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.