Kue Young came to Canada from Hong Kong to study medicine at McGill University, Montreal. He devoted his subsequent years working with Northern and Indigenous communities of Canada and other circumpolar regions. He also worked in Tanzania training rural health workers. This memoir traces his complex journeys and provides the context to his rather unusual and winding career path. Partly political and historical, and partly a primer on Northern, Indigenous, and Global Health, as well as deeply personal, his story is an inspiration for Canadians to look beyond their own communities, learn about and from other peoples and cultures, and seek opportunities to make the world a better place.

This book should be of particular interest to students and practitioners who work in, care for, or are curious about Canada’s North and its Indigenous peoples.

“A straightforward, often wryly witty and self-deprecating, telling of Young’s remarkable life of dedication to improving the health of Indigenous people in Canada. From his humble beginnings as the youngest of 10 children in Hong Kong to becoming Dean of Public Health at the University of Alberta, Young reflects on how his cross-cultural experiences on virtually every continent inspired and enriched his commitment to ending the health disparities endured by Indigenous communities in Canada.”
—Ann Herring, Professor Emerita, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, Canada

“Dr Kue Young’s memoir will likely be of interest and value to anyone interested in how curiosity, talent, hard work and drive combined to create a meaningful career in public health, global health and academic leadership. From descriptions of his hardscrabble childhood roots in Hong Kong through years of dedicated service in low-resource settings, completion of multiple degrees, selection to diverse leadership roles, extensive global travel and receipt of high national and international honours, this reflective book provides a front row seat to not only the trajectory of one remarkable life, but also many of the social forces that have transformed public health practice, health workforce pipelines, academic careers, and our understandings of what best promotes health and well-being around the globe and in the Arctic, particularly in Indigenous communities. Those fortunate to have known Dr Young at any stage of his long career may also gain additional insight into how and why he became the influential, driven, productive, humble Arctic public health leader and mentor that he has long been. Highly recommended.”
—Rhonda M Johnson, Professor of Public Health, University of Alaska Anchorage, USA

“This is a remarkable and inspirational journey of a doctor born and raised in Hong Kong, who went on to work for the health and wellbeing of Canada’s Indigenous people, as practitioner, researcher, and administrator.”
—Chandrakant Shah, Professor Emeritus, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Canada

“In his book, Dr Kue Young takes the reader through his life and career in public health. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Kue Young became a pioneer of circumpolar health research. He has put his open and inquisitive mind to full use, and everything he has touched, from the health clinic in the Sioux Lookout Zone to a teaching post in Tanzania and back to the Canadian Arctic, has been turned into a fascinating narrative. One has always wondered where he got his strength from and this book gives the answer. From his childhood in Hong Kong via university studies in Canada, Kue Young’s academic focus evolved into a compassion for the underprivileged peoples of Northern Canada, not as the treatment of individuals but as improvement of their living conditions.”
—Peter Bjerregaard, Professor of Arctic Health, Centre for Public Health Research in Greenland, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

“What a pleasure it is to read Kue Young’s memoir! His journey from Hong Kong to northern Canada, with periodic stops on other continents, is grounded in his sense of social justice, and his profound understanding that social inequality within societies has tremendous consequences on human health. To change the conditions he saw as a physician delivering health care in northern Indigenous settlements, he embarked on more formal learning and accepted administrative responsibilities to lead Departments and Schools of Public Health at major Canadian research universities. There, the formation of cross-culturally competent health care workers not only demands a two-way flow of ideas but also builds respect among Indigenous and non-Indigenous students and practitioners. His humour, sometimes self-directed, makes the reader laugh; the brief tales of his administrative experiences show a man who speaks his mind. His love of the north, especially its Indigenous peoples, echo deep in the reader’s heart. Kue Young’s memoir is worth reading by anyone who has ever asked, ‘Why am I here?’”
—Emőke J E Szathmáry, President Emeritus, Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar, University of Manitoba