BIO
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Scott McQueen was born in Yellowknife on January 22, 1964 at the hospital where his mother had to fly from her home village of Rocher River, NWT. Scott’s ancestry is the Ts’o t’ine (Yellowknives Dene First Nation) from the Taltson River on the south side of the Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. Currently Scott lives with his family in Yellowknife and works as a Traditional Economy Consultant for the Government of the Northwest Territories.
Scott worked at the NWT Pavilion at the World Expo in 1986 in Vancouver, B.C. During his seven months in Vancouver, Scott learned how people around the world were interested in listening to his stories of his family and the way they lived on the Land in the North. With encouragement from his Chipewyan speaking mother, Scott decided to start a dog mushing tourism business in 1995. The business flourished not only into a full slate of Dene cultural camps for visiting family and friends to Yellowknife, but also to full-day school camps where students learned about the Dene of the N.W.T The business was put on hold in November 1997 as a result of the tragic loss of Scott’s father.
Scott re-started his business, Tugah Dene Cultural Camps, in December 2003 largely concentrating on the Japanese tourism market. On average, Scott provides dog sled rides and story telling experiences to approximately 1,000 Japanese tourists from the December to April Aurora season. Scott intends to expand his business to include cultural camps and Dene craft lessons to his repertoire of stories toYellowknife visitors and school camps once again.
Scott’s debut stage performance in Yellowknife was in June 2006 at the Northern Arts & Cultural Centre’s Festival of Stories. He loved the experience and began to realize his skill and passion of storytelling. From this experience, he received an invitation to attend the Yukon Storytelling Festival in August 2006.