“The North is my home, born and raised. It’s truly an inspiration to be raised here,” Shannon Cazon beams. She was born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and was raised in Fort Simpson her whole life. Her grandparents made sure she had access to Dene culture, traditions and values at a young age. Between her mother and her father’s nations, her roots extend across the whole of the North.

Growing up, Cazon was out on the land. Her parents made sure they were out at a camp with her grandparents on either side of the family. She received teachings from both sides of  the family who were fluent in their language and always spoke to her. She had a strong understanding of the culture and teachings growing up. Her parents kept her away from the drinking and drugs in the community and took her out on the land every season. They influenced their kids to turn back to their culture and to the land and to stay connected to their home instead of making other more negative choices.

She graduated from the local high school and then had four years where she made some difficult choices. She ended up applying for Canada World Youth and was accepted into their six month program. Cazon got into their Canadian International Phase and spent three months in Tanzania, Africa and three months in Peterborough, Ontario. The experience shifted her perspective to gratitude for her surroundings, her country, for the North and for everything she previously took for granted. It opened up doors for her to be educated in environmental studies and she worked for Parks Canada as a heritage presenter.

She loved the experience and went on to work for the Department of Industry Tourism Investment as an Agricultural Assistant. Cazon got to travel to small communities implementing a gardening program with kids. The opportunity inspired her to finish her first year of her schooling and started on her second year but she didn’t complete it due to things in her personal life.

A year later, Cazon ended up pregnant with her daughter and two years down the line, living as a stay at home mom, she started thinking about what she should do next. She went back to school and three months before finishing her program she found out that her brother passed away. Faced with the choices of turning to drugs, alcohol or healing, she chose to heal and finish off her program, remembering him.

Cazon went on to become the monitoring coordinator for her community, signing on to a contract. Months later, she found out she was pregnant and had her son the following spring. Weeks after she returned to work, she found out her daughter had been assaulted by a teacher. She ended up resigning to focus on her kids and her family. She was inspired to take instructor training with Aboriginal Sports Circle, Bush Kids and food safe training. “All of this inspired me, throughout my whole educational journey, but it's all intertwined and connected for me to be who I am and where I'm at today,” she reflects.

Her children are her main motivators in her career. “Everything that I've done, it has built me to become who I am today, but also to inspire me of wanting to be involved with our youth, to make those connections and to braid that knowledge of Western and traditional knowledge together, to fill the gap between our elders and our youth, that is what my goal is, and that's why, when I see my kids every single day, they are my inspiration to getting up every day to making sure that they have the education they have, they have the routine that's set, and also to instill their culture background in them,” Cazon shares.

Her advice to someone thinking of walking the same path is, “Always turn to your culture. Always turn to the land when you're in need. I was always raised that when things get hard, instead of turning the path of how colonization has taught us…the best advice I can give is to deal with it, to heal, to turn back to the land. Whenever you feel disconnected to yourself, always find those mentors or those motivators, who are connected and that will rightfully put you back on that path for yourself.”

If Cazon could give advice to her younger self it would be, “Experience life. Get it out of your system. Truly live…. Do it all, if you can. Just experience it. Don't hold yourself back. Don't be scared. The only way that you're going to live life, experience life, and to understand the world and how it works is if you get out of Fort Simpson and you truly, truly see what's out there. …Just live and travel and experience life, work, save money, don't hold yourself back. That's the best advice I can give any high schooler.”

To maintain her mental health and wellbeing, Cazon goes out on the land, goes for walks, takes the dogs out, spends time reading and a lot of time cleaning. Staying connected to her culture through her parents helps, too. Everyday she spends thirty minutes doing something for herself, whether it’s half an hour of reading, walking, or doing a chore.

When it comes to inspiration, Cazon looks to kids. They inspire her to do better, make better choices, get more involved, teach more youth programs and keep them more connected. Seeing all the determined participants at track and field inspires her even more. “Seeing that in them, and if I can inspire or encourage them, that is a true goal and I know that I really fulfilled my life,” she reflects.

In closing, Cazon thanked her ancestors and says, “it's a beautiful day to wake up and realize you have another day of life. That's the beauty of life, waking up every day and realizing that yesterday was yesterday, but tomorrow you can change your mindset and you can move forward, and you can create better opportunities, not just for yourself, but for the community. That's all I can do, and that's all I would love to do, and that's a vision.”

Inspired to have been raised in the North, Shannon Cazon gives back to the community by engaging with Northern youth. After losing her brother and after her daughter was assaulted, she could have made other choices, but she chose to heal and she chose to find new ways to be a part of her community. Creating new opportunities and sharing new skills, she’s helping young people like her children thrive.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.