Authenticity in Aboriginal Cultural Landscapes

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Authenticity in Aboriginal Cultural LandscapesAuthor(s): Thomas D. Andrews and Susan BuggeySource: APT Bulletin, Vol. 39, No. 2/3 (2008), pp. 63-71Published by: Association for Preservation Technology International (APT)Association for PreservationTechnology International (APT)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25433954Accessed: 09/12/2010 19:00

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Authenticity in Aboriginal Cultural Landscapes

THOMAS D. ANDREWS AND SUSAN BUGGEY

Aboriginal cultural landscapes are

living landscapes where authenticity

involves authenticating change.

The Western notion of authenticity isconsidered crucial to the cultural valueof heritage places. But what does au

thenticity mean in relation to places or

landscapes valued by aboriginal peoples? The standard interpretation of

authenticity, where the focus is on tan

gible things, on the attributes of mate

rial evidences, and on the integrity of

physical fabric, does not resonate with

aboriginal people and bears little relevance to the reasons for which indigenous communities value certain land

scapes.

Measures of authenticity need insteadto respect the cultural contexts to which

such places belong, the belief systemsassociated with them, and the related

concepts of land, time, and movement

that embody meaning in the cultural

landscape. Nor is authenticity exclu

sively about places; rather, it is about the

people and cultures?

living traditions? that commemorate, recognize, and

value heritage places through the dailyactivities of their lived lives. Using pri

marily Thcho examples from Canada's

______________________________^_____B^H_H^^^^^^|fig^^^^f-;'":;'" ' * sm!lla?BU

^__________________B_gf|pf^ W* : ^;]"?|||||

__________________?^^S:':; :. ^,^.

_________________________|^H^^sS^SI$^- ^-'-''*$-^ii^!?ili^^^^^^^_^_________j

___________________________f__l?M ^H^^^^^^^^l

Fig. 1. A fish camp at Diighe'tr'aajil, one of many places in Nagwichoonjik National Historic Site. Often

used for centuries, fish camps evoke both individual memories of using the place and memories ofancestors using the place before them, a process that continually adds layers of complexity to ideas

of cultural value. Courtesy of Ingrid Kritsch.

Northwest Territories, this paper ex

plores cultural value in aboriginal cultural landscapes and how the concept of

authenticity relates to heritage value inthese landscapes.1 The paper also exam

ines ways inwhich approaches broachedin the Nara Document on Authenticityand theWorld Heritage Convention

Operational Guidelines open opportunities for considering aspects and meaning

of authenticity in aboriginal cultural

landscapes.2The evolution of the concept of

authenticity in the past 15 years has

expanded understanding of the idea, aswell as consideration of how it can be

effectively assessed.3 The recognition ofboth cultural diversity and heritage di

versity in the Nara Document on Au

thenticity and the World Heritage Convention Operational Guidelines hasbroadened the approach to addressingauthenticity in cultural heritage, encom

passing different worldviews that relateto place in fundamentally different

ways. Aboriginal cultural landscapes are

expressions of a worldview that sees

land in essentially spiritual rather thanmaterial terms and regards humans as

an integral part of the land, inseparablefrom its animals, plants, and spirits.4

Key expressions of cultural value are

primarily immaterial, such as oral tradi

tions, traditional practices, and intense

interactions with living and nonlivingcomponents of the environment. Growth

and change are integral to these livinglandscapes and their cultural value.

In terms of theWorld Heritage Convention aboriginal cultural landscapes

may be seen primarily as associative

cultural landscapes, characterized by"powerful religious, artistic or cultural

associations of the natural element

rather than by material cultural evi

dence, which may be insignificant oreven absent."5 The recognition of the

63


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64 APT BULLETIN: JOURNAL OF PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGY / 39:2-3, 2008

Fig. 2. Tiicho Elder Harry Simpson following a successful moose hunt

completed while participating in an archaeological survey, underscoring the

importance of regarding aboriginal cultural landscapes as "living land

scapes." All images by Thomas D. Andrews, Government of Northwest

Territories, unless otherwise noted.

Fig. 3. Fat Fish Lake, the name of one of many significant places along the

Idaa Trail, reminds the Tiicho of their long and intimate relationship with

this area. Unseen are the numerous spiritual and corporeal animal-persons

gazing back at the traveller.

