Norma McBean (1923 – 2014)

Norma McBean was born in Calgary. At age eighteen, she joined the Canadian Women's Army Corps in Ontario where women were trained to be drivers, cooks, clerks, typists, and telephone operators during the Second World War. After the war, she became a proof-reader for Compton's Encyclopaedia in Chicago and stayed for several years. She was working in Edmonton when she was commissioned to take pictures of the Sourdough Rendezvous Festival in 1966 and she moved to the Yukon in 1979.¹⁾

In 1995, Norma was commissioned by Northwestel to photograph elders in the Northwest Territories. She insisted that these photographs go back to the elders instead of the Archives. Her photographs have been exhibited around the territory including the Hougen's Centre and the Whitehorse courthouse. McBean had strong political views, favouring the NDP, and shared them freely. She was always ready for a religious argument if a sermon was not to her taste. She was a familiar sight on the street with her walker and dressed in matching hat, coat, and dress. She was contentious but also intelligent, independent, and generous. She threw birthday bashes at the Thomson Centre and Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre, renting a big room, providing food, paying musicians, and inviting people from all walks of life.²⁾