The CAHP Heritage Without Borders session at the Heritage Canada Foundation conference in Québec is an exciting, unique opportunity to learn more about the collaboration between Aboriginal communities and heritage professionals in all Canada’s three territories. The session will examine strategies that are successfully linking aboriginal cultural and environmental “experts” with professional heritage “experts” in identifying, conserving and managing heritage places.

The speakers in this session are among the most experienced and knowledgeable heritage professionals living in Canada’s North. Travel costs often limit the ability of Southern Canadians to hear aboriginal and Northern voices. CAHP and the Heritage Canada Foundation are grateful to the Aboriginal Affairs Secretariat of Parks Canada Agency for a generous contribution that made this session possible.

The session will be held on Saturday, September 27 (Session 4, Stream B, 8:50 – 10:10).

Learn the Names! Connecting Places with People in the North

Lynn Peplinski of the Inuit Heritage Trust has been working for 15 years in Nunavut on Arctic place names. She will explain the IHT’s role as a statutory body in Nunavut and describe the Trust’s ambitious and successful project to map Inuit place names in Nunavut. The names themselves come from the traditional knowledge of Inuit elders; GIS and Google Earth make it possible to create and access the maps; Lynn and other professionals are responsible for collecting and applying data obtained from elders. Lynn will discuss her work with Elders, demonstrate how the new maps are shifting perceptions of Arctic landscapes and human geography, and consider the impact that the project is likely to have on heritage programs in Nunavut in the future.

Tenants in Common – Serving Two Heritage Masters

Doug Olynyk is Manager of Historic Sites for the Yukon Territory. He will examine three different scenarios that respond to the Yukon government’s need to co-manage and co-own certain heritage sites in the Territory with First Nations as required by Land Claims Agreements. Both parties to the Agreements – the Government of Nunavut and First Nations – will be working with professionals to draw lessons from precedents in other jurisdictions and to find practical and appropriate that can address requirements to research, plan, conserve, interpret and manage heritage places covered by the agreements. The Yukon examples will have relevance to co-managed and co-owned sites of cultural and natural heritage value in other parts of Canada.

Arm in Arm Together –

Alestine Andre and Ingrid Kritsch are Cultural Director and Executive Director (respectively) of the Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute (GSCI). Their paper will be presented by Alestine who is a member of the Gwichya Gwich’in band in Tsiigehtchic. Over her career in cultural resource management, she has been involved in the research for the nomination of two National Historic Sites and the Mackenzie River as a Canadian Heritage River. In 2007 she was awarded a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the category Culture, Heritage and Spirituality.

GSCI was established by the Tribal Council to document, preserve and promote the practice of Gwich’in culture, language, traditional knowledge and values. Over 50 research projects have been carried out since 1993 by two anthropologists on staff with GSCI. They have worked in collaboration with Gwich’in elders, youth and community steering committees in the Gwich’in Settlement Area in the Northwest Territories plus heritage professionals and graduate students in the fields of museum studies, cultural anthropology, archaeology, ethnobotany and linguistics. Alestine’s presentation examines how partnered projects – linking people with professional/academic skills with people with traditional knowledge – are raising awareness and providing a greater understanding about Gwich’in culture, traditional knowledge, history and language within Gwich’in communities as well as among other Canadians and globally.

The session organizer and moderator is Julie Harris, President, Contentworks Inc. Her firm is very active in Arctic history and heritage through work for Inuit and territorial agencies.