"active social role in contemporary

society closely associated with the traditional way of life, and inwhich the

evolutionary process is still in progress"in aboriginal cultural landscapes hassometimes led to their being classified asevolved continuing landscapes, but theusual absence of "significant material

evidence of its evolution over time" as

principal holder of heritage value conflicts with this categorization.6 As well,associative cultural landscapes

? and

aboriginal cultural landscapes ? do notinvolve such temporal linearity. Conser

vation experts working with associative

cultural landscapes recognize that au

thenticity "may mean the maintenance

of a continuing association between the

people and the place, however itmay be

expressed through time[,]" and "mustnot exclude cultural continuity throughchange, which may introduce new ways

of relating to or caring for the place."7

Inspired by the Nara Document,recent changes to theWHC Operational

Guidelines with respect to authenticityand integrity have extended explicitrecognition to the intangible aspects ofcultural heritage. New attributes that

recognize traditional practice, language,

spirit and feeling of place, and otherforms of intangible heritage as truthfuland credible expressions of culturalvalue for assessing authenticity help tofocus attention on values that are important in aboriginal cultural landscapes

while allowing tradition and cultural

continuity in communities to be main

tained.8 In part, these new directions

reflect the intense international dialoguethat has accompanied the adoption in2003 of the UNESCO Convention forthe Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, which centers on such

expressions of cultural heritage as oral

traditions, social practices, and knowl

edge and practices concerning nature

and the universe.9 The Declaration of

San Antonio points to the direct rela

tionship between authenticity and iden

tity, authenticity and social value (spiritual meaning manifested throughcustoms and traditions), and authentic

ity and stewardship. Where cultural

identity is the "foundation of our cultural heritage and its conservation" and

the values of a site are "an anchor of

cultural identity," aboriginal cultural

landscapes are often examples that

"sustain communal life, linking it to theancestral past...manifested throughcustoms and traditions."10 Indigenous

communities, as the creators and stew

ards of the heritage related to aboriginalcultural landscapes, value these places as

an integral part of their identity. Byidentifying heritage values within their

worldview and cultural framework,communities encompass what longestablished heritage frameworks else

where recognize as historical, cultural,

social, ecological, and spiritual values

(Fig. 1).The dynamic nature of both cultural

values and cultural landscapes makes

the process of identifying and protecting

them complex. While cultural land

scapes change, so do the cultures that

commemorate them. David Lowenthal's

astute exploration of authenticity across

the ages demonstrates that what counts

as authentic has continually shifted in

form, space, and time: "the criteria of

authenticity we choose reflect current

views about how yesterday should serveand inform today." What people valueas authentic is an attribute of the hereand now rather than the past.11 As

anthropologist Richard Handler elaborates, "The link between living culturaltraditions and the past is not a physicalone, not even in those cases involvingcultural property, or physical heritageobjects; rather, the link is a semiotic one.

We use objects to refer to, or to think

about, the past. But those cultural linksto the past can exist only in the present

and only within present-day semioticactivities. To save or conserve the past,

tradition, or heritage is to do somethingnew, today."12 This fundamental aspect

of authenticity is not applied well inheritage-conservation practice. However,

any test of authenticity relevant to abo

riginal cultural landscapes must respectthis context.

Aboriginal Cultural Landscapes: The

Living Landscape

What are aboriginal cultural land

scapes? As archaeologist Denis Byrneand historian Maria Nugent explain inrelation to Australia, "the concept of


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ABORIGINAL CULTURAL LANDSCAPES 65

W^^^^^Wf^^^?:h* ~v


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Fig. 5. Ttjchp seamstresses finish a lodge by

painting a red ochre band around the main seam

to protect future inhabitants from malevolent

entities. Only women are permitted to paint on

lodges, part of the practices that are passeddown from generation to generation.

by walking, by watercraft, and recentlyby vehicle. As Christopher Tilley has

noted, it is "through walking...[that]landscapes are woven into life, and lives

are woven into the landscape, a process

that is continuous and never-ending."20

Networks, or "meshworks," of such

routes connect places in the landscape.21

Local knowledge?

knowing yourself, your environment, and your rela

tionship to other organisms that livewith you

? is generated, then, throughinteraction between organism-personsand through the direct experience of

day-to-day life and travel. Travel over a

storied or cultural landscape is a keycomponent of Thcho pedagogy, who usethe land as a way of ordering narratives

containing information relevant to all

aspects of Thcho life.22 Prominent geo

graphic features and locations where

dramatic events occurred are usuallynamed and have narratives associated

with them. The physical structure of the

place is used as a mnemonic to recall the

narratives, which provide information

about history, identity, and lifeways. The

names, as expressions of Thcho lan

guage and unchanged for hundreds of

years, provide a link to older expres

sions and sometimes codify specificinformation not available through other

means. For example, Thcho elders were

able to lead archaeologists to ancient

stone quarries solely by examining the

language of the place names.23 Trails

link these named places and, togetherwith the narratives residing in them,create a complex topology of knowl

edge.The key for gaining knowledge is

through the direct experience of travel.

By moving from place to place an individual can collect the stories resident

along the way, as the physical form of anamed geographic feature triggers mem

ory recall. Thus, children were educated

and socialized through travel as parentsand elders helped them learn the namesand narratives through storytelling. The

daily practice of living?

setting trapsor a net, harnessing dogs, repairing

snowmobiles, butchering a caribou,

tracking a moose, cooking favorite

foods, cutting and sewing hide clothing,framing a birch-bark canoe, lashing a

snowshoe, travelling safely over thinning

spring ice or rough water? was taught

through demonstration as youthwatched experienced adults undertakingthese activities. Viewed through the lensof personal experience, the storied land

scape becomes a repository of informa

tion, ready to be called upon when

required. Through the daily travel re

quired to make a livelihood and usingthe mnemonic cue of landmarks to recall

the information stored in the landscape,individuals gradually acquired the

knowledge needed to dwell in a changing world.

