- [Interviewer] Cassien, we're here in Yellowknife
in the Northwest Territories and you're homeless.
Tell me about it.
- I came here three years ago.
Because
this is supposed to be a diamond capital of
Canada, I guess, or North America or the world, maybe.
I don't know.
But that's what they say anyways.
And I came here because I'm a carpenter.
I came here, I don't got no qualifications or no tickets
or anything like that to say I am a carpenter.
'Cause I got no tickets it's hard for me to get a
job as a carpenter.
- [Interviewer] Yeah, no certificate.
- Yeah, but back home, I don't even have to look for my job.
My job usually comes to find me.
- [Interviewer] Right.
Back home, you were raised on the land, you were telling me.
- Yeah, I was raised on the land up until I was maybe,
every chance I got, every chance, they told me,
we're gonna go hunting, we're gonna go this,
we're gonna go there.
So,
never really had to ask me or bug me to go
because you know, that's my culture.
- [Interviewer] Right.
- I'm a half Cree Indian,
and
I'm half Slavey.
But I know more about Slavey culture than
any other culture.
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
- Yeah.
And
then I'm a Fort Good Hope drummer too there.
I travel all over
just to drum.
Then
I came here,
I met a woman,
nice-looking tiger woman.
And
after a couple of months she told me
I'm getting tired of this, she said.
I said, doing what?
She said,
tired of your going back over there to have a shower
and change your clothes and then come back here.
I told her, and what?
And she said, well, maybe you should just
bring all your clothes over here.
So to me, that was getting serious,
and I was having feelings about her too.
But then after a while, things started falling apart.
Ever since then, I've been bumming around.
Sometimes,
some of my friends there,
that you talked to before, they say,
people on the street, they look out for each other.
That's true.
Sometimes I go downtown,
maybe I have a dollar, and still I get
to drink all day with one dollar.
And sometimes I have nothing, and I still (traffic sounds).
- [Interviewer] So why do you drink?
Why do you drink all day?
- I'm a alcoholic, I seen it my whole life.
I was raised,
my dad and my mom,
they always made homemade brew.
And I started drinking when I was young,
like maybe 12.
I think 12, 13, around there I started drinking really lots.
And I got
older friends,
they used to use me to make brew.
And that's how I really started drinking lots,
because I know how to make homemade brew.
- [Interviewer] All right.
- And then
lots of my cousins and my friends are all drummers too.
I don't even want to say that to you.
I was even told the other week,
you shouldn't even call yourself a drummer
if you're gonna live around on the street, they said.
These are women that are telling me that,
from my hometown.
Yeah.
- [Interviewer] So now that you've lived here,
you can't go back?
- In a way, I want to,
but it's different.
I already tried.
I tried to move back home, and it's
not the same.
And--
- [Interviewer] They just don't accept you
after you live here?
- No, it's just,
it's just me I guess.
I just,
it's really
complicated.
Yeah.
And
my first ride coming back from Good Hope to here,
(coughs)
I jumped on it.
I jumped on that vehicle
and I came here.
I borrowed $150 off my uncle.
He gave me money, I told him, I said, I wanna go to
Yellowknife, do my taxes.
I'm gonna buy some stuff for my apartment, my house.
And
I never went back, because I ran into my ex again,
and then
she just told me to stay, so I did.
- [Interviewer] And then you're back out on the streets.
- Yeah, and then,
things started falling apart again.
So ever since last year, I've been
bumming around.
I don't like saying bumming around.
- [Interviewer] Right.
- I don't ask people for money too or anything like that.
They just give it to me.
And lots of people know me too, and--
- [Interviewer] Well, this is nowhere to live,
no way to live.
So.
- Oh yeah.
- [Interviewer] What's your future like?
- I wish it was perfect.
I wish I had
good job again,
a vehicle,
I wish I could be with my kids.
- [Interviewer] Thank you very much for talking to me.
- It's hard.
Not seeing your kids for three years.
It's hard.
Even my son is named after me.
Before I moved here, I had a good life.
- [Interviewer] And now you can't go back.
- Sometimes I wish I could fix things, but I can't.
I can't even ask my family for help.
I don't want to, shit.
The way I was raised by my grandparents was, you don't,
if you can do something, do it on your own,
don't ask somebody else to help you.
That's the way my dad told me.
Sometimes my friends tell me I can't.
- [Interviewer] Well thank you very much for talking to me.
- Man, I wish
you could
see my whole story.
I wish you could have seen my whole life.
Whatever.