Authenticity in Aboriginal Cultural Landscapes
Transcript of 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
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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
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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
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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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ABORIGINAL CULTURAL LANDSCAPES 67
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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ABORIGINAL CULTURAL LANDSCAPES 69
???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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70 APT BULLETIN: JOURNAL OF PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGY / 39:2-3, 2008
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
-
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ABORIGINAL CULTURAL LANDSCAPES 71
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.