Living Culture, Learning Skills, Telling our Stories: The Making of a Northern Tutchone Cultural Center

• Main Authors: Gartler, Susanna, Hogan, Joella, Saxinger, Gertrude
• Other Authors: Friedrich, Doris, Hirnsperger, Markus, Bauer, Stefan
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Lit Verlag 2022
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences; sociology & anthropology; Yukon; Canada; Dun; Mayo; Tutchone
• Online Access: https://boris.unibe.ch/180668/1/Gartler_Hogan_Saxinger_2022_LivingCultureLearningSkillsTellingourStories.pdf; https://boris.unibe.ch/180668/; https://www.lit-verlag.de/isbn/978-3-643-91218-3

In this chapter we ask in which ways the planning of the Living Culture House by the First Nation of Nacho Nyäk Dun (FN NND) in the village of Mayo, Yukon Territory in Canada, corresponds to ideas of Indigenous planning. We highlight the importance of community-led, participatory planning for the creation of cultural infrastructure aiming at overcoming a colonial past and to indigenize the present while moving toward a future of collective well-being, cultural vitality, and self-determination. We highlight the inclusive and participatory planning approach, which seeks to minimize the division between decision-makers and the community, and the fact that the FN NND has actively engaged in learning lessons from other examples while at the same time adhering to their own cultural protocols of consultation with Elders and the wider community.