Bern Will Brown

Saskatchewan NAC Auction House Biography and Notes

Bern Will Brown was born in 1920, in Rochester, New York in 1920. In 1948 he came to northern Canada as a priest with the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. For the next fourteen years he worked in several northern communities, including Fort Norman (Tulita); Fort Franklin (Deline); Goldfields, Saskatchewan; Fort Chipewyan, Alberta; Aklavik; Fort McMurray, Alberta; and Nahanni Butte. In 1962 Brown was sent to Colville Lake, only a short distance north of the Arctic Circle, in the traditional homeland of the Hareskin (North Slavey) Dene. At Colville Lake, Brown designed and built a log church, "Our Lady of the Snows", became fluent in the Hareskin dialect of the northern Dene and immersed himself in the community, sometimes providing medical treatments and dentistry, acting as fire warden and postmaster. In 1971, he left the priesthood and married, remaining in the community of Colville Lake. After leaving the priesthood, Brown increased his focus on art making, eventually becoming quite prolific and publishing five books. Bern Will Brown died in 2014, in Colville Lake, at the age of 94.