Awakening i the Northwest Territories

wakening in the Northwest Territories is Alastair Henry’s biography from his birth in Glasgow, Scotland in 1944 to when he departs Canada’s north sixty years later, but the guts of his memoir is the two years he spent with a small First Nations band in Lutsel K’e, a small fly-in hamlet on the east end of Great Slave Lake in Canada’s Northwest Territories.

After a strict Catholic upbringing in Bolton, Lancashire, England, Alastair emigrates to Canada by himself at the age of nineteen and becomes a typical yuppie – family, house in the suburbs, and a big job in the corporate sector. Following London Life’s Freedom 55 plan, he retires at 57 and goes to live in the country. A year later, disillusioned with the passivity of retirement and feeling unfulfilled, he sheds his material possessions and goes to work for the Lutsel K’e Dene band as the General Manager of their development corporations.

Cultural differences and a challenging environment ignite in him fresh perspectives, inspire a new way of being, and fuel his soul searching, changing the direction of his life. He leaves the north feeling fulfilled and passionate about using his skills and experience to help others less fortunate.