Children of the Spills – Phase I

Alaska and the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Abstract

Children of the Spills is an oral history project created to encourage people in “oiled communities” to share their childhood memories, stories, and artwork. This project strives to broaden public understanding of the damaging human effects of oil spills and to assist communities as they work to protect and support children growing up in post–disaster settings. Ultimately, this project explores the ways that dramatic changes to the surrounding environment shape young people and the places where they live. Children of the Spills was carried out in two phases. The first focused on collecting oral histories from adults in Alaska who were between the ages of 1-19 at the time of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and were raised in communities affected by the disaster. The second engaged children and youth in the U.S. Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama who were impacted by the 2010 BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This first field report describes the Phase I work of the Children of the Spills project in Alaska, while a second field report summarizes Phase II activities carried out along the Gulf Coast.