For the Thcho. travel through a cul

tural landscape today is seen as a com

ponent of nation building, reflectingtraditional ways that continue to bevalued in a modern world.24 Travel byfoot, birch-bark canoe, or dog team over

thousands of kilometres of trails hasbeen embedded in the Thcho way of

being for millennia; indeed, Thcho oral

tradition speaks of mythical beings andgiant creatures travelling the very same

trails that humans continue to use.25

Though the birch-bark canoe and the

"There are many stories about that

hill, so when we get there Iwill tellstories about it. There will be many,

many stories."?Harry Simpson,Tiicho elder, Gameti, from Northern

Ethnographic Landscapes: Perspectives from Circumpolar Nations

dog team have long disappeared as aform of everyday conveyance, youth and

elders continue today to travel these

routes using modern Kevlar canoes or

snowmobiles (Fig. 4). As part of aschool curriculum, these journeys are

designed to make students "strong liketwo people" by providing them with thecultural experience of their traditional

landscape as an aspect of the bricks-and

mortar school setting. The first trips,more than a decade ago, overlappedwith the period when the Thcho were

negotiating a comprehensive self-government and land-claim agreement with the

governments of Canada and the North

west Territories. As a result, the tripscame to symbolize the nation buildingthe Thcho were engaged in.26As the

Chiefs' Executive Council of the Thcho

Government notes, "canoes were significant in charting the history of who weare as Thcho. We continue to keep this

history alive by traveling the trails ofour ancestors to our annual gatherings,

today."27

Anthropologist Jean-Guy Goulet hasnoted that the "Dene expect learning tooccur through observation rather than

instruction, an expectation consistent

with the Dene view that true knowledgeis personal knowledge. The Dene preferthis kind of knowledge since it is the

form that has the most secure claim to

being accepted as true and valid."28

Knowledge, then, is acquired throughembodied experience and observation,

often in the presence of others, drawingupon, when needed, a codified set ofinformation passed through an oraltradition. Since stories are tied to geo

graphic features, the landscape is both a

repository of knowledge and a stage onwhich actors gain experience throughthe embodied activities of daily life (Fig.5).

The fact that the northern aboriginalsystem of knowledge acquisition differs

markedly from that inWestern scienceleads sometimes to distrust and misun

derstanding when individuals from thesedifferent epistemological traditionsinteract. Addressing this, anthropologist

Colin Scott has argued that aboriginaltraditional knowledge results "fromintellectual processes not quantitativelydifferent from those of Western science."29 More and more, both traditions

are seen as sciences, or ethnosciences, to


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Fig. 6. Youth and elders work together in intergenerational transfer of oraltraditions and practices through making a traditional Tiicho birch-barkcanoe.

Fig. 7. Five young Gwich'in men proudly model traditional caribou-skinoutfits made by Gwich'in seamstresses as part of a knowledge-repatriationproject ensuring the continuity of long-lived traditions.

use thewording

of Americananthropol

ogist Melford Spiro. As Spiro has noted,"all science is ethnoscience. Hence, since

modern science isWestern science, its

truth claims (and canons of proof) areno less culturally relative than those of

any other ethnoscience."30 In short, to

require that oral tradition, a canon of

proof in aboriginal society, be subjectedto additional tests of authenticity toensure its veracity smacks of ethnocen

trism. Certainly the Thcho have ac

cepted the concept that there is some

thingto learn from

peoplefrom a

different epistemological system. Travel

ling traditional birch-bark canoe trails inmodern Kevlar canoes provides a way

for elders and youth to interact in an old

setting in a new way. By incorporating a

traditional pedagogy of teaching throughthe experience of travel in a storied

landscape within the frame of a bricksand-mortar school system, the Thcho

have turned this into a positive force fortheir children, creating, in their words,students who are "strong like two peo

ple."

Authenticity: Conserving the TrueEssence of the Place

Some conservation professionals work

ing with places associated with aboriginal peoples have questioned the relevance of applying the concept of

authenticity to them. Debate has cen

tered on issues of the historical validityof ethnographic data, the imposition ofcultural bias in interpreting them, the

impact of historical diaspora and social

dislocation onself-reinterpretation

of

the past, and the significance of trans

formative roles in cultural revitaliza

tion.31 Rather than pursuing these direc

tions, Thomas F. King, an expert in

traditional cultural properties, suggeststhat the appropriate approach to au

thenticity may be to ask whether the

place plays "the sort of role in a com

munity's cultural integrity that peoplesay it does"; this approach raises the

question of how community is identified.32 The Northwest Territories Protected Areas

