Bill Stewart was born on June 12, 1950 in Darlington Country Durham, England. He was educated in Darlington and studied filmmaking at Teesside College of Art and subsequently did three years post-graduate study at the School of Film and Television of the Royal College of Art in London. He graduated in 1974 with a Master of Arts. In 1974, he immigrated to Canada and worked as a Film Editor for CBC in Toronto, where he worked on daily film reports of Justice Thomas Berger's Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry and Dean Lysik's Alaska Pipeline Inquiry. He arrived in Yellowknife in 1978 as the Film Editor for the new CBC North Television Centre. In 1980, he left CBC and joined the Government of the Northwest Territories, Department of Information, where he was the Technical Production Officer. He became Manager of that Audio-Visual Unit in 1981 and in 1983, coordinated the Dene Video Information Project. He participated in the filming of the 1981 "Last Mooseskin Boat Project." The project, jointly sponsored by the Native Communications Society of the Western NWT, the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, and the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Information, involved the building of a mooseskin boat by the Mountain Dene and the documentation of this process. He left the Department of Information in 1988 and moved to Edmonton where he joined the Government of Alberta as the Film and Video Consultant for Alberta Culture.
John Phillip Matta was born in 1928 in Vancouver, British Columbia, the eldest of four children. His father worked in the mining industry and thus moved the family to mine sites in British Columbia and Quebec while John grew up. He graduated from high school in 1946, and worked in mines until 1953 when he chose to join the Royal Canadian Air Force. He spent 10 years in the RCAF as a photographer with photo intelligence. After leaving the Air Force he worked as a production manager for a photo finishing company until his retirement in 1991. He has lived in Calgary since 1954.
Charles Wesley Mathers was born in Ontario to Irish immigrant parents in 1868. In 1892, the photographers Boorne and May hired Mathers to work at their Calgary studio. Mathers purchased their Edmonton studio in 1893 and opened it under his own name. Mathers traveled extensively in western and northern Canada. In 1901, a trip with trader William Connors, took him along the Athabasca River north. He traveled to Fort Smith, Fort Resolution, Wrigley, Hay River, Fort Providence, Fort Simpson, Fort Norman, Fort Good Hope and Fort McPherson, keeping a photographic record of his trip. The album "The Far North" was produced from these photographs and marketed by Mathers' Edmonton studio. Mathers died in 1950.
George Hunter was born in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1921. In 1937 at the age of 16, he bought his first camera to record his trip to London, England for the coronation of King George VI. He began selling his first photographs the next year. From 1945-1950 he worked for the National Film Board's Still Division. In 1950, he went into business for himself, buying a Piper Clipper airplane for aerial photographs. He promoted himself as a corporate, industrial and aerial photographer.
George Hunter's work in the north consisted of primarily mining industry photography during the 1950s. During this time he also gained an international reputation, carrying out assignments for Time, Fortune and National Geographic magazines. In 1977 he was one of the first photographers elected to the Royal Canadian Acadamy of Arts. His images have been used by companies around the world, as well as Canada Post for images on stamps, and the Bank of Canada, which used his images of salmon seiners on the $5 bill and oil refineries on the $10 bill for the 1972-1988 banknote series. His more recent work has focused on travel photography and fine art photography. In 2005 the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Center hosted an exhibit of his work entitled "Not only gold: 1950s mining in the NWT", by the NWT Mining Heritage Society, funded in part by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
George Hunter passed away in Mississauga, Ontario on April 10, 2013.
Mildred Josephine Young was born in Toronto in 1924. A schoolteacher, at age 20 she went to the Yukon, and later Moose Factory, Ontario and Yellowknife, Northwest Territories at the age of 23 in 1947. She left Yellowknife for Southern Ontario in 1950. She later became a school inspector (classroom consultant), living in Winisk, Ontario where she met her husband George Hubbert. Millie Hubbert travelled to Fort Good Hope in 1969. Ms. Hubbert published three books in the 1990s, "Since the Day I Was Born", about her life growing up in depression-era Toronto and "Into Canada's North: Because It Was There", recalling her adventures teaching in the North. The third book, recalling her time in Winisk, was entitled "Winisk: On the Shore of Hudson Bay". The manuscript was completed shortly before her passing in March, 1997.
Initially, William Hoare left Ottawa for Herschel Island to act for the Anglican Church as a missionary. He returned after five years and married Catherine Cowan, who had been training to be a nurse in Ottawa. In 1920 they traveled to Aklavik, where they were to establish an Anglican mission. The couple remained in the north until 1931, with William Hoare eventually working for the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (R.C.M.P.) until 1931, when they returned to Ottawa.
