Brief
[UofC, SAPL, Fall 2020]
In this studio, we will be working with the Tsuut’ina First Nation exploring urban design in a cross-culture context. The co-instructor Hal Eagletail, a Knowledge Keeper from the Tsuut’ina Nation, as a cultural advisor, will steward the navigation of the ethical space (Ermine, 2007) this studio seeks to explore.
Cross-Culture
For some time now, the Tsuut’ina Nation has been developing strategic sections of their land building an economic basis, workplaces and business opportunities for Nation members and neighbors alike. After signing Treaty 7 (Copy of Treaty and Supplementary Treaty No. 7, 1966), the current Tsuut’ina Reserve neighboring Calgary was established in 1877 and has been home to the Nation for several generations now. However, pre-treaty signing the traditional territory of the Tsuut’ina Nation stretched along the Rocky Mountains as far north as Edmonton and as far East as the Cypress Hills out in the prairie (see native-land.ca).
Located in the North-West corner of the reserve, Redwood Meadows was the first non-native development on reserve land in Canada and wrote its history under the 3P Partnership with the Nation, the province, and private residents. Today the TAZA project along the Eastern side of the reserve is the countryís largest development project currently underway, developed in a unique partnership between the Tsuut’ina Nation and a private developer.
Land and Place
First Nation cultures have a strong relationship with the land. Aboriginal cultures have provided stewardship for the environment for thousands of years (Berry and Brink, 2004). The culture and the land are closely linked through practice and frequently celebrated in cultural events. In contrast to the western/settler perspective of owning land, Aboriginal cultures often refer to ‘taking care’ of the land for future generations to describe the relationship between people and the land. For example, North America is often referred to as Turtle Island, in many ways implying a personality or ascribing a character to the land itself.
These differences in worldview will collide more specifically in the concept of the site as a location for a proposal. We want to use the concept of an ‘ethical space’ to navigate this challenge.
The sites for this studio are pieces of the Tsuut’ina reserve land that are separated by roads that cut through the reserve. The North-West corner is divided by the highway 22x from Bragg Creek to Cochrane. The Eastern part of the reserve is cut by the Calgary Ring Road currently under construction. Both parcels are excellent locations for strategic business opportunities, housing, and retail or service uses but could also be left ëintactí as greenspaces and recreational areas. How those areas shall be developed and used are questions/assumptions have to play out in a broader cross-culture context in order to develop a responsible/respectful proposal (socially, economically and environmentally).
Native Urban Design?
The studio aims to explore how the built environment can express a First Nations’ perspective and the unique Tsuut’ina culture explicitly. Or put it differently, how the built environment can be developed and designed based on First Nation culture and attitude. We will explore the complicated and challenging history of planning and urban design practice in Canada, its impact on First Nation culture and its consequences that are still present today. We want to discuss what our professions can contribute, for example by following the Truth and Reconciliation Report’s Call to Action
(Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015) and expanding on the Canadian Institute of Planners Policy on Planning Practices and Reconciliation (Canadian Institute of Planners, 2019). Using this understanding and having listened to the stories and to accounts of the history to developed sensitivity for the setting, we will attempt to sketch possible strategies to design urban environments in a cross-culture setting. For each student, the goal is to formulate a robust individual position through a design proposal in the context of the Tsuut’ina Reserve. This position speaks to how to challenge the status quo of a western/settler dominated perspective on planning and propose and a new planning/design/practice model for a cross-culture setting specific to the Canadian and Treaty 7 context.
Bibliography
Berry, S., Brink, J., 2004. Aboriginal Cultures in Alberta: Five-Hundred Generations. Provincial Museum of Alberta, Edmonton, AB.
Canadian Institute of Planners, 2019. Policy on Planning Practice and Reconciliation. Canadian Institute of Planners, Ottawa.
Copy of Treaty and Supplementary Treaty No. 7, made 22nd Sept., and 4th Dec, 1877, between Her Majesty the Queen and the Blackfeet and other Indian Tribes, at the Blackfoot Crossing of Bow River and Fort MacLeod. (Treaty), 1966 (original 1877). Otawa.
Ermine, W., 2007. The Ethical Space of Engagement. Indigenous Law Journal 6. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action. TRC, Winnipeg.