PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

Mary-Anne weaves a fascinating personal story with honesty, thoughtfulness and appreciation for the Dene spirit. I love the arc that took us from the naive, innocent but adventurous teenager, through 45 years to an amazing re-connection with the Indigenous people who inspired her life’s work. How amazing that the skills she acquired along the way were the very ones that would support and nourish the people and the culture that she had fallen in love with in her youth! Margaret W, Counsellor

I read this book in one sitting. What a beautiful story of how the author found and fulfilled her life’s purpose. The book is a legacy of love, connection, faith and inspiration. I am grateful to know more about the Dene people and how their deep connection to the land guides their belief system and actions.  Sarah H, University of Victoria                        

Mary-Anne Neal has not only written a timeless love story. She's also written a memoir that proves the divine kindness of the universe and the sweet dance of fate.  I love this tale of love, friendship and allyship! What a gorgeous read! Please buy this memoir. You will love it! Mahsi cho, Mary-Anne Neal, for writing such an important book about the North. It is proof of destiny and fate dancing together.  Bravo!   Richard Van Camp, Author

I laughed. I cried. Tears of joy and heartache. I was with the author on every step of her love story and soul connection. I felt the frustration of her abrupt departure back to Edmonton and dismayed at the racism of the day – the same dismay I feel today toward the overt and systemic racism that plagues our society. This wonderful memoir is an amazing tribute to the remarkable community who shaped the author’s life and the amazing people who opened their hearts to a teenager searching for answers.       Andrew G                                      
Fascinating … this book is poignant, inspiring and spiritual. One often wonders how things have come about to affect our lives. Is it synchronicity? Destiny? Fate? Or some plan over which we have little control? Lorrene S, physiotherapist

The story is unique in its sharp focus on a short period of time depicting first contact, by which I mean the first encounter between a young white adult in the 1970s and an indigenous group, itself attempting to find meaning with the white world imposed on it. There are very few life stories by any women, white or indigenous, from this area of Canada. Well worth reading!
Carolyn R, University of Victoria

I highly recommend this engaging, enlightening, and pull-at-the-heartstrings memoir. Mary-Anne's story of the journey to her soul's calling, and the serendipitous path she travels, includes a great love story, history and lessons of the Dene First Nation people of Canada's North, as well as enlightenment around racism and conscious and unconscious biases with a call to eradicate race-based ills that haunt our past and taint our present. Mary-Anne's writing style takes you back in time, through her considerable life experiences, and evokes all the emotions a good read should. I laughed, empathized with the people in her story, and cried more than once, in joy and heartache. Thank you, Mary-Anne, for your vulnerability and for sharing this highly personal story of the Dene people. You are all heroes.  Shelley Langille, coach                   

This book is beautifully written. Transporting the reader back 50+ years to the northernmost reaches of Canada, teaching us about traditional indigenous ways while learning about young love and hard times. Read it yourself to experience its true magic. Enjoy.
Tia N, dental hygienist

Wow, great read! Honest, passionate and compelling. You had me tearing up in a couple of spots. The reconnection with the Dene was emotional and joyous. You are ever the optimist; your story is always hopeful.  Thanks for sharing. Dave Harvey, educator  
I loved reading Mary-Anne's story of her first trip to the far North in 1971 and her experiences with the Dene peoples of the Sahtu. How the summer she spent in NWT affected her spirit and how she reconnected with the children she met as a teenager and went on to create a heritage for the Dene through the Dene Heroes project. Thank you, Mary-Anne!  Anne H (ret’d)

The project to emancipate First Nations people is not just vital and overdue; it is linked to our own emancipation. When we tell the truth about our violent past and present – when we truly affirm that other lives matter – we are led closer to the ultimate reconciliation: one in which we come to terms with Indigenous brilliance and accept that in many ways, the cultural practices of First Nations people are superior to our own.     Angela G                                                                  

In these days of COVID shackles on our dreams, our travel and our adventuring, what better way to keep our spirits alive than a gripping and true adventure story. This book should be required reading for young adults seeking the inspiration to take risks and follow a dream, no matter how crazy it might appear. For older readers, the book whispers in our ear that we may still have time to launch ourselves out of a humdrum existence into an adventure of our own making.
This story is about a young woman with a wild spirit of adventure and the indomitable, courage that took her, as a disenchanted university student in Edmonton, to an Indigenous camp in the far North of Canada. Fortified only by youthful confidence and a commitment to learn about the Dene culture, Mary-Anne Neal launches herself into the unknown. Without a plan, a roadmap, money or even an invitation, the author hitches rides in small planes to the vast region of the Sahtu ‘north of sixty.’ Under the Midnight Sun recounts Neal’s adventure of self-discovery in the northernmost part of Canada, where few non-Indigenous persons venture without a job contract or, at the very least, a guide.
Mary-Anne Neal’s desire for honest and open human interaction exposed to her the uglier fault lines of northern communities operating on strict, but unspoken, race-based rules. What makes this book so meaningful and rare is that it provides unvarnished insights into the North’s prevailing social context during the 70’s from the perspective of a non-resident.
Spanning half a century, the story links the youthful Mary-Anne Neal with today’s successful professional educator and mother of four who felt the tug of unresolved questions from her youth pulling her back to the North. This time, she takes a commercial flight instead of hitching rides with bush pilots. A credit card replaces the $38 (yes, really!) in rolled-up bills that the teenager had in her jeans back in 1971. In 2015, life’s loose threads are knit together through uncanny synchronicity. Today’s Dene leaders, who were children in 1971, recognize Mary-Anne immediately and invite her to return to the Sahtu in her new incarnation.
Invited in 2020 by band leaders and community leaders to candidly disclose what she has seen and experienced over the past half century, Mary-Anne Neal does precisely that. Her masterful use of the present tense, even in intimate situations, invites the reader to feel the intensity of the moment. Under the Midnight Sun is a valuable addition to literature about the North, both as an intimate personal reflection and a social commentary on northern Canadian culture that deserves far more of our attention. Frances G, lawyer (ret’d)                                        

