Yellowknife is the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories. The city was colonised by settlers from the south back in the 1930s, who came to the area looking for gold. Those first prospectors set up shacks and shanties on the edge of Great Slave Lake and a nearby island, and those dwellings remained even as the city grew around it over the years.
Today, the shacks and houseboats are still used by prospectors of a different sort – namely people who’ve come here in search of adventure and high paying jobs. Many are young, educated professionals who simply like the novelty of it, others want a simple lifestyle, and a few having been living here for many years and just want to be left alone. They are a colourful collection of bureaucrats, musicians, artists and a handful of curmudgeons.
I moved to Yellowknife in 2005 and was quickly introduced to people in the off-grid community. It’s a very social place, and many people who live here are involved in the local arts, music and media scene, so as a visual artist myself, I became friends with many of them right away.
At first, I thought the people here were all essentially the same kind of person: adventurous hippies who want their own space. I was wrong. The people are a mix from all walks of life, who live off-grid for wildly different reasons. There are bureaucrats, engineers, electricians, lawyers and all sorts of professionals. But there are also some old-timers who simply love the quality of life, and people just looking for a great experience and cheap rent.
While the shacks and houseboats themselves are a big draw for tourists and historians, nobody has really ever photographed the people here. I wanted to give an accurate representation of who they are and where they live. The off-grid community has been covered in film and television before, but those representations have often been very one-dimensional and misleading. I wanted to capture everyone in a way that is honest and accurate.
While working on this project, I learned that you don’t need a lot of space or luxury items to have a great quality of life. I also learned how important it is to look after your home (many people in the off-grid community have to maintain their homes in extreme conditions), so it’s important to not take things like plumbing, structure, and energy for granted.
More than anything, I learned that off-gridders are probably among the largest contributors to the culture and character of Yellowknife. Most of them volunteer and perform at local events, they serve on various boards in the city, they run small businesses and welcome curious tourists into their homes. In my opinion, the people in the off-grid community are probably the best ambassadors for Yellowknife – and they rarely get credit for it.
See more of Pat Kane’s work on his official website, or follow him on Instagram.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
You might like
A stark, confronting window into the global cocaine trade
Sangre Blanca — Mads Nissen’s new book is a close-up look at various stages of the drug’s journey, from production to consumption, and the violence that follows wherever it goes.
Written by: Isaac Muk
“Like skating an amphitheatre”: 50 years of the South Bank skatepark, in photos
Skate 50 — A new exhibition celebrates half a century of British skateboarding’s spiritual centre. Noah Petersons traces the Undercroft’s history and enduring presence as one of the world’s most iconic spots.
Written by: Noah Petersons
“I didn’t care if I got sacked”: Sleazenation’s Scott King in conversation with Radge’s Meg McWilliams
Radgenation — For our 20th Anniversary Issue, Huck’s editor Josh Jones sits down with the legendary art director and the founder of a new magazine from England’s northeast to talk about taking risks, crafting singular covers and disrupting the middle class dominance of the creative industries.
Written by: Josh Jones
Free-spirited, otherworldly portraits of Mexico City’s queer youth
Birds — Pieter Henket’s new collaborative photobook creates a stage for CDMX’s LGBTQ+ community to express themselves without limitations, styling themselves with wild outfits that subvert gender and tradition.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The suave style and subtle codes of gay San Francisco in the ’70s
Seminal Works — Hal Fischer’s new photobook explores the photographer’s archive, in which he documented the street fashion and culture of the city post-Gay Liberation, and pre-AIDS pandemic.
Written by: Miss Rosen
The stripped, DIY experimentalism of SHOOT zine
Zine Scene — Conceived by photographer Paul Mpagi Sepuya in the ’00s, the publication’s photos injected vulnerability into gay portraiture, and provided a window into the characters of the Brooklyn arts scene. A new photobook collates work made across its seven issues.
Written by: Miss Rosen
