Ryan Dickie has been watching the northern lights since he was a child in Fort Nelson, B.C., where he still lives. His house faces north, so when he sees the skies lighting up through his window, he can quickly grab his camera and jump into his truck.

His community, the Dene people, call the lights naa’kah, and Dickie grew up knowing they were his ancestors dancing above him. “When you witness a northern lights display rippling and dancing and moving around overhead, it’s pretty hard not to think on a spiritual level,” Dickie says. “Sometimes the way it affects you is kind of unexplainable.”

Dickie’s series Naa’kah is the result of over four years of chasing these lights. He usually heads to the outskirts of town around midnight between late August and the middle of October, when the skies are most active, and he uses a long exposure to capture the patterns. “In the wintertime when everything is blanketed with snow and the moonlight,” says Dickie, “you feel a sense of awareness and connection.”

***

This story originally appeared in our December 2020 issue of Broadview

Amy van den Berg is a writer based in Northern Ontario

We hope you found this Broadview article engaging. 

Our team is working hard to bring you more independent, award-winning journalism. But Broadview is a nonprofit and these are tough times for magazines. Please consider supporting our work. There are a number of ways to do so:

• Subscribe to our magazine and you’ll receive intelligent, timely stories and perspectives delivered to your home 10 times a year. 
• Donate to our Friends Fund.
• Give the gift of Broadview to someone special in your life and make a difference!

Thank you for being such wonderful readers.

Jocelyn Bell

Editor/Publisher