Elder residents and their cultural Elder residents and their cultural

landscapes – Hafford and Val landscapes – Hafford and Val

Marie, SKMarie, SKBy Lee EvertsBy Lee Everts

University of SaskatchewanUniversity of SaskatchewanCAG 2007CAG 2007

Plan For Plan For

PresentationPresentation

Location of projectResearch questionDefinitions, Setting the sceneThemesMeaningsConclusionsAcknowledgements

Where in Canada ...Where in Canada ...

Val Marie area including GNP

Hafford area and RLBR

Hafford area and RLBR – enlarged version

Val Marie area including GNP - enlarged version

Research QuestionResearch Question

How do elder residents of Hafford, Val Marie, and their surrounding countryside derive meaning from their cultural landscapes?

Defining terms ...Defining terms ...

Cultural landscapes – Geographical areas comprised of an interrelated collection of diverse meanings – harmonious or conflicting – emerging from past and present experience, memory and imagination.

Meaning

Shared mental representations of possible relationships among things, events, and relationships.

Meaning connects things (Baumeister 1991).

How life makes emotional sense

Demands are worthy of energy investment and commitment (Korotkov 1998).

Defining terms, cont'd...Defining terms, cont'd...

To achieve further economic growth, strategies must address how the medley of interrelated economic, social and political relationships extend beyond the boundary of the RLBR (Sian 2001).

In combination, the strategies would ensure equitable treatment for all citizens, particularly, youth and seniors (Sian 2001).

Generativity – “primarily the concern for establishing and guiding the next generation ... (Erikson 1968, 138)

Setting the sceneSetting the scene

Grasslands National Park

- Accurate portrayal of stories of descendants (Parks Canada 2002, 2).

- Taking a “biosphere approach” in order to be sensitive to conflicting uses and stresses in surrounding land uses (J.G. Nelson 1998, 285).

Setting the scene ...Setting the scene ...

Redberry Lake Biosphere Reserve

- Emphasise humans as “integral and fundamental part” (UNESCO 2002, 16).

- Reconcile people and nature

- Bring knowledge of the past to the needs of the future (George Francis 2004)

Moral judgements that tackle difficult but necessary questions of good, bad, better, worse – how we should act (David Smith 2000).

Living ethically is to think about and assess moral judgements beyond one's own interests (Peter Singer 1995).

Setting the scene – Ethical perspectiveSetting the scene – Ethical perspective

Patterns or themes in Patterns or themes in narrativesnarratives Connections to the cultural landscape

Separation from the cultural landscape

Continuity in the cultural landscape

Connection – meaningsConnection – meanings

Taking root

-Family pride-Community pride

Work -Pride in work with family-Connection with life-Progress & improvement-Ingenuity &

resourcefulness-Self-sufficiency

Community

-Togetherness (Saturday Night & Sports Day)

-Shared sense of time-Familiar & equal-Responsibility to

community-Reciprocal ownership

Changing town & countryside

-Tangible symbols of change -Water quality -Large gardens-Community loss -Railway-Living landscape vs formerly lived in landscape

Separation – meaningsSeparation – meanings

Qualities of community

-Egalitarian-Togetherness-Fewer community events -Contribution of elder residents unrecognised-“Strangers” in communities-Loss of drive for independence & self-sufficiency.

Agriculture & changing tools of trade

-Control & loss of freedom-Presumed ownership-Greed-Role of market in decisions-Chemical fertiliser & pesticide

Separation – meaningsSeparation – meanings

Questioning bottom line

-Farming as mining & business-“Poison” and progress?-Loss of continuity in agriculture-Impact on flora & fauna.

Continuity - meaningsContinuity - meanings

-Everyone lives off the land-Continuity of farming way of life -Responsibility to feed the countries-Responsibility extending to family to maintain a home-Responsibility to work with nature or “Mother Nature”

-Marking old school sites-Tangible symbols linking past &

present-Importance of remembering-Prairie grassland

-Corresponding meanings with those of RLBR and GNP (e.g. continuity of community or nature)-Source of continuity for some is a source of discontinuity for others-Responsibility to younger generation

Continuity - meaningsContinuity - meanings

-Value of flora & fauna-Prevent certain agricultural

practices-Blending of self and land

RLBR, GNP & Sustainability

In response to research question ...In response to research question ...

Elder residents have made and can make a substantive and integral contribution to the identity of the cultural landscape:

– contribute to heritage in terms of method (ethics) and meanings– ethics that inform these meanings encourage actions that engender a

continuity and sharing of the meanings.– corresponds to the tenets of generativity

– meanings correspond to the philosophy & principles of RLBR & GNP– meanings may reflect similar concerns to those of younger generations

-- need for programmes and strategies to intentionally bridge generations

First and foremost, the people whom I have met in both Hafford and Val Marie –many fond moments and memories I will never forget.

Redberry Lake Biosphere Reserve - www.redberrylake.ca and Parks Canada Agency

– Grasslands National Park (http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/sk/grasslands/

Community-University Institute for Social Research (CUISR) – especially Maria

Basualdo and Evelyn Flynn (http://www.usask.ca/cuisr)

Steadfast Advisory Committee – Murial Montbriand, Evelyn Peters, Natalia Shostak,

and Avi Akkerman (http://artsandscience.usask.ca/geography) Ever patient and wise guidance of my Supervisor, Maureen Reed

University of Saskatchewan community including the equally patient members of

this Department of Geography

Thanks also for some of the photos – Victoria Herman, Sharmalene Mendis-Millard,

Scott Mitchell & Maureen Reed

Thanks for listening!!Thanks for listening!!

Special thanks & gratitude ...Special thanks & gratitude ...