philippines as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Amazing country.
Diane, thank you! The University should be an incubator or critical thinking, but we have seen the influence of Big Oil’s tax-deductible ‘generosity’ on free speech (Rick Steiner, http://tinyurl.com/yklbp64). “Teach our children well…”
I loved the photo when it first went viral; I love it even more now, having had this glimpse into your heart, Diane. Thank you for the work that you do, for being an ally, standing with people and honoring stories. Powerful stuff, and this former social worker salutes you. (I worked with street kids in Seattle, who also knew all too well how the general public felt about them.)
AKM, thanks so much for sharing this interview.
Thank you, Diane, for your selflessness and honesty. Your life is an inspiration.
Kudos to Diane McEachem.
Thank you Diane for standin up for people and not corporations. Indiginious peoples have many lessons they can teach us and to marginalize, or for that matter take their livelyhood and wipe them from the planet is a grave mistake for the human race as a whole.
I believe firmly what Sil stated: All people have he same emotions, desires and hopes and everyone needs to realize that. We really are one species.
We are fortunate to have people like Diane getting these messages out to the public. Keep up the good work, Diane!
Thanks for the follow up on this story!
Bless your heart, Diane! We all want the best for our kids, the whole world over. I teach in South Korea right now, and, wherever else I’ve gone, from Ireland to the Philippines, the basic human motivations are the same. People who can’t see that are blind. I am constantly amazed by the vitriol published in “comments” sections of newspapers. The writers are a dreadful pack of hyenas who have no hearts, and fall for propaganda.
Sil in Corea: Thank you for your kindness and the work you do. I agree with you. To add a bit of context, I was speaking about my work as an itinerant school social worker and traveling to various Yup’ik villages in western Alaska. Often the only time the school communicated with a family was to report infractions or warnings about truancy (and its still the case). I left that well worn path and wanted a different relationship with the children and their families. And it changed me and my perceptions of education as well as my profession of social work. P.S. I lived for four years in the Philippines as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Amazing country.