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Transcript/ScriptCONNECT Seaweed Community
HEADLINE: Thriving Sustainable Alaska Community
TEASER: From city life to seaweed harvesting in Alaska
PUBLISHED AT: 01/22/2024
BYLINE: Gabrielle Weiss
DATELINE: Kasilof, Alaska
VIDEOGRAPHER: Gabrielle Weiss
PRODUCER: Gabrielle Weiss, Zdenko Novacki
COURTESIES:
SCRIPT EDITORS: AK, MJ
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO __
TRT: 3:00
VID APPROVED BY: AK, MJ
TYPE: VPKGF
EDITOR NOTES: ))
((Eds: This is a self-narrated feature.))
((INTRO))
[[Welcome to Ionia, a community located in Kasilof, Alaska, where residents strive to live sustainably and cooperatively. VOA's Gabrielle Weiss accompanies community members on their journey to harvest a year's supply of seaweed, a vital component of their diet, highlighting the unity and purpose that binds the community together.]]
((NATS))
We’re going to go to Homer today.
((Ann Ohn-Bar, Ionia Resident)) The thing I love about our day sea weeding, which I've done since I was a small child, which is that the whole community comes together.
((NATS))
((Agam Ohn-Bar, Ionia Resident)) We’ve got to feed 15 hungry mouths that’s going to harvest beautiful seaweed. And this is a great source of energy, plant-based energy.
((Ally Brill, Ionia Resident)) We're going to go down to Homer and catch a boat across the bay and pick seaweed for our seaweed for the year.
((Eliza Eller, Ionia Resident)) Ionia is like a safe haven that we created 30 years ago. A group of us found each other in the movement called Macrobiotics in Boston. And we had in common, trouble thriving and surviving in the modern world as it is. So, we created this little village, where we could eat simple foods and be involved with nature, and learn how to relate more kindly with each other, so that we could really find that support that we needed, and create a world that made more sense to us, that we wanted to bring our kids up into and ourselves up into.
((Eliza Eller, Ionia Resident)) We had a dream of a rurally-based village, but we were all city folk. We had no idea how to do that. We had no money and nothing going for us. And we heard that there was free land in Alaska. And we heard that there was this thing called the Alaska Permanent Fund, which was a little payment for every man, woman and child, that happens every year. Not me, but some of us got the idea, the crazy idea, to go to Alaska and try to homestead. And so, I was dragged up here pretty much kicking and screaming. But I came and after a few years, I just fell in love with the place.
((NATS))
((Eliza Eller, Ionia Resident)) We found this land. It wasn't free, but it was $300 down and $300 a month, and we could do that. And we took our first year of permanent funds, which was a whole lot, you know, because it was a bunch of us. And we just pooled them all together and were like, ‘Wow! That's more money than we've ever seen anywhere.’
((Eliza Eller, Ionia Resident)) Every day is different. I love the dream of a village. I think it’s a wonderful way to live on the planet. And I hope that Ionia can be a little example for other experiments and projects like this all over the planet.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Eliza Eller, Ionia Resident)) And it keeps me, yeah, it keeps me sane. It keeps me on the right track. It keeps me nourished. As long as it does that, I have no reason to think about anything else, ever.
((NATS/MUSIC))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Location (dateline)
Kasilof, Alaska
Embargo DateJanuary 22, 2024 19:48 EST
Byline
Gabrielle Weiss
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
