Visual Identity, Extraction & Subsurface Narratives in the Klondike
My current research project looks at the visual culture of the territory, primarily in and around Dawson City. As Yukoners know, the Klondike region is a unique and much-mythologized space in which popular portrayals in visual culture intersect with life-on-the-ground, transnational cultural claims including a wealth of US gold rush literature, contemporary Indigenous self-governance, and an extraction industry that is both physical and narrative. As the permafrost melts the region is also at the forefront of anthropogenic climate change and its effects. Shifting narratives of the Klondike can be seen as public art and architecture compete for limited space in the cultural imagination of the region. The Klondike aesthetic attracts thousands of tourists during the summer, and the region’s recent UNESCO designation speaks in part to this significance. This research project discusses these tensions in terms of their visual, cultural and artistic contexts. Drawing upon archival records representing the Klondike as well as contemporary Yukon and Yukon Indigenous artists, the aim of my research is to document, record and interpret a cultural moment during which a longstanding investment in the visuality of colonial-era mythology collides with truth, reconciliation, Indigenous self-determination and contemporary life in the Canadian north.
Partners and funders
YukonU Scholarly Activity Grant