Charles Robert Harrman was born in New York in 1897. He spent his summers from 1950 to 1960 in Rae. He retired to Rae in 1961, where he remained writing and painting until his death in 1967.
Beryl Lynette (Lyn) Hancock was born on January 5, 1938 in East Fremantle, Western Australia. She attended secondary school at Princess May School in Western Australia and attended the University of Western Australia between 1955-1957 where she received her diploma in Speech Arts and her Teachers' Certificate from Graylands Teachers College in 1956. She also attended the Trinity College the Royal Academy of Music in London, England where she studied Speech, Drama, Mime and Movement between 1959-1961. In 1977, she received her Teacher's certification from the British Columbia Department of Education. She also received her Bachelor of Education and Master of Arts degrees from Simon Fraser University in 1977 and 1981 respectively. Lyn Hancock moved to the Northwest Territories with her former husband David in 1972. While living in the NWT, she wrote and sold stories to newspapers and magazines such as Above and Beyond, Up Here, Northwest Explorer, Milepost, and Northern News Services; she also wrote and published several books about the North and took many photographs. In addition, Lyn worked with local tourism agencies and Government agencies to promote tourism and pass on her love of the North. She lived in Fort Simpson for seven years before leaving in 1995 with her husband Frank Schober. Lyn currently lives in British Columbia and travels extensively around the world. She has received several literary awards and is the author of over 30 books.
Pierre Jean Baptiste Duchaussois, OMI, was born in Walincourt, France on August 4, 1878. He was ordained in 1903 as a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He was sent to Canada where he worked at the Sacred Heart Juniorate in the Sacred Heart parish from 1903-1906, and taught at the major seminary in Ottawa from 1906-1913. He was then sent west to the St. Joachim's parish in Edmonton from 1913-1915. From 1915-1921, he explored northern Canada in order to write about the missions of the far north. From 1921-1924 he lived in France, writing and giving speaking engagements. He spent time in Sri Lanka from 1924-1929, returning to Canada in 1929. From 1932-1935 he visited South Africa and Zaire. Returning to France for his health, he also worked on the production of his film "Aux glaces polaires". He died in Nice, France on November 9, 1940.
Pierre Duchaussois was a prolific and popular writer, speaker and teacher. His publications on northern Canada include "Les soeurs grises dans l'extreme-Nord: cinquante ans de missions" (1917), English version "The Grey Nuns in the far North 1867-1919" (1919); "Aux glaces polaires, Indiens et Esquimaux" (1921, 1928), English version "Mid snow and ice: the apostles of the North West" (1922); "Apotres inconnus: vie anecdotique des Freres coadjuteurs dans les missions arctiques" (1924), English version "Hidden apostles, or, our lay brother missionaries" (1937); "Femmes heroiques: les Soeurs Grises canadiennes aux glaces polaires" (1927, 1928, 1933, 1959). He was awarded the Prix Montyon de l'Academie francaise in 1921 for "Aux glaces polaires", and the Prix Juteau-Duvigneau for "Rose du Canada" in 1933.
Drama Arctic was a Yellowknife based amateur theatre group.
Bern Will Brown was born in Rochester, New York in 1920 and came north in 1948 as a priest with the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. In his first fourteen years in the north, he worked in a variety of locations, including Fort Norman (Tulita); Fort Franklin (Deline); Goldfields, Saskatchewan; Fort Chipewyan, Alberta; Aklavik; Fort McMurray, Alberta; and Nahanni Butte.
In 1962 Father Brown was sent to Colville Lake, only a short distance north of the Arctic Circle, in the traditional homeland of the Hareskin (North Slavey) Dene. On the shore of the lake he planned and built a log church, “Our Lady of the Snows”, in what was soon a growing community of log buildings. In 1971, he left the priesthood and married Margaret Steen of Inuvik; the couple remained in Colville Lake and continued to be active members of the community.
In addition to his regular duties, Father Brown performed routine medical work and dentistry and has been a fire warden, dogcatcher, storekeeper, postmaster, and newspaper editor. He was also a prolific artist, creating many paintings and photographs, and published five books. Bern and Margaret Brown built and operated the Colville Lake Lodge as well as a small museum and art gallery.
Bern Will Brown died on July 4, 2014 at the age of 94.
