Hélèna Katz once ran a small youth hostel in southwest Ireland and, later, a women’s shelter in the Northwest Territories. She has also published four nonfiction books and participates in the annual Walk Without Borders for MSF Canada.
In 2006, she traded her Montreal apartment for life on a small alpaca farm in Fort Smith, NWT. She also spent nearly two years in Inuvik, where Inuvialuit colleagues in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region taught her the value of space for quiet reflection, the power of collaboration and about the unbroken connection between the land, people and culture.