Watt, Erik

Erik Watt was born in Edmonton, Alberta, on March 4, 1927. He first came to the Northwest Territories in 1943, when he traveled the Mackenzie River. He returned to the north in 1956 as a reporter for the Edmonton Journal. When he left the Edmonton Journal in 1959, he was hired by the Winnipeg Free Press and continued to work in the north as a northern reporter until 1962. During his years as a journalist in the north, he had the opportunity to visit many communities in the Northwest Territories and in northern Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec. He made a photographic record of his travels through the north. His work as a journalist took him to small communities in the eastern arctic such as Cape Dorset, developing communities in the west such as Inuvik, and gave him access to Distant Early Warning (DEW) line sites across the north. Erik Watt moved to Yellowknife in 1976 and was the editor of the Yellowknifer (1976-1978), the regional manager and director for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (1978-1983), and the founding editor of Up Here magazine (1984-1985). Between 1985 and 1998, he was self-employed as a public relations and media consultant with his company, Erik Watt and Associates. Erik Watt died November 10, 2003.