Strategyleaves this com

plex matter to the community itself toresolve in the course of initiating and

carrying through its eight-step processfor the identification, evaluation, and

protection of areas of significant cul

tural and natural value.33 With tradi

tional knowledge being lost rapidlythrough lack of intergenerational transfer of oral traditions and "spatial practices," as Lisa Prosper terms experiential land-related activities, community

engagement is particularly important to

Authenticity "may mean the mainte

nance of a continuing association

between the people and the place,however itmay be expressed throughtime" and "must not exclude cultural

continuity through change, which

may introduce new ways of relating toor caring for the place." ?Asia

Pacific Regional Workshop on Associative Cultural Landscapes, Report,1995

thesustainability

ofaboriginal

cultural

landscapes (Fig. 6).34 In exploring application of the concept to cultural her

itage inAfrica, ICCROM conservation

experts Jukka Jokilehto and JosephKing see "an invitation to undertake a

process where the authenticity of her

itage is gradually being revealed as thetrue essence of the place."35 As the

association between people and landdefined by their worldview lies at theheart of aboriginal cultural landscapes,how is authenticity conserved in such

landscapes?Enlarging the range of attributes for

meeting the conditions of authenticity inorder to encompass several attributes

related to intangible heritage opens the

way to addressing authenticity in abo

riginal cultural landscapes.36 Traditionsof respect for the land, traditions ofobservation and ecological knowledge,traditions of movement in the landscape,traditions of activity related to the land,and traditions of storytelling all root

people in the land. Aboriginal cultural

landscapes are the expression of this

relationship over time. Continuity oftraditions is thus a key indicator of

authenticity. Currently, identified attributes do not, however, get to the core of

the heritage value of such landscapes,which centers on a people's relationshipwith the land. That relationship lies in

continuity of association with the land.

Continuity of access to and activities inthe land, continuity of oral traditionsand practices bound to the land, respectfor the knowledge and skills of the


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elders, and engagement of youth and

community in continuity of memory and

identity through intergenerational transfer and continuing practices

? these are

some conditions that can conserve the

cultural value of aboriginal cultural

landscapes. Without them, the landscape

loses the traditional knowledge andpractices that are essential to its cultural

value and authenticity.

Continuity: People, Communities, andCultural Landscapes

Cultural value in aboriginal cultural

landscapes centers on the living land

scape, a dynamic world defined bycontinuity, growth, and change, where

human life is interactive with a naturaland spiritual world integral to the land.As

anthropologistColin Scott

explains,intricate human-animal-plant relation

ships are central to practical empiricalknowledge that guides decision makingon the land.37 Considerations of wholeness or intactness, the defining condi

tions of integrity of the cultural land

scape, must situate within this cultural

context. Aboriginal groups may con

sider authenticity to be lost where land

management approaches intrude on

their access to the land and their contin

uing relationship with it.

Authenticity is always relative, not

fixed, and is negotiated, not imposed. Ithas to work with the cultural context in

which it is being applied. Credibility ofinformation sources is rightly an issue in

applying theWestern concept of authen

ticity. Credibility is, however, itself a

cultural value that needs to be inter

preted within the cultural context to

which it is being applied. Consideringthe authenticity of aboriginal cultural

landscapes within their cultural context

requires acceptance not only that oral

traditions are a valid source of informa

tion but also that they are a canon of

proof in aboriginal society.Oral traditions include storytelling

and active listening, place names, songs,and kinship relations, all of which con

tinue to grow in response to a changing

environment. Embodying knowledge,

history, language, and identity, these

traditions are the ongoing mnemonic

record of a people's shared experience

with the land? historical events, experiential and mythic journeys, dangerous

places, rich resources, moral instruc

tions. Documentation of traditional

knowledge?

including place names,narratives, ecological knowledge, and

practices? has been extensively prac

ticed in the Northwest Territories formore than 25 years.38 Manuals related

to documenting oral traditions andaboriginal cultural landscapes as Territorial historic sites provide some readilyaccessible, community-based tools forsuch documentation.39

Language is an integral part of main

taining a people's relationship with theland. Numerous culturally specific termsin aboriginal languages are essential to

retention of ecological knowledge incultural landscapes and are also important to understanding nuances of oral

traditions. British anthropologist Bar

bara Bender examines place, memory,and language to show how a word inthe language of a person's experience

evokes memory, while that word in

another language often fails to engagethe meanings and connections associated

with memory.40 For example, for most

southern Canadians the word caribouevokes a sense of the North, of wilder

ness, and of a cultural orientation as a

northern nation. Yet few would be ableto identify the image of the animal

stamped on every Canadian 25-cent

coin as a caribou. In contrast, for all

northern aboriginal peoples the word

caribou ? ckwp inThcho?

especiallywhen expressed in their own aboriginal

language, evokes the very essence of life,

of an existence living in harmony withother animal-persons embodied in

a

northern cultural landscape. It repre

sents tools, food, clothing, and habita

tion, for all of these things were provided by the caribou. Most of all, it doesnot evoke a sense of wilderness but

instead a sense of home, for without the

caribou human life could not have

existed in the harsh northern environment for the millennia it has.

