Wally Firth
Wally Firth playing the fiddle, 1974. NWT Archives, Native Communications Society fonds - Native Press photograph collection, accession number N-2018-010, item number 2149.
Wally Firth is a Metis fiddler from Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories.
He started out as a Hudson Bay man, just like his father and grandfather.
Wally went on to work as a radio host for the CBC in Yellowknife and Inuvik.
He ran for the New Democratic Party in the 1972 federal election and served two terms as the NWT’s first indigenous MP.
Wally is a passionate musician who carries the combined histories of the Gwichin and Inuvialuit people of the Mackenzie Delta along with the traditional fiddle music of the region.
Wally Firth passed away March 2, 2024.
Wally Firth, HBC de Havilland Beaver, 1952-53, Fort McPherson, NT (photo courtesy Wally Firth)
Wally Firth, HBC man. 1958, Fort Wrigley. (photo courtesy Wally Firth)
Wally Firth working the CBC turntables, 1967 (NWT Archives/©YK Photo/N - 2019-001-0453)
Wally Firth with airplane. 1974. NWT Archives, Native Communications Society fonds - Native Press photograph collection, accession number N-2018-010, item number 2016.
Wally Firth swearing in as MP, 1972, Ottawa, ON (photo courtesy Wally Firth
Wally Firth playing fiddle, 2016, Victoria, BC. (photo credit unknown)
