The Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame inducted its newest cohort of 10 women earlier this week, including Native journalist and former ICT national correspondent and Alaska bureau chief Joaqlin Estus.
Estus, Tlingit, wore many different hats throughout her career but was drawn to journalism for the endless learning and opportunity to experience different things; saying, “Every day you’re working on a different story.”
“One day it might be a kids’ book reading contest, and the next day, you’re doing something about insurance fraud or real estate and then you cover a lot of politics and in Alaska, you do a lot of stories about resource development,” she said. “What I like, there’s two parts to being a reporter. One is doing research and interviewing people, and the other part is writing or producing. So it’s a nice mix of activities and I found it just very interesting.”
When she got the call of her induction for “Achievement in: Pioneering Native journalist and cultural bridge builder,” Estus said she was surprised and honored to be among those selected.
Rhonda McBride, Estus’s friend and colleague, called Estus a role model and “encourager-in-chief,” saying she knows the importance of bringing stories to light with an approach of respect and sensitivity.
“I would call Joaqlin Estus a trailblazer, bridge builder, diplomat and tireless ‘Estus-pedia,’ for her encyclopedic knowledge of Native issues,” McBride said in the biography of Estus on the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame website. “I can share my own personal experience of Joaqlin as a role model. It’s not easy for a non-Native reporter to cover Native issues. It’s a space in which we are not always welcome, nor prepared to navigate. But I am ever grateful for Joaqlin’s support. She has always been so encouraging.”
By pure coincidence, also inducted in the 2025 class is Estus’s great-grandmother Tillie Paul-Tamaree, a civil rights leader in the early 20th Century.
Estus grew up hearing stories about her and said she was a role model to her and other people in her family.
“I’m thrilled that she’s getting the recognition she so much deserves,” Estus said. “It was just a pleasant coincidence that I was being inducted at the same time, and she’s one of the people that I really admire and I’m really honored to be part of the cohort that she’s in.”
Estus graduated from the University of Alaska Anchorage with a degree in history and first worked as a historian for the National Park Service. She then moved into work in coastal management and volunteered at KTOO, a radio station in Juneau, helping other volunteers do a half-hour talk show on Native issues.
She recalled seeing an ad for an internship to be a radio news reporter at what was then the Alaska Public Radio Network and applied on a whim.
The internship turned into jobs at KTOO, Minnesota Public Radio and KNBA in Anchorage. Estus retired in 2017 but came out of that retirement to work as a national correspondent for ICT in 2020.
At the time, former ICT editor Mark Trahant said Estus reflected the best of the talent Indian Country has in the field of journalism.
Over the course of her career, Estus’s favorite story was one she did in the ’90s about a Tlingit mother for Mother’s Day. The woman told her that the toughest thing about having kids was being scared for their health when they got sick.
“It just seemed like the epitome of the love of a mother,” Estus said. “I just love that story still and that I did that story in the 1990s so it was a long time ago, but it’s my all-time favorite.”
Estus stepped into retirement again in 2024 but remains busy. She is the chairperson for the planning committee for the “Sharing Our Knowledge” conference that will take place in 2027 in Ketchikan, Alaska. She is also helping Emil Notti write his memoir.
Notti was the first president of the Alaska Federation of Natives and was instrumental in getting Congress to adopt the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
Estus encourages young people to get into the field of journalism, especially Alaska Native youth. Asked what advice she would give them, she joked, “Wear comfortable shoes.”
“Be brave and work hard,” she said on a more serious note. “If you’re lucky, you’ll have a good editor who teaches you how to be a better writer and producer.”
She added that Native and Alaska Native journalists bring their cultural perspective, which in turn enriches their stories, and she wants that for the listeners, viewers or readers.
Playback of the induction ceremony can be watched at the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame website.