Intergenerational transfer of oral

traditions, language, and traditional

practices from elders to youth is a keycomponent of retaining cultural value in

aboriginal cultural landscapes. The term

tradition by definition means "the trans

mission of customs or beliefs from

generation to generation" and"a long

established custom or belief passed on in

this way."41 Assured long-termaccess to

the land, travel in it, and continuingpractice of traditional activities relatedto the landscape, such as traveling,

working on the land, and storytelling,are crucial to transmitting knowledgeand experience of the land and the oraltraditions associated with it. Continuity

of these traditions involves both learningand ongoing practice of appropriatebehavior on the land, skills for living

with the land, and creation of traditional forms (Fig. 7).

Elders are the knowledge holders, thecornerstone of knowledge about aboriginal cultural landscapes; by mentoringyouth in oral traditions, language, andtraditional practices, the elders helpsustain their culture. Youth are the core

of sustainability of oral traditions and

aboriginal cultural landscapes. They can

learnlanguage, traditions,

andpractices

by listening to storytelling by the eldersand by traveling the land with them tolearn observation, places, practices, and

skills, so they too can participate in

sustaining community memory and

identity and the landscapes that are

integral to them. Engaging youth mean

ingfully and using new technologiesfamiliar to youth to assist learning con

tinue the cultural tradition of adaptingto change. For example, using computer

assisted mapping technologies in school

programs to document aspects of tradi

tional land use provides an opportunityfor youth to learn from elders while

acquiring new skills appropriate to life

today. These new technologies alsocreate new ways of learning, as old

knowledge is digitized and presented innew ways. For example, Lessons from

the Land: A Cultural Journey throughthe Northwest Territories, developed asa school program, centers on the mean

ing and experience of the Idaa Trail, a

traditional Thcho trail from Great Slave

Lake to Great Bear Lake. Stopping

points in this virtual journey form a webof connected places along the trail that

include traditional caribou and fishing

places, campsites, places associated with

legendary figures, grave sites, portagesand abandoned village sites, all important to Thcho identity.42 Learning about

the "old days" through projects de

signed to revisit ancient examples ofmaterial culture provides opportunities

for youth and elders to interact, while

also creating display objects to enrich


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???i>

Fig. 8. Youth and elders walk together along an esker in the barrenlands during a "science camp,"allowing them to share their knowledge with youth of many cultures and reflecting the changingdemography of the Northwest Territories.

the school setting and providing yetother opportunities for learning new

skills, such as video recording and film

making. The knowledge and skills tocontinue creating traditional forms

?

renewal through traditional know-how? holds people together with their

cultural heritage and cultural identity.Projects like the Thcho caribou-skin

lodge and birch-bark canoe and theGwich'in clothing project engage communities in retention of their heritagewith the cultural landscape.43

As the community-based evidence

and community-based projects discussedin this paper make obvious, community

engagement is crucial to both identifyingvalues and conserving places associated

with aboriginal people. Elders and

youth, indeed all parts of a community,are engaged in the continuity of cultural

landscapes. They are living landscapesthat evolve with the life of the commu

nity. The community holds identity and

memory and nurtures them from the

past through the present into the future.The engagement of youth is critical tothis continuity and to conserving cul

tural landscapes.

Conclusion

To introduce an important article re

flecting on Western views of cultural

authenticity in the context of indigenous identity politics, Beth Conklininvokes the memory of a Gary Larson

cartoon:

Every connoisseur of anthropology departmentbulletin boards knows this Far Side cartoon

(Larson 1984): A grass-skirted native man in a

tall headdress stands at the window of a

thatched hut. He hasjust spotted

acouple

of

pith-helmeted, camera-toting creatures comingashore and sounds the alarm: "Anthropologists!Anthropologists!" His two companions, simi

larly attired with bones through their noses, rushto unplug their television, VCR, lamp, and

telephone and stash them out of sight. Thecartoon captures a persistent stereotype aboutnative peoples and cultural authenticity. The

first, obvious idea is that outsiders (anthropologists included) tend to see complex Western

technology as a corrupting force that undermines traditional cultures. "Real" natives don'tuse VCRs.44

Conklin further notes that Larson's

sketch contains a second, more subtle

idea: "Hide the television, but keep thegrass skirt, and the 'authenticity' of thenatives goes unquestioned." Conklin's

analysis demonstrates that Western

notions of cultural authenticity requirethat indigenous people must match a

perceived ideal of indigenousness that is

ahistorical, unchanging, and pure from

foreign influences, and in so doing com

mits the "error of essentialism," to

paraphrase anthropologist RichardLee.45 As Conklin notes, this "leaves

little room for intercultural exchange or

creative innovation, and locates 'au

thentic' indigenous actors outside globalcultural trends and changing ideas and

technologies."46In a similar vein, this paper has at

tempted to reflect on how theWesterntest of

authenticityis

appliedto

aboriginal cultural landscapes in the context of

heritage preservation. For the Thcho. the

process of educating children while enroute through a storied landscape and

engaged in the practice of daily life is anancient and "authentic" pedagogy. No

one would suggest otherwise: indeed, insome ways this process is the perceivedideal that Western notions of authentic

ity attempt to uphold. However, we

argue here that teaching their children

today while traveling a storied landscapein Kevlar canoes and as part of a mod

ern school curriculum is just as authen

tic, because it applies the very same

cultural principles and values, albeit inthe context of an introduced pedagogythat uses modern transportation tech

nology and while participating in a

process of implementing self-government and land-claim provisions as partof nation building.

