TRMT 396
Lecture #8
Dan McDonald
Communal identity and connection to land is attractive to tourists
Visiting a cultural landscape rather than a wilderness ‘untrammeled’
Activities & places to visit then seen as more/less culturally appropriate
Endorsed OR tolerated OR banned
Notzke (2006); Carr (2007)
Sacred sites can coincide with natural features attractive for recreation
Examples:Devil’s TowerUluruBlack HillsChaco Canyon
Parks a “nexus of different cultures”
Place s of solitude or challenge OR spiritual practice & harvesting
Past history of guiding for tourist hunters and fishers
Economy over-rode concerns about sport hunting
Long history of sport hunters limiting traditional harvesting and access to wildlands
In some cases separate tourists from harvesting activity
Fair CompensationFair exchange of
goods, ‘bads’ & risksParticipative Justice
Informed consent with a veto or acceptance
Direct Participation & Recognition JusticeDetermination of how
social circumstances & cultural terms will be expressed
Powys Whyte (2010)
Environmental IdentityEnvironmental Heritage“ responsibility to protect the
aspects of our relationship to our environmental that we wish to preserve for future community members” (p.81)
Tourists want to be exposed to these
Tribal members want to work within & re-affirm sense of place & identity
Powys Whyte (2010)
Whole of life is characterized by relationships that are inherent and demand beneficial reciprocity
The physical and spiritual world are oneSystem of “management’ flows from this
understandingHahuulthi
Chiefly Governance Decision making as custodians Resource responsibilities
Oosumich The protocol of spiritual transaction that guides
decisions Testing the continued validity of spiritual
traditionAtleo (2005)
“But the ownership is titles of our land, that has never been signed by mamuthni that they are titled to it. So, it belongs to our chiefs here. Like I said the other day, there was 900 some odd names of types of songs that’s about cougars. Indian names, those names have been sitting there for thousands of years and it hasn’t changed. The boundary lines are still there, recognized by our people. Still there today and still high ranked names are still there today”
(McAvoy, McDonald & Carlson, 2003)
Suspicious of park creation given timing of past park expansions (1970’s Parks Canada and 1990’s B.C. Parks) and land removal
Creating own & co-managing parks in ways more consistent with environmental heritage & identity
Promoting tourism on these lands
Respect traditional land management systems & use
Operate from an expanded sense of stewardship
Community consentJoint/shared territory
issuesPressures to create
economy in communitiesBalancing aboriginal and
non-aboriginal usersCultural interpretation
and protectionIntellectual property
protection e.g. medicines(McDonald, McDonald & McAvoy, 2000)
Tourism can reconfirm relationship to place or alter it
Visitor demand for indigenous space s & to understand their heritage is increasing
Places & homelands protect identity
Recognition of these relationships is not only just, but the key to ongoing cultural identities
Atleo, R. (2005). Tsawalk: A Nuu-Chah-Nulth Worldview. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press.
McAvoy, L., McDonald, D. & Carlson, M. (2003). American Indian/First Nation Place Attachment to Park Lands: The Case of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth of British Columbia. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration. 21 (2): 84-104.
McDonald, D., McDonald, T. & McAvoy, L. (2000). Tribal Wilderness Research Needs and Issues in the United States and Canada. Proceedings of the 2nd International Wilderness Science Conference, Vol 2. USDA Forest Service RMRS-P-15-VOL-2, Ogden, UT.