Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame seeks nominations for Class of 2022

March was Women’s History Month, which was honored with stories about influential and historic women from around the Mat-Su Borough. Compiling profiles required finding inspiring, pioneering women to share stories about. Among the sites used for inspiration was the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame.

So what is the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame? It is dedicated to honoring women whose contributions have influenced the direction of Alaska. The women honored are as vast as the state, including women who in any field, including, but not limited to the arts, athletics, business, community service, conservation, education, government, health, the humanities, Native affairs, philanthropy, politics, theology and science, among others.

Creating the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame was began in earnest in 2008 when the Alaska Women’s Network’s (AWN) Board of Directors discussed how it could use its web site to honor Alaska’s women as the state was gearing up for its 50th anniversary of statehood. After tossing around a few ideas, the AWN decided that there needed to be a way to honor the women who have played a key role in the shaping of Alaska.

AWN soon collaborated with the UAA Consortium Library and the Zonta Club of Anchorage, and realizing there was a need updated and make accessible the stories of pioneering women in Alaska, the Women’s Hall of Fame was created.

Each year, the AWHF solicits nominations from all across the state. “A nominee may be living or deceased. If a nominee is living, she must be at least 65 years of age by the close nominations. The nominee’s contributions should be of community, state-wide, or national importance and enduring value to the development of Alaska’s culture, governance, institutions. The nominee must have lived in Alaska at some point in her life. An individual may nominate herself,” says Bonnie Jack, a volunteer with AWHF.

Past inductees include notable women Dorothy Page, the Mother of the Iditarod, and former Governor Sarah Palin, but also many interesting women whose names aren’t as familiar but should be, like Changunak Antisarlook Andrewuk, “Sinrock Mary,” who fought to retain her half of a reindeer herd in a time when women and natives were not allowed to own property, and went on to become one of the richest women in Alaska.

Nominations for the class of 2022 are due May 30, 2022, and the induction ceremony will be held on October 18, 2022.