In late June, Nome’s Brooke Anungazuk, at 23 years old, claimed the title of Miss Arctic Native Brotherhood, securing one of six spots at this year’s statewide Miss WEIO pageant held at Fairbanks’s Carlson Center as part of the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics. Despite enduring recent, profound personal losses—including her uncle in May, her father last September, and, only weeks before the competition, her seven-year-old brother Killian (“Mimi”) after a lengthy battle with acute myeloid leukemia—Anungazuk transformed her grief into a message of resilience. Guided by Nome resident Marsha Tobuk, she prepared a platform that emphasized health, wellness, youth empowerment, elder care, and suicide prevention, all rooted deeply in traditional subsistence practices and cultural values.
Onstage, Anungazuk’s traditional talent was a heartfelt demonstration of how to shoot and gut a moose, honoring her late brother with a photo of him labeling the meat. “[My presentation] 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.
Her stage presence at WEIO earned her top marks: she took home the Public Speaker award, shared the Miss Congeniality honor, and emerged as first runner-up in the competition, as Bethel’s Joeli Carlson was crowned Miss WEIO. 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’.”
