At this year’s World Eskimo Indian Olympics, six young women from across Alaska competed for the title of Miss WEIO. In late June, Nome resident Brooke Anungazuk earned the Miss Arctic Native Brotherhood sash, earning her one of six spots at the statewide pageant. The 23-year-old was raised in Wales, Unalakleet and Nome.
Anungazuk's road to the Carlson Center in Fairbanks wasn’t without its challenges. Just last May, she lost her uncle Henry Nanouk of Unalakleet. Last September, her father Kenneth Anungazuk of Wales, passed away too.
Just weeks before WEIO, Anungazuk's little brother, Killian Ellanna, died after a long battle with Acute myeloid leukemia. The 7-year-old was known by his nickname “Mimi" and was the subject of numerous grassroots fundraisers in Nome over the three years that followed his diagnosis.
The sudden losses left Anungazuk with two choices: give up or keep going. She chose to turn the heartbreak into inspiration.
"It's so important that we continue to practice our ways of life. With my grief and all the things that I've been through, that's what I've always turned back to. It's really helped me to heal and continue to grow from what was going on in my life," Anungazuk said.
Anungazuk is the oldest of her six siblings, David Anungazuk, 21, Gabrielle Anungazuk, 19, Dade Ellanna, 15, Breannon Ellanna, 13 and Killian Ellanna, 7. She made the trip to Fairbanks without her family though, and instead traveled with Marsha Tobuk, an organizer for Miss ANB in Nome.
Anungazuk said Tobuk was instrumental in helping her practice her Inupiaq language introduction for the pageant. She said they also worked on her platform for the pageant.
"My platform was to promote healthy lifestyles in all people and wellness and indigenous people, while focusing on empowerment for our youth with suicide prevention, then sobriety in all our people, and then lastly, the health of our elders,” Anungazuk said. "Just going out and doing subsistence activities or practicing our values, we can heal all those properties."
She said her platform is rooted in traditional ways-of-life.
"I have had hardships in my life but I also know that there are communities that experience similar or different hardships as well. There are so many people who live paycheck to paycheck. But those people still support youth and families in need," Anungazuk said. "Those people are rich in our way of life. They go out and subsist to provide for their families and others who cannot afford or provide for themselves. I believe good things always come in return to those people."
Competition heats up in Fairbanks
The pageant required each contestant to demonstrate a traditional talent. Anungazuk presented on how to shoot and gut a moose from start to finish. She made sure to include her late brother in the presentation.
“It had a photo of my brother, Mimi. His job was to label the meat, and he had these cute little moose drawings on one of them and it was just the cutest thing,” Anungazuk said. “That just really shows that everyone has a job in the family.”
She also spoke of her favorite activities including crabbing, trapping, hunting, egging, picking greens, berry picking, sewing, staying active, and being with loved ones.
The contestants also took turns showing off traditional fur parkas. Anungazuk said her parka was 65 years old, and due to its fragile nature, Miss WEIO was the last time it would be worn. It originally belonged to her great-grandmother and is made of 60 squirrel hides, and a host of other furs.
"Beaver, wolf, wolverine, silver fox, ugruk hide, red beads and it also has calfskin qupaks," Anungazuk recalled.
She also modeled a purple vest and green atikluk made by Brevig Mission's Helen Cox.
By the Friday night finale, Anungazuk said she was exhausted. As the contestants stood on stage, each had sweat beading on their faces, not just from the pressure of the competition, but from wearing their fur parkas in Fairbanks' summer heat.
Nome resident Marjorie Tahbone emcee'd the coronation ceremony. She took turns announcing a series of individual awards. Anungazuk claimed both the public speaker award and shared the Miss Congeniality award, chosen by the contestants for showing kindness and compassion to others, with Kotzebue's Siearrah Thomas.
Tahbone then rallied the late-night crowd for the main award.
“And now the moment we've been waiting for all night long!” Tahbone said.
Tahbone announced Thomas as the second runner-up, followed by Anungazuk as the first runner-up. They each took their place on the finisher’s podium as Tahbone announced Bethel’s Joeli Carlson as this year’s Miss WEIO.
Representing the Bering Strait region
Anungazuk said she was disheartened to not win, but considering how far she’d come she was proud nonetheless.
“All other contestants told me how strong I was for being there,” Anungazuk recalled. “All my family and friends were like, ‘you won in our eyes, like in our heart, you won and you represented us well'.”
She said it was an honor to be at WEIO and represent the people of the Bering Strait region.
"I didn’t just share my story — I shared all of ours as a region," Anungazuk said. "We come together and uplift one another in times of need. Whether that may be death, youth fundraisers, helping others with subsistence activities, and natural disasters in communities. I may have represented Arctic Native Brotherhood but I carried myself as someone from the Norton Sound Region. I went into detail about our people and our troubles all in one week."
Through Anungazuk's extensive relationships and family throughout the region, she's picked up eight Inupiaq names: Biksik, Abuzinaq, Kuugaruk, Chitkuk, Kolluk, Caguuk, Nagitaagna, and Ahpiok.
Anungazuk said she still hopes to travel around the state and share her healthy lifestyles platform. She didn’t rule out competing at Miss Indian World in Albuquerque next April.
"I’m hoping that with my story and what I’ve said opens other doors for me," she said. "I care and love very deeply. I am also very observant, I address concerns not just in one place but all around Alaska. There is so much that I’d like to do to help our communities and villages around Alaska. I’d also like to show other Indigenous communities that there is so much to do elsewhere and that home will always be there. It’s possible to do the things that you don’t think you can do."
She thanked her parents, siblings, friends, Miss ANB organizer Marsha Tobuk, Dawson Evans, Jake and Theresa Kenick and everyone that supported her on social media.
This story was originally published by our partner station KNOM in Nome.