On a sunny Saturday morning in early September, I sit at a picnic table inside a trapper’s tent near Dawson City, Yukon, learning how to weave willows during an art lesson with Jackie Olson, a Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in artist. A fire crackles in the wood stove and two big dogs pop in and out of the tent on Jackie’s property as she talks about her life and her art, while teaching my friends and me how to weave willows.

“Weaving is the fabric of nature,” Jackie says as her hands deftly move the material into an intricate pattern. “It’s my connection to Mother Earth. I’m all about process – not about production. And what I’m learning goes into my art.” Jackie grew up in Dawson City, the granddaughter of Joe and Annie Henry, two legendary Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in pioneers who lived and hunted on the Blackstone Uplands near the Dempster Highway. Joe Henry guided the surveyors who marked the path for the highway in 1958 – leading them along the safest route that also avoided sacred Indigenous sites. Some locals still refer to the road as the ‘Joe Henry Highway’.

Olson, a self-described “Elder in training”, was instrumental in promoting the idea of Tr’ondëk-Klondike as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it was officially inscribed in September 2023. The Klondike Gold Rush that occurred from 1896 to 1899 is what most people think about when they visit the Yukon. What they typically don’t consider is how the rapid colonisation that occurred during that historical event
affected local Indigenous peoples. This new UNESCO World Heritage Site includes eight parcels of land near Dawson City that help tell that story.

“The Klondike Gold Rush is a story about resources, wealth, commercialism and greed, but it’s also a story about the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in,” Jackie says. “We look at resources differently. For us, it’s about protecting the environment. We’ve been here for thousands of years and the gold rush is just a blip in our timeline.”

After a lovely morning spent weaving willows and a delicious lunch from Riverwest Bistro in downtown Dawson City, we head to the Commissioner’s Residence to experience the Red Serge, Red Tape programme inside the residence with Gabriella Sgaga, a Parks Canada interpreter. Parks Canada has long been providing tours of Dawson City’s historic buildings that are part of the Dawson Historical Complex National Historic Site, but in recent years the commentary surrounding the place once known as ‘the Paris of the North’ has been evolving.

I follow Gabriella inside the elegant Commissioner’s Residence that has been restored to its 1901 splendour. We move from room to room, noting the beautiful period furnishings before entering a parlour where we sit and listen to a script created from actual letters between Anglican Bishop William Bompas and Northwest Mounted Police Inspector Charles Constantine.

We’re presented with two different perspectives on the local Indigenous people; while the bishop seems sympathetic to the struggles the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in are having as a result of losing their traditional hunting and fishing grounds, both men express opinions that are disturbing and uncomfortable to listen to. At the conclusion of the recording, Sgaga leads us in a discussion about it. The constable’s comments were blatantly racist but, at first glance, I fail to recognise the more subtle racism expressed by the bishop. Sgaga’s thoughtful questions and the discussion of the group help us each to see the attitudes of the day for what they were.

The tour ends upstairs, where we view a regalia dress made of red duct tape by Indigenous artist Faye Chamberlain. She calls it “Cutting Through Red Tape”. The fringes along the back of the dress are covered with words like ‘oppression’, ‘abuse’ and ‘injustice’, while the fringes on the front have words like ‘hope’, ‘dignity’ and ‘forgiveness’. This part of the tour is a chance to put ourselves in the place of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in People and see prejudices for what they are.

“This tour brings the history of the Indigenous peoples of the Klondike to light,” Sgaga says as we leave. “It’s a challenging topic.”

After visiting Dawson City, we fly 330 miles southeast to the small and bustling city of Whitehorse, the capital of the territory, and continue our exploration from an Indigenous perspective. We visit Da Kų Culture Centre in Haines Junction to learn about the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations through displays and with the help of a storytelling experience. At Haa Shagóon Hídi Cultural Centre in Carcross, we see totem poles and meet master carver Keith Wolf Smarch who explains what they mean to the Carcross Tagish First Nation. We also enjoy a guided hike in Kluane National Park with Amber Berard-Althouse, a member of Kluane First Nation, who identifies medicinal plants as we walk and shares several legends from her vibrant culture.

As I gaze across the turquoise waters of Mät’àtäna Män (Kathleen Lake) to its backdrop of snow-capped mountains, I’m struck by how beautiful and wild this part of Canada is. Home to the country’s tallest mountain and the world’s largest nonpolar icefield, the Yukon is almost as big as Spain – but it has a total population of only around 45,000 residents – one in five of whom are Indigenous.

The people who know this region the best are those who have been there the longest. Jackie Olson says she hopes the UNESCO designation will change the kind of visitor who comes to the Yukon, but I think the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and other Indigenous peoples who live here will ensure that those who visit the Yukon leave forever changed.