Home Away From Home
Q&A With Abigail Evon, Lead Housekeeper for Donlin Gold Project
Storyknife, July/August 2022 edition
Abigail Evon, a Calista Shareholder who grew up in Bethel, has worked for the past two years at the Donlin Gold Project. She has three children [two of them adults], two grandchildren, and a third grandchild on the way, all of them living in the Anchorage area.
Storyknife recently interviewed Evon during one of her shifts at the Donlin Gold Project. Here are some excerpts from the interview.
How did you end up working at Donlin?
I applied for a Slope job for years, when my two older kids were just toddlers and now they are grown adults.
“My goal is to buy a house for my family by next year.”
Abigail Evon, Calista Shareholder & Donlin Gold Lead Housekeeper
I was scrolling through Facebook one day and saw ESS Alaska/Compass Group was hiring for a housekeeper. So, I applied thinking, OK, I’m not going to get the job, I applied for so many years, you know. But I’ll just put in my app, see what happens, and a week later, I get a phone call, asking if I was still interested … So, we did a job interview over the phone, and two days later, did a drug test and a physical test, and here I am!
What was it like when you started?
This was my first job away from home. It was really hard in the beginning, because I wasn’t used to being away from my kids and grandkids. But [my coworkers] told me I could make it. I could be here, financially for my family.
Now it’s like home away from home, minus the bugs though.
How is this job helping you meet your financial goals?
My goal is to buy a house for my family by next year. That way everyone is set if something happens to me. I’m a hard-working mom. I was raised to work, and I have been working since the age of 16.
I always keep in the back of my mind, I’ve got to do what’s right for my family, and what’s right for me.
What do you like about this job?
I love coming back to camp all of the time. I want to be here for everybody. If they need anything, they can holler at me or one of my other housekeepers. We just get along, we talk, hanging out in the TV room. It’s home away from home, where everyone is kind and nice.
I like meeting new people. This year, we got [a lot of] new faces, so it was really, really interesting to meet them in the beginning. But then after a while, after coming back and coming back, and then getting to know them, again and again, they are like family.
Does it mean anything to you that Calista owns the land and has oversight?
I heard about it and that’s what made me apply, because when I went on the website, they were looking for Calista Shareholders, and I’m a Descendant from one. I am enrolled, even my kids and my grandkids.
We still live off the land, we still fish and eat fish. How would my grandma put it? It’s in our culture to live off the land. Knowing that we’re here to protect that, that Donlin’s here to protect that. So yeah.
Interested in hearing more from Calista leaders and Donlin Gold Shareholder employees?