North-Wright Air’s history immortalized in print

Wings Over the Sahtu is a love letter to the region that documents the evolution of Norman Wells-based North-Wright Air.

Warren Wright says it’s a gift and an honour to fly in the Sahtu. The founder of North-Wright Air in 1986 with wife Carolyn, he and his family have released a book telling the story of the company.

“People asked how we got started, where we came from,” Warren said. “Why did you want to do what you’re doing?” 

He said the family wanted not just a visual history of their journey in aviation, but also some context for the environment in which North-Wright has grown. The airline is still family-run but has been 51-percent owned by Sahtu land corporations since the early 2000s.

“The book was more to tell the history of the Norman Wells area and the Sahtu area,” Warren said.

Author and photographer Bill Braden helped put together the book over the past two years. It includes a history of Arctic aviation with archival images dating back to the 1920s, as well as the story of the Wrights’ predecessors and former employers, Perry and Phyllis Linton, who gave Warren his start at Nahanni Air in the 1970s.

Travis Wright, Warren’s son and now the president of North-Wright, highlighted the airline’s majority Indigenous ownership. “That’s the biggest success in a lot of ways,” Travis said.

The book includes interviews with Délı̨nę leaders Danny Gaudet and Leonard Kenny, who were involved in the initial deal to create a joint venture.

“Today’s day and age needs that type of involvement with regions and coming together and making a company out of it,” Travis said, adding he hopes to see more communities coming together.

“When you open up travel and make it more beneficial and cheaper for people to travel, it helps a lot more for their own growth.”

The Wright family enjoyed the experience of chronicling their past – and their hopes for the future.

“It all came together really easily,” Carolyn said, encouraging other businesses to share their story. “If it feels good to get something out there on paper, then just go for it.”

Travis hopes the book will inspire others to visit the region. 

“There’s so much to see,” he said, adding the Sahtu is a vast area unlike anywhere else.

“It opened my eyes up,” said Warren, who grew up on a small farm in Ontario. 

“And that’s the beauty that I’ve seen in the country. I just fell in love totally, so I came north and stayed. I was gonna be like everybody else, come up for a couple years, but never left.”