“Something I say is when you're trying to get out of your shell or you want to grow, do something every day that scares you,” says Alexia Cousins. Born in Quebec with some Danish lineage, she grew up in Pangnirtung and now lives in Iqaluit, Nunavut. An Inuk leader, knowledge holder and advocate for Inuit employment, she works to strengthen representation and to promote culturally grounded approaches in public institutions.

Looking back on her professional journey, Cousins has moved around a lot, working for the airlines, in logistics and planning, with the Department of Education with the government of Nunavut, in data entry, at a daycare and with an accounting firm. Behind the variety of jobs and changes in jobs is her ADHD and the need to move on after feeling like she’s mastered something. Currently, she’s acting senior advisor, Inuit Community Relations, with the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency with the Government of Canada.

In her current role, Cousins supports the Inuit community within her agency and other agencies as well. Working with managers, she helps them support their Inuit employees with career plans, and she also meets with Inuit employees individually or as a group. Advocating, teaching about Inuit culture to new managers or managers new to the North, she also now works with departments and agencies inside and outside of Nunavut, liaising with human resources advisors in recruitment and retention.

When it comes to education, Cousins got her high school diploma but took a year off to become a mother at the age of 17 in grade 11. She went back to finish grade 12 while raising a toddler. Later, she learned by doing, through on the job learning. She took courses offered through her employer, like project management, time management and Microsoft office. She completed a ten-month leadership training for Nunavut Inuit with the federal government and is currently enrolled in a public policy fellowship, one of five Indigenous participants in a group of 16 and the only Inuk and Nunavut resident.

Cousins also took the Aurniarvik Inuktitut language program at the Pirurvik Centre in 2025. Originally, Inuktitut was her first language and the language she was educated in until grade five. When she was in Iqaluit, school was in English, but when she would go back to Pangnirtung, it would be in Inuktitut again. Her only constant was math, something she excelled in. What she found was that over time she lost a lot of comprehension and she struggled with spelling and enunciation. Going to language school was about reclaiming her comprehension in reading and writing.

“What I didn't know I was doing at school at the same time was filling voids or filling holes in me that I didn't know existed,” Cousins reflects, thinking about how much she learned about her culture, traditions, and history, things she didn’t learn from her mother after being sent away to attend high school. The experience was healing, fulfilling and reconnecting. She spent time in a traditional camp and learned how to clean seal skin. “it was a life-changing school year for me,” she beams.

Her advice to Indigenous students considering leaving their home communities is, “There's more support out there than you think.” She acknowledges that it’s scary, especially coming from a small community, but with so much support available, all it tasks is asking. “Don't be afraid to ask. People don't know how to support you if they don't know what you need…It's okay to ask for help. It's okay to be afraid. Anxiety and excitement are kind of the same chemical in our body.” Moving to a city to take a program can be exciting, especially if you are the first in your family, or a caretaker and feeling guilty about leaving your family behind, she acknowledges, but she says, “you will have so much more knowledge and so much more understanding of life, of the world, of yourself, even just by saying yes and taking that step and asking.”

When it comes to obstacles, at one point Cousins was bored with her life and she had tickets for vacation and she decided to use them to move to Mississauga, Ontario with her daughter who was four at the time. Moving to a big city changed her life. “It expanded everything. It put me out of my comfort zone. It challenged me in ways I didn't know I needed to be challenged,” she recalls, thinking back on the three years she lived there.

To maintain her mental health and well being, Cousins leans into her hobbies and interests, like beading, sewing, painting, colouring, activities that keep her hands busy. She sometimes struggles with balance. “My brain works best when my hands are busy,” she explains. She’s realized that having fun is what we live for.

Something Cousins wishes someone told her growing up was “if you don't apply yourself, whether it's to a job, it's to you know an activity, to something you're doing, you're already saying no. You're already shutting yourself off. You're already setting yourself up for failure.” She encourages applying for jobs even if you are missing a couple of the qualifications and giving yourself a chance to learn and giving people a chance to get to know you and your skills. She also wishes someone had told her, “You are good enough. You contribute. Your voice matters. You are a person. You are part of the community. You should be heard. So, be loud.” She’s learning to be loud for what she needs, and speak up, even if she’s going against the crowd, because she might not be the only one who feels that way.

As far as inspiration goes, Cousins is inspired by others. She is connected to a big community, almost 3000 people through Facebook. She might feel small in some of the big spaces she’s been invited to recently but she knows everyone starts somewhere. She also loves watching others grow.

In closing, Cousins says, “Don't be afraid to be the first. Don't be afraid to take space… Don't be afraid to lead from the front. Don't be afraid to be that person that goes against the grain. Fear is really what holds us back. It's our own fears that keep us small, that keep us in a bubble, that keep us from growing. So, if at all possible, let go of the fear and say yes.”

Born and raised in the North, Alexia Cousins is a tireless advocate for her people, creating opportunities for them through her advocacy. Learning by doing and moving around between industries, she’s had a varied career with many experiences which has set her up for success and helped her support others in finding their own. Reclaiming her language, she was able to reclaim more of her Inuit culture which she shares with others through her work.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.