Bern Will Brown went to the Arctic in 1948 as an Oblate priest and traveled extensively by dog team throughout the region. In the early 1960s, he helped found the Hareskin (Sahtu Dene) community of Colville Lake, north of the Arctic Circle. Brown married Margaret Steen in 1971 and they still reside in Colville Lake. Here Father Brown, the first gentleman on the right, is shown at one of the northern churches of his charge.
Bern Will Brown-- Noted Northern Author, Artist, Photographer
Bern Will Brown, noted northern author, artist, photographer, and respected community leader provides new insights and perspectives on the Sahtu Dene, the people referred to as the “Hareskin” people in Alexander Mackenzie’s 1793 journal. Having lived among them for over sixty years and as a speaker of their dialect, Brown is well positioned to provide an adventure in history and culture rooted in the Hareskin traditional way of life. End-of-Earth People, his latest contribution and a valuable record of the North, is a portrait of a people Brown has come to know in ways that anthropologists and ethnologists could only envy.
This Youtube video was produced by the Inuvialuit Television Network. Showing both historical and contemporary perspectives, this is one of the best videos on the life and work of Bern Will Brown.
Running time: 49 minutes
Father Brown's work as an Oblate priest covered many duties not usually associated with clerical work. He served as editor of the Aklavik Journal, a community newspaper he founded in 1955 serving the Mackenzie River delta region of the Canadian Arctic. At one time he offered painting lessons to eager students. On occasion he would even serve as barber. The video, above, provides an extensive account of his ministry and his secular work as an entrepreneur, painter and community leader in the North.