Weekend video: Life on an isolated island through a YouTuber’s lens

St. Lawrence Island, a 1,792 square-mile landmass in the Bering Sea, does not have a hospital — pregnant women are expected to travel across the ocean to Nome, Alaska, to give birth.

Wallace Ungwiluk is one of the children born in Nome and raised in the 600-person Yupik town of Gambell on St. Lawrence Island. After finishing high school in Gambell, Ungwiluk studied business and psychology at Multnomah University and coached basketball at Lewis & Clark college before returning to Gambell to begin sharing the town’s residents’ way of life on YouTube.

Ungwiluk’s YouTube channel addresses how the town’s residents are dependent on the mainland for medical care and groceries, among other facets of how Gambell’s residents live in such an isolated environment. 

As the Arctic becomes a more popular topic of discussion, Ungwiluk’s work becomes increasingly important as a vehicle for the perspectives and cultural issues facing Gambell and other Arctic communities as their physical and political landscapes change.

Watch the full video here: