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Pink fireweed marks the way through Kluane National Park.Fiona Morrow

Every evening in the summer around 6 p.m., busloads of cruise passengers are dropped off in Whitehorse for the night, to be back on the bus to Skagway, Alaska, after an early breakfast.

The days are long and maybe the tourists walk along the Yukon River after dinner, but mostly this is a pit stop between a return three-hour drive to take in the scenery.

At the other end of the tourism spectrum are the adventurers: the hikers, bikers, paddlers for whom Whitehorse is the last post of civilization before jumping into their outward-bound activity of choice. Somewhere in between are the road-trippers, hauling four-wheel-drive vehicles behind impossibly long recreational vehicles, or riding in groups on heavily packed motorbikes. Everyone, it seems, is on the road to somewhere else.

Getting visitors to hit the pause button and make space for a different Yukon story is a challenge that Charlene Alexander has been tackling with gusto.

The executive director of Yukon First Nations Culture and Tourism Association, Alexander’s mandate has been to shift expectations of Whitehorse and its surrounds and encourage a more mindful experience that interacts with Indigenous art, culture and tradition. International visitors have been easier to convince than out-of-province Canadians. But, Alexander says she has seen a shift over the past few years: “We have noticed a marked increase and willingness to engage with First Nations culture from Canadians since the Truth and Reconciliation work began.”

This uptick in engagement is most obvious at July’s annual Adaka Cultural Festival, now in its ninth year and hosted in the impressive Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre in Whitehorse. A celebration of Indigenous art and culture, Adaka – which translates as “coming into the light” – is also a gathering place for communities far and wide. Collaborations are fostered and stories are shared. Last year, artists from the Circumpolar North, including Inuit (Canada, Greenland), Sami (Sweden) and Chukchi (Siberia) were present, together with First Nations from Yukon, British Columbia and beyond.

I’m here with my teenage son. He’s the only Canadian-born member of our Vancouver-based immigrant British family. We’ve travelled widely, but rarely in Canada – a sore point for him. It doesn’t take long for me to realize how valuable this trip will be for us both.

The artistry is like nothing I’ve seen before. A plain white drum catches the spotlight as it is drawn gently through the air. Beneath this floating moon is Inuk artist, Order of Canada recipient and drum dancer Mathew Nuqingaq from Nunavut, his graceful movements combining with songs that conjure tundra vibrant with life and history. Siberian Chukchi throat singer Olga Letykai wears her ceremonial reindeer suit regalia to lead us, trancelike, to a place where these great beasts roam, fight, are hunted and provide vital sustenance to a community.

The eagle soars and the raven struts as the Tlingit Dakhka Khwaan Dancers beat a mighty path, their stunning masks and committed choreography setting these birds metaphorically aloft. The laughter and joy generated by the Selkirk Spirit Dancers as they co-opt the audience into a neck-jutting, arm-flapping quail dance is as genuine as the heartbreak that fills the room when more painful subjects are addressed.

“The missionaries took our drums and burned them,” says Kaska artist and musician Dennis Shorty in a break between songs with his band Dena Zagi. Following a minute of silence for the murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls, Merritt, B.C.-born Starr Drynock sings for them all, including her own mother.

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Harold Johnston builds and maintains traditional Southern Tutchone structures at Long Ago People's Place.Fiona Morrow

Just a few blocks away, the large Alcan Highway exhibition in the lower floor of the swish, newly rebuilt MacBride Museum tells the story of the Alaska Highway. After our few days immersed at Adaka, we experience something of a culture shock. There is one mention made of the Indigenous guides and trackers who helped carve out the route and another of the segregated African-American troops who (presumably) did the dirty work. On the main floor, we blink and almost miss the Indigenous “gallery” which consists of two glass display cases that line a short corridor. It connects a space screening a film about climbing Canada’s highest mountains and a large display of stuffed animals of the region. It is literally a space you pass through to get somewhere else.

For further enrichment we hit the road. The first stop, just off the Alaska Highway heading north, is the Long Ago People’s Place where the heat is fierce and there’s not a whiff of breeze to challenge the big, black mosquitoes that smell fresh meat. We break out the bug spray as founders Harold Johnston and Meta Williams wait, patient and not a little bemused.

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Bannock fries at the Long Ago People's Place.Fiona Morrow

A rustic camp, with traditional Southern Tutchone structures built and maintained by Johnston, Long Ago People’s Place introduces visitors to life on the land. We learn how to trap ground squirrels (gophers), dry salmon, and the principles of building a shelter to withstand a Yukon winter. Johnston shows us the traditional fence designed to trap caribou, and explains the significance of a potlatch funeral bowl. As Williams fries up some delicious bannock (Indigenous fry bread) on the wood-fired stove (there is no electricity or running water on site), she says they have had many offers to use the space for team-building retreats, weddings and the like. “But then they ask us to provide showers and such,” she shrugs. “It’s not really the point.”

Back in the car, the Alaska Highway stretches out before us, forest eventually giving way to foothills, a carpet of shocking pink fireweed marking the way through Kluane National Park. In the distance, the snow-drenched peaks of the magnificent St. Elias Mountains stand tall and defiant. To say this land is beautiful is unworthy: it is majestic, breathtaking, wild. A phrase fills my mind:

“We are part of the land. We are part of the water.”

These words have been swirling around us for a week. Spoken, written, sung … at times quite literally drummed through us. I brought my son to the Yukon to learn, to better understand and to make our own connection to this land stronger. And, as the two of us stand on the shores of Kluane Lake watching a raven, mouth open, cooling itself and a gopher scurrying out of our way, I think these words begin to take root.

Your turn

The Adaka Cultural Festival takes place in Whitehorse. Over a week, more than a hundred visual artists, singers, dancers, musicians and fashion designers present their work or lead a discussion. Check adakafestival.ca for dates and details.

Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre is open year round and hosts exhibitions, interpretive programs and an artist-in-residence.

Long Ago People’s Place is open year round and accepts groups. More details at yukonfirstnationculture.com

While you’re in Whitehorse

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Learn about Indigenous healing practices at the Teslin Tlingit Heritage Centre.Fiona Morrow

Travel south on the Alaska Highway and visit the Teslin Tlingit Heritage Centre. Learn about Indigenous herbalism, sculpture, fish smoking and other activities from the cultural interpreters on site. Pick up a complimentary bannock and tea to enjoy outside by Lake Teslin and catch a clear view of Lone Sheep Mountain.

After a ridiculously good lunch at the Yukon Motel, cross the highway to the George Johnston Museum. Johnston was brought to the Yukon from Alaska in 1894 as a baby, a member of the Inland Tlingit First Nation. As a young man, he quickly became a successful fur trapper. With money to spare, he bought a camera and proceeded to document aboriginal life in Teslin and a collection of these images is on display here.

If you don’t want to drive, or value the help of professionals, Indigenous-owned Who What Where Tours based in Whitehorse offer several interesting itineraries with a cultural focus as well as custom-made trips.

Fiona Morrow was a guest of Yukon First Nations Tourism and Culture. The organization did not review or approve the story prior to publication.

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