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Q&A with Ronne Heming

"Before about 1985/88 there really wasn't much about the North except somebody's memoirs from 50 years ago. So then we started digging a little deeper to find people's stories of the North"

Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 15/01) - Ronne Heming grew up in Vancouver, earned a history degree -- with honours -- from McGill University and then worked as a writer/photographer in Montreal until 1975.

That was the year she came to Yellowknife, on a holiday, to see the North. Heming was fascinated with the North, stayed, and started Outcrop Communications Ltd.


Ronne Heming


The company has evolved from producing brochures to publishing books and magazines. Its most recent book is Yellowknife Tales, a collection of stories and memories from the people who presided at the city's birth and watched it grow to the Northwest Territories capital.

YellowknifeLife: When you first came to visit during the summer of 1975, did you plan to stay in Yellowknife?

Heming I just stayed. I was supposed to be back home in Montreal at the end of September (but) I phoned up just before I was supposed to back and said, 'Sorry, I'm not coming back.'

I just thought it was time to make a change, time to do something totally different. It was fun learning about the North and it was really fun learning about business.

YellowknifeLife: What did you find so appealing about the North?

Heming It was the people in Yellowknife, different kinds of people, the variety of professions and activities. Types of people that I never had a chance to meet or talk to before.

YellowknifeLife: You met some people while taking photos?

Heming I met some pilots. There were lots of little float planes around Old Town and if you went down and took pictures you got to know them after a while. So they would take me out flying. They had some groceries or something for a bush camp and took me along. So I saw a lot of countryside.

YellowknifeLife: What did you do when after you decided to stay?

Heming I looked around for a job and I didn't find one to my liking.

It was a very interesting time when the MacKenzie Valley pipeline was being closed down and people in the kind of business that Outcrop is in were closing down and leaving town. So, I started a one-person little business called Outcrop.

YellowknifeLife: What kind of work have you done?

Heming Some brochures for people and I looked after the Chamber of Commerce and the travel association in the first few years. There were lots of jobs that we did for people that caused us to travel all over the North.

And then you get kind of what we used to call it 'missionary zeal,' telling people about what you know.

Telling them all these wonderful things we know about the North. You get so enthusiastic about it and you think there's nothing out there, there's no material.

Before about 1985/88 there really wasn't much about the North except somebody's memoirs from 50 years ago. So then we started digging a little deeper to find people's stories of the North.

The first one was Erik Watt's father (Frederick B.) and he had written a book about his time in the North called the Great Bear. My business partner, Marion LaVigne, found it in the Watts' washroom one night and said "Gee, what's this?"

So, we ended up deciding to publish our first book (1981) which was Great Bear, A Journey Remembered.

YellowknifeLife: What makes such stories interesting?

Heming I think people are very real and very human. They are generally quite warm and friendly.There are lots of good storytellers in the North for sure.

YellowknifeLife: Do you find that people are starting to pass on the stories to younger generations?

Heming Yes. Just like in the recent book Yellowknife Tales.

YellowknifeLife: What story do you have to tell about your first Northern experience?

Heming The couple of the first people I have met in Yellowknifer were Barb Bromley and Mabel Braathen and they decided they would take us camping.

So, we hiked-up the trail to Ryan Lake and we camped there on the rocks and it was my first experience fishing in the North.

And, I was so proud I caught a fish and I didn't know how to get it ashore and someone came over and helped me. They got it off the hook and it flew away back into the water and I thought I would never catch another one.

The other thing was they had a big tent set-up there that we camped in. I remember Mable had some pots and pans, and she took them into the tent to scare away the bear. I remember thinking 'No, there's no bears around here, that can't be true.'

And, over the years, I've seen bears several times.

I remember spending one very cold winter afternoon there in the little time there was daylight taking photographs of buildings, of all the different kinds of houses there were.

I think it was 43 below; you could just go out long enough to take one roll of pictures and come back in to thaw the camera, thaw out the film and load another one (roll) and go out again.

YellowknifeLife: Are people still interested in reading?

Heming One of the things that's interesting about publishing books, particularly magazines in the North is that it's still relatively new here.

We try to reflect what Northern people are saying, not what Southern people are thinking about us.

YellowknifeLife: Accomplishing something new, is that part of being in the North?

Heming I think so, there's lots of opportunity and we always said for years there's still several business ideas that I would like to explore. We always said that there's more than enough ideas, there are just aren't enough hours in a day to try them.

YellowknifeLife: The most recent book, Yellowknife Tales, is your priority?

Heming Yes, trying to sell these for the seniors and make sure they all get sold.

YellowknifeLife: What have you learned from the business?

Heming Oh, I learned all kinds of things. You learn the publishing business which is a little antiquated in its business practises. It's a pretty scary business in the first place and the banks don't like publishers very much.

YellowknifeLife: It's a risky business?

Heming Yes. You're really fronting a lot of money to put out a book and you hope you're going to sell it.