HOLE 8
The Banff Springs Fairmont Golf course is one of the two leisure sites in Banff that occupy a wildlife corridor. A wildlife corridor is a strip of natural habitat connecting populations of wildlife otherwise separated by cultivated land. A campground is occupying the other corridor under the sacred mountain, Mînî Hrpâ.
When building the golf course, the natural landscape was significantly stripped to accommodate this field of play. In the making of Banff National Park, colonizers' appeal to nature was prioritized and incorporated into the design of the campgrounds and golf courses, effectively banning Stoney Nakoda and other First Nations from their traditional hunting grounds.
My work, “Hole 8” at the Banff Springs Fairmont Golf Course, represents how the national park system is a colonial structure that prioritizes tourism over sacred Indigenous lands and wildlife of turtle island.
Growing up in this mountain town I have challenged and questioned the term “mountain culture”. As an Indigenous person I want more Indigenous representation and knowledge and land based practices to the conservation system and in relationship to Parks Canada in general.
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