| Home |
| Interviews |
| Map |
| Photographs |
| Video |
| CHAP History |
| CHA Program Study |
| Project Background |
| Links |
 |
 |
Willa Ashenfelter and Irene Aukongak, Part 1 |
 Next Section |
|
| WILLA: A long time ago when we first started working, the doctor that we were -- was planning the village visits would -- seemed like they would go there and we wouldn't be really prepared or... So Norton Sound Health Corporation was one of the ones that kind of made health aides a priority, and they encouraged us to form Health Aide Association. They would call in all the primaries -- primaries here to Nome. And for us, I remember the first time we came in for a -- for a meeting. It was a meeting of all these names that we were -- all these voices we were hearing on the radio, we got to meet each other. We started talking, and it was good to know that we weren't the only ones with that kind of problems. It was -- it was -- we could sit down and talk about our -- our problems, and all these other ladies would understand. It was kind of -- for me, it was a booster, it really made me feel like -- IRENE: It was something like a talking circle. I never thought of that before, you know. WILLA: Yeah. Norton -- and I don't know if Norton Sound ever really realized how important those meetings were for us. IRENE: Seems like we don't do it anymore. WILLA: Yeah. It's -- KAREN: You don't do it anymore? IRENE: I don't think so. WILLA: I don't think so. I don't -- I don't know if they ever call the primaries in again for -- IRENE: How often we used to come in, every year or? WILLA: Yeah, they used to call us once a year. IRENE: All the primaries would meet with -- sometimes with the new health aides, and... WILLA: Uh-hum. And for us out -- in those early years, it was one of the reasons why I kept working, too, that it was always at the back of my head. IRENE: Support. KAREN: Do you remember what year that first meeting was? WILLA: I don't remember. Maybe 1970s. IRENE: I think it was in '70s. Latter '70s, or -- WILLA: Yeah, Norton Sound -- our employee -- our work with Norton Sound started July 1st, 1975, is when they started. IRENE: It seemed like it would be later, in the early years. WILLA: Yeah, but even before that, they were calling us in for training. KAREN: So before 1975, you worked for Public Health Service? WILLA: Yeah. And we used to -- ANB was taking care of our pay. IRENE: Yeah. We used to go to Kotzebue, Anchorage, and then we started going in. WILLA: And here. KAREN: So there wasn't a hospital here? WILLA: There was Maynard MacDougal Memorial Hospital, that little. And a lot of our training was in Kotzebue at their -- at the PHS Hospital there. We got to know the -- the health aides from the Kotzebue region. IRENE: It was nice. We sure missed that after they quit. WILLA: Yeah. IRENE: So it's real nice to, you know, get to know health aides from all over. WILLA: Get together. IRENE: Get together. We used to talk, a lot of us use to cry. WILLA: We would end up crying and then we would laugh and then we would -- IRENE: End up crying. I think that was healing, you know, the healing part. KAREN: Yeah. WILLA: And I don't think I -- I don't know if Norton Sound ever knew how much those first meetings helped us. | |
Home | Interviews | Map | Photographs | Video | Program History | CHA Program Study | Project Background | Links | ©Copyright Information
Last updated 11-4-06
Last updated 11-4-06