A young woman’s spellbinding story of love for a young man, his people and his land. A generational tale of the Soul of Canada and its rightful caretakers - our First People - the “Dene of the Sahtu.” Here’s hoping this inspiring author’s spine-tingling narrative is the first of many, and that a novel is in the works.   Steph S                                                   Such a great read - really looking forward to sharing it with my family. So grateful to the author for sharing her story.     Randy K

Under the Midnight Sun, a memoir by Mary-Anne Neal is honest, passionate and compelling. Neal explores her youthful dreams and life-long journey to understand Indigenous peoples. Her first contact and later reconnection with the Dene are spiritual, educational, emotional and joyous. Her tone is optimistic, and the theme is always hopeful. UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN can become an important story to support Indigenous Education across Canada.    Charlotte H, educator     

Highly highly recommended read! Mary-Anne Neal’s vulnerable and heroic tale of adventures in a hamlet North of 60 is truly remarkable! This is the tale of young love that matures along with lives well-lived! The story is imbued with meaning and a loving drive to serve others. On a personal note, her book also helped me sort out some of my own thoughts and confusion regarding eroding cohesion of our country in the matter of race, social prejudices and even dream a little about going straight North some day. Penned beautifully.
Suzanna P

 
close crop.jpg
col lk church.jpg
20160419_173158 (2).jpg
 

Suggested lesson plans for the book can be downloaded for free:

EXCERPT

… The next day, May 15, 1971, I said goodbye to my parents and excitedly climbed into the co-pilot’s seat of John’s single-engine Piper Cherokee. Then we soared northward into the sky. Below me, the city of Edmonton quickly disappeared from view. An orderly patchwork of farms, fences and fields quickly became an unbroken expanse of green – the boreal forest[1] stretched beyond the horizon in all directions. The vast woodland was followed by muskeg, ponds and innumerable lakes that look like giant footsteps from the air. On and on we flew, straight north to Yellowknife, capital city of the Northwest Territories.

The four-hour flight tested my nerves many times. At one point, we hit a thunderstorm. The clouds around our small plane transformed from powdery white to deep purple, black, blue and steel gray. Lightning flashed all around us. The plane dropped twenty feet at a time, and my stomach plummeted along with it. John saw the look on my face and suggested I gnaw on some celery he had brought along. Chewing kept the nausea down, but I still felt sick to my stomach. John had also placed a plastic bucket on the cockpit floor next to my feet in case the sandwiches I had eaten for lunch came back up.

As we neared Yellowknife, the skies cleared and massive Great Slave Lake came into view, snow-covered as far as the eye could see. I briefly wondered why it is named ‘Slave Lake,’ then turned my attention to the scenery below. The four-billion-year-old Canadian Shield rock formations featured prominently among the low, rolling landscape of bog, willows, spruce and birch trees. I was north of the sixtieth parallel and a long way from home. Here, daylight in mid-May lasts almost twenty hours. The enormous sky seemed even bigger and bluer than the familiar Alberta sky.

Upon arrival in Yellowknife, I realized that I was now at the mercy of fate. I did not know a single soul other than my pilot, who would soon be on his way to the North Pole without me. Pilots, ground crew and mechanics (all male) stared at me when we landed and disembarked from the Piper Cherokee. John introduced me to Duncan and Malcolm of Northward Aviation, who sympathized when they heard I was on my way to far-off Colville Lake. But the reality was that no one flew to that inaccessible location unless an organization paid a hefty sum for the flight. The only way to get to Colville Lake was to charter a plane. The $38 in my pocket would not take me far.

My heart sank when I realized that I was less than halfway to my destination. Now I truly depended on the kindness of strangers. In that, I was not disappointed. Dunc and Malcolm offered to take me as far as Norman Wells, 500 miles (800 kilometres) northwest of Yellowknife on the Mackenzie River (known to the Dene as the Deh Cho). The Northward Aviation crew were hauling cargo to the Wells tomorrow and I was welcome to join them aboard their DC-3. A flight to Norman Wells would bring me one giant step closer to Colville Lake…

Order through Amazon to read the rest of the book — a love story with a surprise ending.