This is the story of the introduction and expansion of the Bahá’í Faith in Northern Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut) focusing on the 1950s to 2000.  It describes the Yukon First Nations’ rapid acceptance of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation, recognizing in ‘Abdu’l Bahá’s teaching that all would be gathered under one tent an echo of their own traditions.  These early Bahá’ís took on leadership and teaching roles across the North. More than 100 members of one extended family became Bahá’ís in the Yukon before 1970. This is also a story of NWT Dene and Inuit believers who risked ostracism from their families and travelled thousands of kilometres to share their Faith with other Inuit.
Based on more than five years of research and 30 interviews with Northern pioneers and early believers, the author writes of Indigenous visions and dreams of ‘Abdu’l Bahá and pioneer memories of hardship and humour. It provides an analysis of the crises and victories faced by believers in the North that is important for both northern and southern Bahá’ís to learn from and offers inspiration for growing Bahá’í communities.

About the author:  Leslie Cole became a Bahá’í in Yukon in 1981 and lived in Carcross and Whitehorse for eight years. She first went to Canada’s North for a summer job in Fort Resolution, NWT and later did her MA in Geography on cultural change on Baffin Island from the 1950s-1980s. Her work as a journalist took her to most Yukon communities as well as Inuvik, Iqaluit, and Yellowknife. She has lived and worked in the Yukon, Denmark, and Norway and travelled to many communities in the circumpolar North. Her first book Under Construction: The History of Cooperative Housing was published by Borealis Press in 2008.