WILD12 Delegate Spotlight: George Pletnikoff
“I was born on St George Island, Alaska, and grew up there. We call ourselves Unangan - that was the name we gave to ourselves when we lived on the Aleutian Islands as far back as 10,000 years…”
George Pletnikoff, who will be attending WILD12 as an Indigenous delegate, shares his memories of growing up in the Aleutian Islands, where the seas and shores were stripped of their living resources hundreds of years ago. This forced the Unangan into a convoluted relationship with the land and animals. The result was an endangering of the fur seals and a migration of the people away from their homelands. These impacts are now being repaired by the next generation, including George’s children - some of whom have moved back to his home island to work in the regeneration of their culture, art and language.
“Russian fur hunters came to our homeland about 230-240 years ago. We had an estimated population of 30,000 living sparsely on those many islands…and as colonizers and hunters for wealth and riches, they largely went after fur-bearing animals.”
