Tourism issues at Canadian indigenous World Heritage Sites

The next section tourism issues at Canadian indigenous world heritage sites.

There are a broad landscape of indigenous peoples across Canada. we all speak, there are many different indigenous languages. They subsist differently and their individual regions, whether it’s north, whether it’s the maritime center of the country or western regions. There are all sorts of different backgrounds, experiences, traditions, cultures and tie to nature that individual have original bands have.

There are now 19 world heritage sites in Canada. They’re not all reflected here, but this is a very recent map. And it’s sort of broad landscape. But many of these are indigenous and they’re their nature or their aspect.

In December 2017 there is a new tentative world heritage site list that was undertaken by the parts Canada and the commission for UNESCO. And these are the sites here and of all the eight sites that were nominated for world heritage status, grand anada’s tentative list only one was non aboriginal, which was Heart’s Content. All the other sites have some sort of indigenous or aboriginal connection to them.

So there is very much a greater shift in terms of thinking about world heritage in Canada and how we should be focusing upon it So at this point in time the broader tentative list there is one only one out of the point sites or two out of the fourteen sites that are not indigenous orientation. that are not indigenous orientation. So again, that is very much the focus of world heritage right now in Canada. These here, this is cultural circle was scaling and sculpture one. And this is a rock carving sites in Qajartalik in a territory called Benefet.

Now when we think about what these world heritage sites are there are a number of themes that can be attributed to them. So there are spirit places or places that upgrade sort of religious, sacred or spiritual foundations to them. These are there are harvesting areas. This can be both crop or corn, vegetables, other sorts of aspects, also animals as well. There are settlements, and this can be traditional. And this can often be temporary because many of our indigenous peoples were nomadic. But there have been some temporal sites as well. Coastal marine heritage, this is where you hunt for whales, seals, or other sorts of activities.

And the structures that were built to house hunters and fishers who would go and search for them. Storied landscapes again It’s very much of a spoken word, storytelling cultures with many indigenous peoples. And as a consequence, much of these landscapes are told of and represented in stories not just maps or not just very few books,or these places. There are also major travel routes as I mentioned, many of our indigenous peoples are nomadic and so they would have travel routes that would allow them to go from harvest in one area to warm and safe during the winter months.

And they’re also travel routes that a company that migration routes for animals because this is the way many indigenous people survive by migrating with the animals to have a steady food source. And finally cultural exchange that can be from indigenous tribes in Canada over the past thousands of years the cultural exchange with Europeans or people of other backgrounds and nationalities. Let’s come to North America, for one reason or another. So again, what do you think of World Heritage Site Themes？ There are many different points of connection that tie into the ten points of outstanding universal value. Now there are a number of challenges related to world heritage sites, world heritage people.

For indigenous peoples especially how do you balance the cultural and natural values at mixed world heritage sites in terms of what are you actually trying to promote, or what is it that statement value paramount to the nomination or thinking behind that site?

When you do have some nomination of these sites indigenous fans are always participating issues that there are not nothing involved with the nomination that not involve the declaration nor the management related to these sites. So there’s a bit of a disconnect between how something is being represented where they live, where they have been for centuries, where is part of their lives and their culture and how that is actually going forward to UNESCO. And so for that purpose there are some questions in terms of, how much, how often they’ve been consulted involved in the nomination process.

And finally, this is a big thing for a lot of indigenous peoples is that once the site receives world heritage status how do they receive maintain the set of rights and access to land resources? Much of these especially some of the bigger national parks the bigger protected areas some of these have hunting rights retreated to indigenous people. There is some conflict in terms of land management We talked about traditional environmental knowledge of the past where traditional land management methods of practices help maintain the balance in the cultural landscape. But now with the international world heritage designation there’s a question in terms of how that actually fits within the world heritage process.

So it doesn’t become a world heritage site in danger in Canada among many things. Now, there are also a number of sustainability considerations to consider for these sites. When you talk, again, we mentioned about hunting perspective. So traditional values whose perspective prevails there is an international convention. And there are other national designations that might be on a site, such as a national park historic site some kind of protected area, at the same time, indigenous people there for hundreds if not thousands of years. This is how they subsist. This is how they live. So how do you find that balance between the two？ in terms of the perspective of the management of that land to protect our world heritage level.

They’re also the considerations related to the STG goals of eight, eleven, twelve, and fourteen. Eight, twelve, and fourteen are the tourism related goals, eleven is a cultural heritage one. But again, you’re not seeing much traction a peak yet in terms of how indigenous world heritage sites, or indigenous cultural heritage is reflected within the system own development goal targets. When you’re targeting about management of these sites there are challenges of remoteness. Many of these are far away from urban centers and they’re not always easy or affordable access by railroad or air. There’s a question of awareness. If it’s too far away after the forest fire or flood or other issues there’s not always response because that awareness is not always there.

And a lot of other communities have limited access related to services and amenities whether it’s medical care, education, internet, other factors that we take for granted in the southern part of the country. Finally, there are climate change effects of the northern areas where you have short islands that are evaporating. This is a tentative site, Herschel Island, in the middle of it, also sites here where climate change has battered the storms swells you get on the coastal areas tend to batter a lot of the structures that are located on the coastal sites in as well as the west coast of Canada. So again, there are a number of issues that these sites have to contend with