Davonna Kasook LEADING THE NEXT GENERATION INTO POLITICS—AND THE FUTURE
MY NAME IS DAVONNA KASOOK. I was born in Inuvik, where I spent the majority of my 24 years. For about 4 years in my early childhood, I lived in Aklavik, until the passing of my late grandmother Pauline Kasook. During the time I lived in Aklavik, I grew up in poverty and was surrounded by drug and/or alcohol abuse on an almost daily basis. As a result of this, I experienced physical and verbal abuse quite often and in some cases I experienced what I would consider neglect. There were days where my brother and I would have cereal for breakfast with milk that was months past the expiry date but still tasted fine, or when there was absolutely nothing to eat for supper, we would eat just crackers alone. I was raised by a single mother, so there definitely were a lot of struggles we faced together as she was raising me. I have to give a lot of thanks to
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my friends’ mothers and fathers, who, despite being single parents themselves, supported and took care of me when I was in need. During my time in Aklavik, I experienced a lot of bullying. I’m fairskinned with coloured eyes, so to come into a small indigenous community looking different from everyone else made me a target. Despite the negative experiences I faced as a kid, those experiences gave me the opportunity to be alone in my thoughts and teach myself how to fend for myself when no one else was there, but also how to be humble and kind because I knew what it felt like to be singled out. These experiences blessed me with my independence. I had what I would call the “best of both worlds” growing up. When my stepfather and my mom separated in
next meal was going to come from; I was shown love and affection and taught to work for what I wanted. The other was a life with little to no structure or discipline, one filled with alcohol and drug abuse, physical and verbal abuse, neglect, and constant searching for my next meal. But on the bright side, I was free to do what I wanted when I wanted and able to explore my surroundings. I think back about how dangerous this freedom could’ve been for me and all the unsafe situations I was put in, but I’m thankful for every single one of those experiences because they shaped who I am today. My life experiences showed me how important education and hard work are to success. I learned by example how important education was. My mom constantly reminded me of how important it was to go to
I’m fascinated by how much of an impact one voice can make. Once I learned how strong my voice was, I wanted to be a voice for my peers, my fellow youth. my early childhood, I was constantly moving back and forth between the two, up until my early teens. The reason why I say I had the 'best of both worlds' was because I lived two lives. One of them was a life that was structured and disciplined, where I was never wondering where my
UKIUQ WINTER 2019
school every day and that if I didn’t finish my education, I would struggle to raise my future kids the way she did. She also led by example and went back to school while working parttime to provide for me. I ended up making it through high school and college, and eventually
