Pukatawagan

Wally puts on a mask in his dental office to get ready for the day. The night before, the community had a power outage so he sits with the lights off. Though Mah can’t help patients without electricity, he prepares for a situation where the power comes back.

Dentist Wally Mah’s commute on Monday mornings begins at 7 am. He takes a taxi from his Exchange District condo to the Winnipeg airport where he boards a small plane to the northern First Nation of Pukatawagan. The community is about 820 km northwest of Winnipeg and is home to approximately 2,000 residents. It is only accessible by train or plane for most of the year but also winter road in the winter. I spent a week in Pukatawagan documenting Mah’s life serving the community for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Pukatawagan is about 820 km northwest of Winnipeg and is home to approximately 2,000 residents. It is only accessible by train or plane for most of the year, but also by winter road in the winter months.

Wally feels Ruby’s face for pain along her jaw after some X-rays. Ruby came in complaining about a toothache.

After locating the source of the pain in Ruby’s mouth, Wally tries a root canal at first but discovers the tooth must be pulled because it is fractured. “I’m sorry, Ruby,” he says.

Ruby holds her face after an intense round of tooth extraction.

The evening Pukatawagan loses power, Wally eats dinner in the dark in his room while replying to emails. The nursing station, which Wally’s room is in has an emergency generator to treat patients by the power doesn’t reach his room. In the summer, wild fires burnt down the power lines to Pukatawagan, so the community has been running off of generators ever since.

The nursing station where Wally works and where he lives.

After he finishes work for the week on Fridays, Wally gets on the 5 pm plane to The Pas, a town 520 km northwest of Winnipeg as there are no direct flights from Pukatawagan to Winnipeg. In The Pas, he takes a car transfer from the smaller airport where he landed to the larger one which has a direct flight back to Winnipeg.

In The Pas, Wally takes a long walk near the airport every week to decompress from work before getting on his flight to Winnipeg.

2021 Year in review

After a shoot for The Winnipeg Free Press at the St. Vital Park in Winnipeg, I posed for a photo in front of a backdrop photographer Mikaela MacKenzie and I had set up. Photo by Mikaela MacKenzie

I started January 2021 at home, with lots of hope that the world would soon return to normal with the arrival of vaccines. I had made goals of travelling later in the year to make up for 2020. I did end up travelling a little, but not in the way I expected. 

This year, I worked with lots of amazing editors and was fortunate enough to publish stories which really interested me. I also was lucky enough to accomplish two long-awaited career goals. Part of my photo project Targets of Hate was published in National Geographic, in an online article about racism against Asians; and after years of wondering when my time would come, I was finally was sent to photograph Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is photographed amongst local Liberal Party Members of Parliament candidates at Blue Note Park in Winnipeg on September 19, 2021, the night before the federal election. The Liberals’ federal PR team is well-versed in making the best impression. There were plenty of bright lights set up at the event, so that the PM and the candidates could be photographed well-lit.

The big news for my year would be Winnipeg though. In August, I moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, to start a staff job as a photographer at the Winnipeg Free Press, the region’s largest daily paper. I packed up my life and my two cats and drove us all west on a three-day road trip through Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay, and small Northern Ontario towns. It was beautiful and brought back memories of pre-pandemic life when I would drive all over the U.S., stopping in all the towns I knew by name but had never actually travelled to.

But before that, I enjoyed summer in Toronto, fortunate to be photographing “boat life” and exploring alternative housing options in Toronto for Toronto Life Magazine. I spent many days on the Toronto Islands on what started as a personal project, and it was pure bliss. I also documented several protests related to housing and witnessed strong community action and brutal shows of police force.

Protestors gather February 28, 2021 below the residence of Toronto Mayor John Tory to serve a cardboard cut-out of Tory with notices of action to drop a lawsuit against a local carpenter who built tiny shelters for the unhoused; create housing for the unhoused; and to repeal by-laws that prevent people from camping in parks.

Karyna and Francois pose for a photo in their boat home, docked in Mimico, where they live year round.

Charlie lowers the ladder on her boat home, which is docked at the Toronto Islands. She and her partner Sia live on the boat for six months each year during the summer.

Talia and Michel pose for a photo on their boat home, which is docked at a marina near Harbourfront. They live year round on their boat.

Sia and Charlie pose for a photo on their boat home which is docked at the Toronto Islands. They live on their boat for six months out of the year.

Though this year did not go quite the way I expected, all in all, I am very grateful to have been able to make all the work that I did this year. Here are a few other images I made this year that capture my 2021:

After the horrifying violence against Asian spa workers in Atlanta in early March, thousands protested and spoke up in cities around the world including Toronto.

This is a portrait I really liked. Ontario Tech chancellor Mitch Frazer, photographed for The Globe and Mail.

Soon after moving to Winnipeg, on the second day of working at the Winnipeg Free Press, my editor sent me to photograph a rally against vaccine mandates.

Dr. Eric Bohm, a surgeon, is photographed outside Concordia Hospital. Bohm says he would like to do more surgeries amidst a growing waitlist of patients but because of a provincial budget cap, he and other surgeons are not allowed.

Elder Wa Wa Tai Ikwe (Northern Lights Woman) of the Bear Clan, also known as Louise McKay, is photographed at St. Vital Park.

Margaret Swan, a senior political advisor at Southern Chief’s Organization, acting director of Child and Family Services and chairwoman of the board of Southern First Nations Network of Care.

Conservative party MP candidate Joyce Bateman is photographed in her home office before elections.

Liberal MP Terry Duguid is photographed on election night after winning his riding of Winnipeg South.

Chris Tacan with his horse Prince during a rest stop with the Sioux Valley Dakota Unity Riders.

Travis Mazawasicuna tends to his horses at the end of a ride with the Sioux Valley Dakota Unity Riders.

The Sioux Valley Dakota Unity Riders ride to bring awareness to issues affecting Indigenous people and to connect with their ancestors.

Gavin during a visit to Winnipeg in November. Shot on Portra 400 film.

Polar bears play in snow in Churchill, Manitoba.

An electric tundra buggy travels in Churchill, Manitoba.

Bombers player Zach Collaros emerges from smoke, holding the Grey Cup.

Bombers player Rasheed Bailey flexes some muscle at an event at IG Field, celebrating the team’s Grey Cup win.

Bombers player Mike Benson holds his son during a celebration of the Bombers’ Grey Cup win. The Bombers kickers celebrate behind him.

Santa walks past a discarded mask on December 22, 2021.

2021 was definitely an improvement to 2020 for me and I created some of my strongest work this year. I am so grateful to all of the editors who hired me and gave me opportunities to prove myself. I know I am fortunate that I get to make art for a living and am thankful every day. I’m hoping that 2022 will finally be the year that we can travel more freely and gather without restrictions. In any case, we made it to the end of 2021. That deserves some celebration. Thanks for reading. See you in 2022!

The only time I got on a plane this year was to go to Churchill, Manitoba, to photograph some polar bears and an electric tundra buggy for The Winnipeg Free Press. Never in a million years would I have predicted this trip at the start of 2021.