Today the Thcho cultural landscapeis under the jurisdiction of a complexself-government and land-claim agree

ment that provides control over vast

areas important to the Thcho. while

other parts remain under Canadian

government control, albeit within a

joint-management framework. This

regime allows the Thcho to pursue jointventure agreements with multinational

mining companies wanting to developmineral resources while protecting the

Thcho right to hunt caribou, an activitythat has sustained them for centuries

and one that continues today. However,in preparing for a hunt today, a hunteris as likely to refer to a map from the

government's wildlife department show

ing the location of GPS-collared caribouas he is to reference his own experienceof caribou behavior or the stories passeddown from his father and grandfatherabout caribou.47 He may use a truck, a

motorboat, a snowmobile, or a plane to

reach the hunting area and will surelydispatch the caribou with a modern,high-powered rifle. A century ago, theThcho landscape was firmly under thecolonial control of the Canadian govern

ment, and their agents?

the church, the


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Royal Canadian Mounted Police, andthe Hudson's Bay Company

?adminis

tered it on their behalf. A century before

that, the cultural landscape was subjectonly to the agency of the Thcho, theanimals and spiritual entities they shareditwith, and physical components of the

landscape itself.What might the Thcholandscape look like a century from now?

Which of these versions of the Thchocultural landscape are authentic? The

only possible answer is that while theyall are authentic, only the landscape of

today is available to us: the others can

only be conceived in our imagination(Fig. 8). To seek a sense of authenticityin the past is to search for an artificialconstruction. As David Lowenthal has

noted, in "historic preservation, as in

heritage generally, what is sought is apt

to be the semblance of authenticity, asearch that inevitably yields contrivance."48

Aboriginal cultural landscapes are

living landscapes that change as time

progresses, where oral tradition is the

canon of proof and where changingpractices of embodied experience with

landscapes grow from generation to

generation, all the while being acted outon a global stage. Any test of authentic

ity, therefore, must recognize, expect,

and endorse change. Ultimately, how

ever, the reality that aboriginal culturallandscapes are located in the here and

now and are under a process of continu

ing change challenges the need for a test

of authenticity at all.We believe that theNara Document on Authenticity andThe Declaration of San Antonio havemade significant advances in this critical

area, and we hope this paper stimulates

further debate.

THOMAS D. ANDREWS isTerritorial Archae

ologist with the Government of the Northwest

Territories and is based at the Prince of Wales

Northern HeritageCentre in Yellowknife. He

has partnered in numerous collaborative re

search projects with a variety of Dene groups in

the Canadian north over the last 30 years.

SUSAN BUGGEY, former Director of Histori

cal Services for Parks Canada, is a Fellow of

APT. She participated, as North American

representative, in the development of UNESCO

World Heritage Convention guidelines for

cultural landscapes. Her research interests focuson values of cultural landscapes and the mean

ings of landscapes in diverse cultures.

Notes1. The Tiicho. or Dogrib, are an Athapaskan,

or Dene, group that traditionally occupied thearea between Great Slave and Great Bear lakesin the Northwest Territories. In 2003 theysuccessfully concluded a land-claims and self

government agreement and are now working to

implement its many provisions.

2. Nara Document on Authenticity in UNESCO, World Heritage Convention, Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the

World Heritage Convention, 2005, Annex 4,http ://whc. unesco. org/archi ve/opguide05 -en

.pdf, accessed November 8, 2007.

3. Rolf Diamant, Nora J.Mitchell and JeffreyRoberts, "Place-based and Traditional Productsand the Preservation of Working Cultural

Landscapes," CRM: The Journal of HeritageStewardship 4, no.l (2007): 6-8.

4. Susan Buggey, An Approach to AboriginalCultural Landscapes (Ottawa: Parks Canada,1999), 1-2. See also http://www.pc.gc.ca/docs/r/pca-acl/index_e.asp, accessed March 28,2008.

5.World Heritage Convention OperationalGuidelines, Annex 3.10 (iii).

6. Quotes taken from the World HeritageConvention Operational Guidelines, Annex3.10 (ii).

7. Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop on Associative Cultural Landscapes, Report, 1995,

http://whc.unesco.org/cullan95.htm, accessedNovember 8, 2007.

