Woman who Lived and Loved North of 60

 

Canada’s bleak northland, 1,183,000 square miles, north of the 60th parallel is about one third of Canada’s territory, largely barren, lichen covered rock in summer, snow and ice in winter, with a population of about 70,000 aboriginals and others, spanning Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Our stories go back to 1937 when gold mines opened in Yellowknife and other mines elsewhere. There was no electricity or piped in water for washing or sewage - just tents, oil lamps, and lake or river water to be hauled in containers. Men from southern Canada were hired or trekked up themselves, or were transferred by mining, oil and gas companies, sent by the federal government, The Hudson Bay store or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. With them came a need for community services and social infrastructure, supplied in the main by women, workers like nurses, teachers, waitresses and cooks and wives and mothers.

These 36 mini memoirs, written simply, give you the feeling you are in their talking circle, hearing how they wove, in this inhospitable land, the social fabric that still exists today, how they made unshakeable, lifelong loving friendships. These are the women who lived and loved north of 60. Loved the land, the aurora borealis, summer berry picking and preserving, their family, neighbors and friends, faced loneliness, fought off bears, dealt with the isolation and no fresh produce all winter.

It is an exciting history on this youthful continent, learning how the early pioneers opened up resources needed for the cities and industry, they created jobs for both southern and northern residents, built schools, opened community services and developed their own unique style of consensus government. Women, so often the quiet and unassuming backbone of this enterprise are finally appreciated and realized here as inexplicably essential