Arthur George Boutilier was born in 1946 to Jack and E. Claire Boutilier in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He had three sisters, Catherine, Daphne, and Barbara.
Arthur attended Gorsebrook and Tower Road Schools in Halifax and Kings College School in Windsor, Nova Scotia. He received additional education at Dalhousie University (1963-1965), the Nova Scotia Technical School of Architecture (1965-1969), and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (1969-1971), earning an engineering diploma, Bachelor of Architecture, and Masters of Landscape Architecture. He worked for architectural and urban design consulting firms in the United States, including Llewlyn-Davies Associates, William L. Pereira Associates, and Ben-Ami Friedman, AIP. In 1975, Arthur discovered R. Buckminster Fuller’s book “Synergetics”, which influenced and altered his design thinking.
In 1976, Arthur joined Parks Canada with a job in national park planning. He became involved in an investigation of the Torngat Mountains and Mealy Mountains in Labrador as proposed National Parks, which touched him deeply and ignited a passion for the North. He was also involved with developing a park management plan for Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland.
In 1981, Arthur moved to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and was employed as a Senior Planner and Urban Designer for the Government of the Northwest Territories, Department of Local Government, doing community-based town planning. From 1984 until his retirement in 2011, he worked for the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, becoming involved with the Northwest Territories Land Use Planning Commission (1984-1986), Lancaster Sound Regional Land Use Planning Commission (1984-1991), and Nunavut Planning Commission (1989-1991) in regional land use planning for various areas including Lancaster Sound, Keewatin, Sahtu, and Deh Cho. Later job titles included Special Advisory, Head Projects & Planning, Nunavut Land Use Planning Coordinator, and Mackenzie Valley Land Use Planning Coordinator. Following retirement, he served as a board member of the Gwich’in Land Use Planning Board from 2017-2020.
Arthur’s father was a photographer and Arthur’s own interest in photography stems from his experience at Expo’67 in Montreal. He has steadily cultivated it since then, taking thousands of images and showing his work in several exhibits.
In 1983, Arthur applied to the Canadian Astronaut Program, making the first cut. He was also involved with the northern SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Program chapter.
Arthur struggled with alcoholism throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, finally accessing treatment in 1991 and becoming involved with Alcoholics Anonymous. He met Dale Murphy in 1992, the love of his life, and the two were married on July 10, 1994. Arthur and Dale continue to live in Yellowknife.
William Bonnetplume was a Gwich’in artist who created oil paintings, pen and ink drawings, political cartoons, and at times wood sculpture.
He was born in 1946 or 1947 near Aklavik to Sarah (Mitchell) Bonnetplume and Paul Bonnetplume and was raised in the Aklavik area. He attended All Saints Anglican Residential School in Aklavik before 1959, where he began painting and drawing. He attended Inuvik Federal School beginning in 1959-1960, and lived in Stringer Hall. After, he lived in Akaitcho Hall (Yellowknife Federal Hostel) while attending Sir John Franklin School in Yellowknife.
He was living in Yellowknife in the 1970s and appears to have mostly made art in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1979 his drawings were featured in a booklet on Gwich’in traditional games (James Ross, Dinjii Zhuh Dene Games). His political cartoons were featured in The Native Press and later in Denendeh: A Dene Celebration (Dene Nation, René Fumoleau, 1984). In the 1980s his work was exhibited at galleries in Yellowknife (Toa-Chen’s Gallery, Twin Pines Motor Hotel, Arctic Art Gallery), in Calgary, and at the Arctic Arts Gallery in Edmonton. In 1990, his work was featured in an exhibition at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife. Several of his paintings from the 1970s are currently held at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies.
He died in Edmonton in 2001 at age 55.
John Blondin was born in Deline (Fort Franklin), Northwest Territories on March 6, 1959 to George and Julie Blondin. His family moved to Yellowknife in the early 1960s where John attended school. After his graduation, John traveled to Wales to attend Atlantic College. Upon his return to Canada, he completed a degree in linguistics at the University of Montreal. John was active in the theatre and art communities. He founded the Native Theatre Group and directed several productions of the "Association franco-culturelle de Yellowknife" (French Cultural Association). Much of his theatrical work focused on the telling of Dene legends, many of which he learned from his father, noted Elder, writer and storyteller George Blondin. He also performed in original Native theatrical and dance performances in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. He did not formally study photography, however, he enjoyed it as a hobby. He died on April 27, 1996 at the age of 37.