8.World Heritage Convention OperationalGuidelines, II. E. 82 and 83.

9. UNESCO, Convention for the Safeguardingof the Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2003,

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php

?pg=00006,accessed November 8, 2007.

10. The Declaration of San Antonio, Article

B.l, 4, and 6, http://www.icomos.org/docs/san_antonio.html, accessed November 8, 2007.ICOMOS members of countries from South

America, Central America and the Caribbean,as well as North America, participated in theInteramerican Symposium on Authenticity in

Conservation and Management of the Cultural

Heritage in San Antonio, 1996.

11. David Lowenthal, "Authenticities Past and

Present," CRM: The Journal of HeritageStewardship 5, no.l (2008): 9.

12. Richard Handler, "Cultural Property and

Culture Theory," Journal of Social Archaeology3, no. 3 (2003): 355.

13. Denis Byrne and Maria Nugent, MappingAttachment. A Spatial Approach to AboriginalPost-Contact Heritage (New South Wales,Australia: Department of Environment and

Conservation, 2004), 73-74.

14. Barbara Bender, "Time and Landscape,"Current Anthropology 43 (2002): S103-S112.

15. Northwest Territories Protected Areas

Strategy, A Balanced Approach to EstablishingProtected Areas in the Northwest Territories

(Yellowknife, Northwest Territories: NorthwestTerritories Protected Areas Strategy AdvisoryCommittee, 2000), 7. See http://www.nwt

wildlife.com/pas/pdf/stratsupp.pdf, accessedNovember 8, 2007.

16. Thomas D. Andrews, John B. Zoe, andAaron Herter, "On Yamozhah's Trail: SacredSites and the Anthropology of Travel," inSacred Lands: Aboriginal World Views, Claims,and Conflicts, ed. J. Oakes, R. Riewe, K.

Kinew, and E. Maloney (Edmonton: Canadian

Circumpolar Institute, 1998),305-320.

17. John B. Zoe, ed., Trails of Our Ancestors:

Building a Nation (Behchoko, NorthwestTerritories: Thcho Community Services Agency,2007), 52.

18. Paul Cloke and Owain Jones, "Dwelling,Place, and Landscape: An Orchard in Somer

set," Environment and Planning 33 (2001):651.

19. Tim Ingold, The Perception of the Environment: Essays in Livelihood, Dwelling, and Skill

(London: Routledge, 2000), 153.

20. Christopher Tilley, A Phenomenology ofLandscape: Places, Paths and Monuments

(Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1994), 29-30.

21. Tim Ingold, Lines: A Brief History (London: Routledge, 2007), 80-82.

22. Thomas D. Andrews, "The Land is Like a

Book': Cultural Landscapes Management in theNorthwest Territories, Canada," inNorthern

Ethnographic Landscapes: Perspectives fromCircumpolar Nations, ed. I. Krupnik, R.

Mason, and T. Horton (Washington, D.C.:Smithsonian Institution, 2004), 301-322.

Thomas D. Andrews and John B. Zoe, "TheIdaa Trail: Archaeology and the Dogrib

Cultural Landscape, Northwest Territories,Canada," in At a Crossroads: Archaeology andFirst Peoples in Canada, ed. G. P. Nicholas andT. D. Andrews (Vancouver: Archaeology Press,Simon Fraser University, 1997), 160-177.

Andrews, Zoe,and

Herter,"On Yamozhah's

Trail."

23. Andrews and Zoe, "The Idaa Trail,"160-177.

24. Zoe.

25. Thomas D. Andrews, John B. Zoe, andAaron Herter, "Yamoozha: Sacred Sites and the

Anthropology of Travel" in Trails of Our

Ancestors, 29-31.

26. Zoe, 5.

27. Zoe, preface.

28. Jean-Guy Goulet, Ways of Knowing:Experience, Knowledge, and Power among theDene Tha (Vancouver: University of BritishColumbia Press, 1998), 27. Dene is an Atha

paskan word meaning people or man and, in

the Northwest Territories of Canada, serves as

a group identifier for the various regionalbands speaking Gwich'in, Hare-Slavey, Tlicho.or Chipewyan. However, the term is sometimes

used to denote other Athapaskan languages

occupying three regions of North America. The

northern Athapaskans occupy the northern

parts of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and interior

British Columbia, as well as significant portionsof Alaska, Yukon Territory, and the Northwest

Territories, and comprise 23 languages. The

Pacific Coast Athapaskans, comprising 18 lan

guages, occupy portions of the west coast of

Washington, Oregon, and California. The


10/10


Southern Athapaskans occupy the Four Corners region of the U.S. Southwest and are

represented by two languages, Navajo and

Apache.

29. Colin Scott, "Science for the West, Mythfor the Rest? The Case of James Bay Cree

Knowledge Construction," inNaked Science,

Anthropological Inquiry into Boundaries,

Power,and

Knowledge,ed. Laura Nader

(NewYork and London: Routledge, 1996), 84.

