From the Gold Rush to present-day film festivals, from traditional First Nation livelihoods to contemporary eco-tourism, the architecture and natural landscape of the Yukon has a plethora of stories to share.The Klondike region of the Yukon holds a central place in Canadian history due to these stories. The Klondike-Tr’ondëk site is now up for nomination for a UNESCO World Heritage designation, a project of which ERA is excited to be a part.
As part of the UNESCO nomination, ERA team members Philip Evans, Jordan Molnar, and Victoria Angel will be spending next week in the Yukon researching Klondike-Tr’ondëk architecture, one of the many attributes of the region’s layered landscape. Led by the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation and the Yukon Government, ERA’s team will work out of a mobile studio visiting the communities of Dawson City, Bear Creek, and Forty Mile. The team will also be visiting other small communities along the route from Whitehorse to Dawson.
This mobile studio approach is something ERA has developed while working in remote communities in Newfoundland as part of our Culture of Outports program. This allows us to engage with each community we visit – not just as architects, planners, or researchers, but as guests who are just as interested in sharing a meal as we are in documenting the history of local landscapes. As we expand our focus on the cultural heritage of rural communities across Canada with our program small, we are excited to have the Yukon communities among our first partners.
While in the Klondike, we will be exploring the area’s tangible and intangible heritage, its geography, and the forces and policies at work which have shaped and continue to affect the region.
