Meet the Alaska Native mom and daughter behind fish camp Barbie

Angela Gonzalez started making Barbies depicting Alaska Native culture for her daughters when they were young; now her creations are capturing people's attention on social media.

Her most recent fish camp Barbie scene has received over 30,000 views on TikTok since she posted it in mid-September.

"I grew up in fish camp along with Koyukuk River in interior Alaska and my late grandma and my mom and aunties, they would create, do the same thing that I did with my daughters," she said.

Gonzalez is Koyukon Athabaskan from Huslia, Alaska, which is in the northwest interior approximately 600 kilometres northwest of Anchorage. 

Her fish camp Barbie wears a qaspeq (a summer parka made of cotton used to keep the mosquitos away), a beaded moosehide headband and mukluks.

On the fish-gutting table is a fish made from tanned salmon skin with a beaded edge and an ulu, a traditional Inuit cutting tool with a semi-circle blade and handle.

Angela said she makes the ulu the way her late grandmother taught her, using the sides of the metal spout of Morton salt containers.

"We just kind of have to make do with what's out there, you know, and kind of that's just the ingenious way that Alaska Native people are," she said.

"We're so creative."

Her grandmother made her grass dolls to play with as a child and she said she wanted to continue this tradition.

Now that her daughters are older, they make the Barbie scenes together.

Ermelina Gonzalez, 20, said she enjoys bonding with her mom while they create new scenes.

"I started to learn how to make qaspeqs, the summer parkas, around six years ago," Ermelina said.

Now, she makes Barbie-sized versions of the parka for the camp scenes.

Ermelina said each scene takes between four and five hours to make and that anyone can do it.

"When we started it, we just bought like those little square fabric cuts at the store that only cost a few dollars and I just used what sewing tools I had at home," said Ermelina.

Angela donates the scenes to Alaska Native non-profit organizations to be auctioned off with proceeds going to the centre to support Alaska Native culture.

Angela said bidding reached $400 for a scene this past summer at a silent auction fundraiser for the Alaska Native Heritage Center. The scene was donated back to the centre to be put on display.

Together, Angela and both of her daughters have just completed a moosehide tanning Barbie scene they plan to donate.

"I just really want people to be seen, and see someone who looks like them," Angela said.