30. Melford E. Spiro, "Cultural Relativism andthe Future of Anthropology," Cultural Anthro

pology 1, no. 3 (1992): 260.

31. Thomas F. King, Places That Count. Traditional Cultural Properties in Cultural Resource

Management (Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira

Press, 2003), 111-114.

32. King, 113-116.

33. Northwest Territories Protected Areas

Strategy, 12-16.

34. Lisa Prosper, "Wherein Lies the HeritageValue? Rethinking the Heritage Value of Cultural Landscapes from an Aboriginal Perspec

tive," The George Wright Forum 24, no. 2(2007): 119. See http://www.georgewright.org/forum.html, accessed November 1, 2007.

35. Jukka Jokilehto and Joseph King, "Authen

ticity and Conservation: Reflections on theCurrent State of Understanding" in Expert

Meeting on Authenticity and Integrity in an

African Context, Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe,26-29 May 2000, ed. Galia Saouma-Forero

(Paris: UNESCO, 2001), 33-39.

36. The Operational Guidelines for the World

Heritage Convention (2005), U.E.82, list the

following attributes: form and design; materialsand substance; use and function; traditions,techniques and management systems; locationand setting; language, and other forms of

intangible heritage; spirit and feeling; and otherinternal and external factors. The Conventionfor the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural

Heritage (2003), Art.2.1 defines intangiblecultural heritage as "the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills ... that

communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heri

tage." Art.2.2 (a-e) identifies the followingexpressions of intangible cultural heritage: oraltraditions and expressions, including language;

performing arts; social practices, rituals andfestive events; knowledge and practices con

cerning nature and the universe; and traditional

craftsmanship.

37. Scott, 69-86.

38. The tradition of documenting traditionalland use has been linked with land claims

negotiations for more than three decades,beginning in the Northwest Territories with theInuit Land Use and Occupancy project, which

was published in 1976. Recent efforts haveused the Internet to good effect, presentingeducational and informative Web sites focussedon place names, trails, land use, and other

aspects of culture. A good example has been

posted by the Gwich'in Social and CulturalInstitute at http://www.gwichin.ca/.

39. Elisa Hart, Getting Started in Oral Traditions Research (Yellowknife, Northwest Territories: Prince of Wales Northern Heritage

Centre, 1995), Occasional Papers No. 4, http://www.pwnhc.ca/research/otm/otrmanl/.htm,accessed March 31, 2008. Northwest Territo

ries, Cultural Places Program, Living with theLand. A Manual for Documenting Cultural

Landscapes in the Northwest Territories

(Yellowknife, NT: Department of Education,Culture and Employment, GNWT, 2007),

http://pwnhc.ca/programs/downloads/Living_with_the_land.pdf, accessed March 31, 2008.

40. Bender, S107.

41. Compact Oxford English Dictionary. For

discussion, see Jukka Jokilehto, "Considerations on Authenticity and Integrity inWorld

Heritage Context," Open Journal Systems

[Online] 2, no. 1 (2006): 7. See http://www. eci- br. org/no vo/re vista/r st/vie warticle. php?id=44, accessed November 14, 2007. The

Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, art. 2(1), gives similar

recognition to the pertinence of intergenerational transfer for intangible cultural heritage.

42. Lessons from the Land. A Cultural Journey

through the Northwest Territories. See http://www.lessonsfromtheland.ca, accessed November 1, 2007.

43. Thomas D. Andrews and Elizabeth

Mackenzie, Thcho Ewo Konihmbaa: The

Dogrib Caribou Skin Lodge: An Exhibit(Yellowknife, NT: Prince of Wales Northern

Heritage Centre, 1998). Thomas D. Andrewsand John B. Zoe, "The Dogrib BirchbarkCanoe Project," Arctic 51, no. 1 (1998):75-81.1. Kritsch and K. Wright-Fraser, "The

Gwich'in traditional caribou skin clothingproject: repatriating traditional knowledge and

skills," Arctic 55, no. 2 (2002): 205-210. JudyThompson and Ingrid Kritsch, Yeenoo Dai

K'etr'ijilkai' Ganagwaandaii I Long Ago

SewingWe Will Remember: The

Story ofthe

Gwich'in Traditional Caribou Skin ClothingProject (Gatineau, QC: Canadian Museum of

Civilization, 2005), Mercury Series, EthnologyPaper 143.

44. B. A. Conklin, "Body Paint, Feathers, andVCRs: Aesthetics and Authenticity in Amazonian Activism," American Ethnologist 24, no.4 (1997): 711-737.

45. Richard B. Lee, "Twenty-first CenturyIndigenism," Anthropological Theory 6, no. 4

(2006): 455-479.

46. Conklin, 715.

47. June Helm, The People of Denendeh:

Ethnohistory of the Indians of Canada's Northwest Territories

(Iowa City: Universityof

IowaPress, 2000), 70-71.

48. Lowenthal, 7.

Documents

Authenticity in Aboriginal Cultural Landscapes