Highlights: Canada: the Northern Lights, from legend to economic reality for Indigenous people. Deeply anchored in the daily lives of the Indigenous people of the Canadian Far North. Northern Lights are the main characters of numerous stories and legends, today highlighted during tourist activities. The city of Yellowknife is one of the best places in the world to see the aurora, but indigenous businesses are avoiding restricting themselves to this phenomenon alone. In a museum devoted to the practices of the region's indigenous peoples, an Indian couple did not come just for the lights of the North.

Deeply anchored in the daily lives of the Indigenous people of the Canadian Far North, the Northern Lights are the main characters of numerous stories and legends, today highlighted during activities...

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Canada: the Northern Lights, from legend to economic reality for Indigenous people

An aurora borealis in the sky of Yellowknife, January 17, 2024. © Léopold Picot / RFI

By: Léopold Picot Follow

From our correspondent in Canada,

It's hard to describe what it feels like to see the night sky ablaze with northern lights for the first time. What stands out first is the speed with which the auroras appear, this discreet veil which suddenly intensifies to green and color the starry canvas. Then the ballet of jets of solar winds hitting the layers of the atmosphere takes off. Its fluctuations and movements immerse the viewer in a unique state, suitable for exposure to natural phenomena, from the jump of a whale to the explosion of a volcano.

For residents of the Far North, the lights of the Northern Lights are part of everyday life. “

Tourists often ask me if I remember the first time I saw the aurora. I answer them: “

Do you remember the first time you breathed in

?”

", says Joe Bailey of the Dene First Nation and owner of Northstar Adventures in Yellowknife, in northern

Canada

. The auroras thus punctuated and still punctuate the vigils of indigenous peoples, giving birth to oral legends to try to give meaning to this magnetic phenomenon.

Spirits and traditions

For millennia, indigenous peoples of the north of the globe have lived with these northern lights. Among the Inuit of Hudson Bay, in the Canadian Polar Circle, they are guides, torches that show the spirits of the dead the path to paradise. For the Sámi of Northern Europe, the aurora are the spirits of the dead, dangerous spirits, which can cause the death of those who disturb them.

Among the Dene, some communities of whom have crisscrossed, among other places, the banks of the sadly named Great Slave Lake of Yellowknife, the dawns are called “Naka”, they are the spirits of the ancestors who celebrate the success of their descendants with dances. Bobby Drygeese, founder of Indigenous tourism operator Dene-Adventures in Yellowknife, agrees: “

The ancients tell all kinds of stories about the aurora, which is said to be our ancestors. They are happy to see them dance, because it means they are happy to see us survive, struggle, raise our families, be strong.

Even the inhabitants of Yellowknife who are not from the indigenous peoples of the region, develop small beliefs linked to the Northern Lights. Like these amateur photographers, who get into the habit of whistling when they are waiting for them, hoping to make them come, or who have the impression that the sky is trying to communicate with them, that it alone offers them a unique spectacle. .

Promote a culture

Bobby, passionate and fascinating, tells during his vigils with tourists many stories passed down among his people. “

There is the story of this old lady, who invoked the dawns to guide hunters lost in the forest, or this little boy, who leaves at dawn to treat the wounded, before returning to his parents,”

explains The tourist guide.

The city of Yellowknife is one of the best places in the world to see the aurora, but indigenous businesses are avoiding restricting themselves to this phenomenon alone. During his vigil, Bobby uses a map of the vast territory to tell the story of the balance of power between the different communities. “

The goal is also for tourists to discover our culture. We show our traditional instruments, our food, our way of seeing the world. It’s also a way of compensating if they don’t see any

,” explains Bobby.

Because the disappointment can be great: some tourists come from India or China to see the auroras and spend thousands of dollars in the hope of seeing them. In a Yellowknife museum, mainly devoted to the practices of the region's indigenous peoples, an Indian couple did not come just for the lights of the North. “

Seeing the aurora was on my list of things to do before I die, but I don't think tourists should come here just for that. Being passionate about History, I am delighted to discover the indigenous culture and the history of this region

,” explains Anish, delighted.

Develop your community

The Northern Lights thus have enormous potential for economic and societal development for Canadian indigenous peoples. Tourism is first and foremost a way of revitalizing a region centered on diamond mines, now losing power.

Then, while Indigenous people experience systemic racism, with an unemployment and incarceration rate much higher than the average Canadian, developing auroral tourism is a way to reverse the stigma, attract tourists and raise awareness indigenous culture.

For Joe, it is important that tourists are aware of this: he castigates entrepreneurs from all over Canada, who try to profit from auroral tourism, to the detriment of locals. “

Choosing indigenous peoples when visiting a territory ensures sustainable and sociable tourism, deeply anchored in the landscape

,” says the tourist guide. A way of continuing to pass on stories, passed down from generation to generation.

Canada: the Northern Lights, from legend to economic reality for Indigenous people

Canada: the Northern Lights, from legend to economic reality for Indigenous people

Spirits and traditions

Promote a culture

Develop your community

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